Give patients a voice.
By Gareth Kantor. In South Africa, “ask a friend” or a family member is often how we choose a doctor and judge a hospital. This is because we usually trust our friends and family, share personal values and appreciate their perspective. Is there a way to more systematically obtain and reliably distil the “wisdom of crowds” to assess health care? Increasingly, the answer is yes. Although asking a friend isn’t always best, the measurement of patient experience and patient-reported outcomes is a valid method for assessing the performance of health care systems and is becoming the norm around the world. Asking patients doesn’t [...]