The Business Values of Patient Knowledge Management (PKM) in the Healthcare Industry

Literature Review

Patient-centered care approach is a critical element of the healthcare system. Today, the healthcare industry is transforming itself from a clinical-centered care system to patient-centered care. Prior studies have shown that patient-centered care must consider preferences and the needs of patients as well as aiming to improve patient satisfaction. Many related studies to patient-centered care focus on its attributes and systems that transfer such attributes. There are a growing number of definitions for patient-centered care. For example, the National Health Council defined patient-centered care as gained quality of services through cooperation between patient, families and the healthcare team (The Picker Institute, 2004). The Institute of Medicine defined patient-centered care in its 2001 report as respecting and responding to individual patient’s preferences, needs and values and also ensuring the patients’ values are considered in clinical decisions . Patient-centered care does not focus only on the disease, but also considers patients as different individuals based on their specific information (Leino, 1952; Mead & Bower, 2000; Levenstein et al., 1986; Saha, Mary, & Cooper, 2008; Berwick, 2009; Pelzang, 2010). This information helps healthcare providers to treat the illness from the patient’s perspective and appropriately respond to the patient’s needs and preferences. In one IBM press releases, patient-centric approach has been defined as “ensuring that they (the patients) receive the best treatment, at a reasonable cost, while putting into place strategies that will help individuals avoid becoming sick in the first place” . Patient-centered care is meant to change patients from passive consumers to proactive individuals who participate in the treatment processes and transfer their perspective to feedback into clinical decisions.