Patient Expectations Regarding Eye Care

Abstract

HISTORICALLY, medicine has been primarily physician centered; however, to an increasing extent, physicians and health administrators have begun to incorporate patients' perspectives into health care.¹ Patient-centered care, at its core, is health care that is responsive to patients' wants, needs, and preferences.² Moreover, the rise of consumerism and dramatic increases in patients' level of education have contributed to greater patient demand for information and involvement and rising expectations.³ The patient-centered care movement can also be linked to related major trends in medicine during the past decade. The shift toward continuous quality improvement, which gained momentum in the 1990s, places meeting patient expectations at the core of medicine's mission.⁴ Furthermore, the growing integrative medicine movement insists on patients being active participants in their health care.⁵