How do health services researchers understand the concept of patient-centeredness? Results from an expert survey

Figures & data

Table 1 Questions included in the survey*

What does the term “Patientenorientierung”** mean to you?

Which dimensions do you subsume under the term “Patientenorientierung”?

How would you operationalize each of the named dimensions?

How would you translate the term “Patientenorientierung” into English?

Which references on the topic of “Patientenorientierung” are most important to you?

Notes:

* Translated from German to English for the purpose of this paper

** Patientenorientierung is the German word most often used to describe the concept that is known as patient-centeredness in the English language.

Table 2 Characteristics of participants

	n=38	Percentage
Sex
Female	20	52.6
Male	18	47.4
Age, years
Mean (SD, range)	43.0 (11.7, 26–67)
Professional background (multiple answers possible)
Psychology	25	65.8
Sociology	7	18.5
Medicine	6	15.8
Other	2	2.6
Professional experience, years
Mean (SD, range)	13.1 (10.6, 1–40)

Abbreviation: SD, standard deviation.

Figure 1 Categories of patient-centeredness that emerged from the data.

Notes: Micro level refers to categories that describe patient-centeredness inside and around the patient-clinician encounter. Meso and macro level refer to categories that describe patient-centeredness on institutional, health policy, or health care system levels.

Table 3 Translations of the German term “Patientenorientierung” into English

Translation given	Frequency*
Patient orientation	14 (34%)
Patient-centeredness	13 (31%)
Patient participation/SDM	4 (9%)
Empowerment	2 (5%)
Other term	3 (7%)
No answer	6 (14%)

Note:

* Several participants gave more than one translation, resulting in 41 translations.

Abbreviation: SDM, shared decision-making.