What matters to patients? A timely question for value-based care.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare delivery research
• Patient-centered care
• Health services research

Background:

• Healthcare systems are shifting towards patient-centered and value-based care.
• Understanding patient priorities for care attributes is crucial but limited.
• Demographic variations in patient priorities are not well-understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• Assess patient priorities for ambulatory care attributes across five domains.
• Identify associations between patient priorities and demographic profiles.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the 'What Matters to You' survey for ranking care attributes.
• Recruited patients from primary care and subspecialty clinics.
• Employed univariate and multivariate analyses to identify demographic predictors.

Main Results:

• Top patient priorities included physician humanism, healthy lifestyle, shared decision-making (SDM), and insurance knowledge.
• Higher education and private insurance correlated with lower ranking of physician humanism.
• Younger age, higher education, and private insurance favored prioritizing healthy lifestyles.
• Increased education was linked to a higher preference for SDM.

Conclusions:

• Patient priorities across key health service domains are identifiable.
• Demographic factors significantly predict patient preferences in healthcare.
• Understanding these patient-specific priorities is vital for advancing patient-centered and value-based care models.