The power of the patient’s voice in the modern health care system (31 March 2022)

Summary

Mental health is an important component of individual well-being and social participation. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between one in six and one in five people experience a mental health problem in any given year and an estimated one in two people experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. There is a need to measure patients’ experience of mental health care delivery and effects of mental health treatment approaches.

Patients are in a unique position to contribute to the quality of health care since they are the only ones who experience the whole episode of care from primary care in communities through hospital care to rehabilitation and follow up in general practice. Health professionals in contrast experience only a snap shot of the entire patient’s journey in the health care system.

PREMs ((patient-reported experience measures) and PROMs (patient-reported outcomes measures) are means to assure that the patient voice in health care will be heard and institutionalised. This supplement focuses on how to include the patient voice in mental health, in terms of PREMs and PROMs.