Implementation of patient-focused care: before-after effects

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate an organizationally oriented, patient-focused care (PFC) model's effects on care quality and work climate. Design/methodology/approach – The study has a before-after (PFC implementation) design. The sample included 1,474 patients and 458 healthcare providers in six participating wards before and after PFC implementation, plus five additional randomly chosen wards, which only featured in the post-assessment. Findings – No pre-post differences were found regarding care perceptions or provider work climate evaluations. Statistically significant improvements were noted among provider care evaluations. Using aggregate-level ward data, multiple regression analyses showed that high adherence to PFC principles and a positive work climate contributed significantly to variance among care quality ratings. Research limitations/implications – Among healthcare providers, questions related to specific PFC aspects during evenings, nights and weekends had to be dropped owing to a low response rate. Practical implications – An important requirement for both practice and research is to tailor PFC to various health and social care contexts. Originality/value – The study is large-scale before-after PFC model review, where patient and provider data were collected using well-established measurements.