The French Institute of Patient Experience (IFEP) publishes its manifesto for 2030 entitled “Making the patient experience a pillar of the strategy to improve the quality and relevance of the health system by 2030”. He advocates a policy organized into 4 main axes. Discover this text.
The patient experience is defined as all the situations and interactions experienced by a person during their health journey. In other words, it is about considering this journey from the point of view of those who are experiencing it – whether they are patient, resident, citizen or even caregiver.
In recent years, health policies, in France and internationally, have deployed numerous measures to improve the patient experience.. The development of structured approaches to collecting, analyzing and taking into account the patient experience has enabled health organizations – hospitals, nursing homes, care homes – to significantly improve the relevance and quality of care and support. Scientific evidence also supports the fact that taking into account and valuing the patient’s experience directly improves their health and increases their satisfaction.
This is concretely verified throughout the patient’s journey, and particularly at key moments such as reception and discharge from hospitalization, for example, when a serious illness is announced or when choosing a therapeutic strategy. Relying on the experience of the patient and their loved ones becomes an approach that is both relevant and ethical for each stakeholder.
According to the Patient Experience Barometer, more than 88% of patients and nearly 85% of professionals in France are convinced of the importance of this subject and the need to take the patient experience into greater consideration.
However, despite the significant progress made in recent years, consideration of the patient experience still needs to be strengthened and generalized to contribute to the improvement of the health system at all levels where it can prove useful. The dynamic is underway, the actors are mobilized, the tools are being distributed. However, a new step remains to be taken to move from initiatives that are still too often dispersed to a fully structured, coordinated and shared approach. This requires strengthening the readability of public action among citizens, better articulating the approaches taken by all stakeholders and supporting professionals more widely in adopting methods to improve the patient experience.
Improving the experience lived by patients and their loved ones is nevertheless part of a broader framework that of effective access to care, which remains a major issue today and constitutes the essential prerequisite for any quality experience.
This is why we, the signatories, call for making the patient experience a pillar of the national strategy to improve the quality and relevance of the health system by 2030.
This policy could be structured around the following 4 axes:
- Promote citizen involvement and participation in the transformation of the health system
- Strengthen the integration of the patient experience in the initial and continuing training of professionals
- Encourage sharing of experience and collaborative innovation between stakeholders in the health sector
- Support and develop the work helping to better understand and improve the experience of patients and their loved ones
First of all, it is about encouraging profound change in cultures, organizations and behaviors. Taking better account of the patient experience constitutes an opportunity to reduce inequalities in access to care, to better ensure the coordination of pathways, to improve the care relationship and, ultimately, to strengthen the relevance and quality of the service provided.
User experience is an asset for the health system. When they express themselves and share their experiences, users are actually providing a valuable service to the health system as a whole and to professionals in particular. If the experience of patients serves professionals, that of professionals also serves patients. Together, it is possible to build a more human health system, where users are fully considered and professionals are fairly recognized.
