title: Is patient-centred care associated with lower diagnostic costs?
abstract: A recent report of the Health Council of Canada implies that patient-centred care is related to higher costs. This paper draws the opposite conclusion. A study of 311 family practice patients revealed that the costs for diagnostic tests decreased over four quartiles of patient-centred scores; the more patient-centred the visit, the less the cost for diagnostic testing in the two-month follow-up period. Projecting to the Canadian population, if all family physicians were patient-centred at the level of the highest quartile, one-third of these diagnostic costs would be saved. The paper makes four recommendations and concludes that patient-centred care has a role to play in delivering not only effective but also efficient healthcare services.
authors.affiliation: Director, Centre for Studies in Family Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, ON.
authors.forename: Moira
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Bridget L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bodea