Improving patient care through better through better patient feedback

Two faculty members from the UNE School of Social Work and College of Osteopathic Medicine are collaborating with a group of researchers from around the country on a project aimed at improving care and patient satisfaction in primary and specialty care settings.

Clay Graybeal, Ph.D., M.S.W., professor of Social Work in the Westbrook College of Health Professions, and Kathryn Brandt, D.O. ’97, M.S., MedL, chair of Primary Care, have been conducting an instrument validation study on two methods of getting feedback from patients about the care they receive from their doctors.

Graybeal and Brandt have been looking at the Wellness Rating Scale and the Provider Alliance Scale, two ultra-brief measures that incorporate real-time patient feedback into the clinical setting. These measures are modeled after the Patient Centered Outcome Measurement System (PCOMS), which is used nationally and internationally in behavioral care settings.

“These tools hold promise for enhancing the patient-provider alliance in primary and specialty care settings, with the ultimate goal of improving health outcomes,” says Graybeal.

The study, titled, “Health-related quality of life and the physician-patient alliance: a preliminary investigation of ultra-brief, real-time measures for primary care,” has been published in the Quality of Life Research Journal. Brandt and Graybeal presented their findings at the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association’s annual conference in Rochester in October.