Patient- and family-centered care interventions for improving the quality of health care: A review of systematic reviews.

BACKGROUND: Patient- and family-centered care interventions are increasingly being implemented in various settings for improving the quality of health care. However, the huge amounts of information coming from both primary studies and reviews on patient- and family-centered care interventions have made it difficult to identify and use the available evidence effectively.
OBJECTIVES: This review aimed to synthesize and evaluate the evidence from published systematic reviews on the effects of patient- and family-centered care interventions. It also aimed to assess the quality of the systematic reviews in order to formulate recommendations for improving the quality of future systematic reviews.
DESIGN: Review of systematic reviews. DATA SOURCES: Six databases were searched for relevant published reviews that assessed patient- and family-centered care interventions and were reported on in English in peer-reviewed journals up to September 18, 2017. The reference lists of all selected publications were also used to identify additional eligible studies. REVIEW
METHODS: Reviewers independently selected reviews, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included reviews using A MeaSurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) checklist. These results were presented and discussed among researchers to resolve disagreements and reach a consensus. A narrative approach was adopted to pool the constituent elements of interventions. The review protocol was registered with PROSPERO (registration number CRD42017080427).
RESULTS: Twenty-eight reviews published between 2011 and 2017 met the inclusion criteria. The interventions targeted the patients, their family members, and the health-care. The interventions involved the following core outcomes: Regarding patients, they were improving knowledge about their health, increasing skills to manage self-care behaviors, enhancing satisfaction, increasing quality of life, and reducing admissions, readmissions, and length of the hospital stay. Regarding family members, they were reducing the intensity of stress, anxiety, depression, and increasing the satisfaction and relationship with health-care providers. Regarding health-care providers, the interventions could improve job satisfaction and confidence, quality of care, and reduce stress and burnout. The overall methodological quality of the 28 reviews was moderate, with a mean AMSTAR score of 6.79 (SD 1.45).
CONCLUSION: This review has provided evidence for the effects of patient- and family-centered care interventions applied to diverse patients, family members, and health-care providers. The evidence indicates that patient- and family-centered care could be a critical approach for improving the quality of health care. Additionally, the quality of future reviews needs to be improved in order to produce reliable evidence in the current era of evidence-based practice.