Aim
To focus more in depth on quantitative information and colour with 'narrative' or qualitative information to give the health care professional an insight of the patient's or their relatives' perspectives and thereby improve patient-centred care.
Outcomes
- concrete improvement proposals based on patient's perspective added value
- improvement of the coordination of care
- it leads to a change in attitude and behaviour among health care professionals
Background
Mirroring in healthcare is all about putting hospital staff in the patient’s shoes. Patients offer unique knowledge, experience and information about the organisation.
A Mirror Meeting (MM) is a group discussion with patients and/or their relatives with an independent facilitator asking this group how the care was experienced. In the background, employees involved can be present as listeners. Hearing experiences of patients reminds healthcare professionals of the situation, the patient’s needs and provide the professional with eye-opening moments for improvement of care.
A MM will give the organisation the opportunity to obtain this knowledge, experiences and information in a unique way.
The MM emphasises the patients’ perspective of the care they receive and acts as a reminder to employees of its significance. During daily work, blind spots easily arise in the professional activities. The power of a MM lies in the direct communication between health care professional and care recipients. It gives health care professionals and managers an overview of positive points, excellent points and recommendations for improvement from the perspective of patients and their loved ones. The direct feedback provides them a very powerful incentive to focus on patient-centred care. It leads to a change in attitude and behaviour among the health care professionals. The care providers are given a 'mirror image' by their own patients.
