What Matters to You

On Thursday afternoon, January 18th twenty-three enthusiastic members of the Esplanade’s Aging in Place Group gathered in the Tye Room for our opening session.  Our thanks to Pamela McLemore who invited our speaker, Maureen Bisognano, President Emerita and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

Maureen is internationally recognized as an advocate for and a promoter of patient-centered care.  Maureen’s spirited, inspirational presentation, highlighted by personal anecdotes, brought to life her urgent message:  the need for patient-centered care – in short, the need to amend the medical establishment’s initial patient introduction to “What matters to you?” in addition to “What is the matter?”   Patient-centered care requires clinicians, staff, and health care systems to shift their focus away from diseases and back to the patient and family.  As defined by the Institute of Medicine, patient-centered is “care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values” and ensures “that patient values guide all clinical decisions.” Equally important is empowering patients to assert themselves and their needs to their health care providers.  Maureen’s enthusiasm and commitment sent all of us away as advocates for patient-centered care!

Maureen left us some resources to share:  Here is a short and very sweet 3.5 min. video, showing how this approach can make a difference:  When asked: “What’s a Good Day for You” titled:  A Soul Doctor and a Jazz Singer   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnnu43Zt-oA She also gave us a link where, if interested, you can get participate in monthly calls, generally with a speaker and then break-out groups: Go to
       Kindness (kindnessinhealthcare.world)

Note:  An audio interview with Dr. Michael Barry, president of the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making and medical director of the John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is available on NEMJ.org.  The title of his talk is "Shared Decision-Making - the Pinnacle of Patient-Centered Care?"

Finally, a huge thanks to Barbara Ogur who provided and set up a projector and screen for the PowerPoint presentation.  We learned that with Wi-Fi in the
Tye Room we should be able to offer Zoom.  This greatly opens the possibility for presentations going forward.

Thanks to all who participated. See you next month.