Why are we so focused on outcomes?

Outcomes: why do they matter?

Well, have you ever gone to the car dealership only to hear that they can’t fix your car, just provide enough maintenance to get you through the next few months? Have you ever gone to the grocery store only to hear that all your food items are not available, and ask you to come back in a few months?

No, of course not, because the car dealership and grocery store would both be out of business if they treated customers like that. So why is it acceptable for physicians to delay, defer clinical care? Why is it acceptable for physicians not to focus on improving outcomes?

Because most physicians are not concerned with outcomes. Most physicians focus on doing the bare minimal level of care, and not going above and beyond to focus on outcomes. And, until now, that has been acceptable care.

Patients and those who care for them now have more options than ever before for managing medical conditions. Making informed choices among different treatment options can be a challenge and, sometimes, frustrating. And many physicians shy away from that challenge. Yet, at Prestige Clinics we take that challenge. The decision-making process at Prestige takes into account the best evidence available about the benefits and harms of any approach, as well as a patient’s individual characteristics, values, and preferences. Most people want to be involved in decisions about their health care, but many patients and their families feel distanced or excluded from choices about which tests they’ll get, which medicines they’ll take, and which procedures they’ll undergo because their existing physician does not include them in the health care management process.

At Prestige Clinics, we use shared decision to address these concerns. In shared decision making, a Prestige physician provides a patient with information about diagnostic or treatment options, including potential benefits and harms, in a form the patient finds easy to understand. The patient is prompted to explain his or her preferences about the potential outcomes that can be expected given the presented options, concerns about how and where care is delivered and ability to get back to normal activities, and other issues of importance to him or her. The clinician and patient then discuss which diagnostic or treatment plan makes the most sense given the patient’s preferences. This is the heart of the Prestige method: empower patients to work with our team of Physicians to provide the best outcomes for our patients.