• Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us
Prospective Students

Prospective Students

Prospective Students
  • Admissions
    Procedure & Timelines
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admissions Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • COVID-19 Impacts on Admissions
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Prerequisites
    General Information
    • Statement of Diversity
    • Mission Statement
    • Curriculum Resdesign
    • Honor Code
    • FAQs
    • Admissions Brochure
    • Admissions Timeline
    • Admission Procedure
    • Basis of Selection
    • Competencies
    • COVID-19 Impact on Admissions
    • DACA Applicants
    • DGSOM Mission Statement
    • Equity and Diversity Inclusion
    • FAQs
    • Honor Code
    • Housing Information
    • Interview Process
    • Virtual Events
  • Outreach & Pipeline Programs
    Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccaluareate Programs
    • UCLA SHPEP
    • UCLA PREP
    • UCLA RAP
    Outreach and Recruitment
    • Conferences and Events
    • Stay Connected!
    • Contact Us
    • Conferences & Outreach Events
    • Summer Pre-Health and Postbaccalaureate Programs
    • Contact Us
    • Stay Connected
  • Financial Aid & Scholarships
  • Degrees & Programs
  • Curriculum
  • Student Life
    Why Choose UCLA
    • Research
    • Clinical Work
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    Campus Life
    • Student Organizations
    • Annual Events
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Photo Galleries
    • Medical and Research News
    • Medical Student Council
    • Geffy Guide
    • Search Campus and Health News
    • Service Opportunities
    • Global Health Impact
    • Why You'll Love LA
    • Photo Galleries
    • Day in the Life
    • Around Campus
    • Medical and Research News
    • Search Campus and Health News
  • How to Apply
  • Gryphon Login
  • MyCourses
  • Alumni
  • UCLA Health
  • Contact Us

Prospective Students

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  • Health News
  • A Day in the Life
  • Around Campus
  • Medical and Research News
  1. Home
  2. Prospective Students
  3. Student Life
  4. Search Campus and Health News

Search Campus and Health News

Share this

Medical and Research News

Title

How MyCare Is Improving Outcomes by Hearing the Patient Voice

Medical and Research News

Date
06/24/2015
Article

Negar Kahen

Negar Kahen

It would be easy for a program that has reduced ER admissions by more than half to rest on its laurels. But that's not the mission of UCLA's Medicine and Pediatrics Comprehensive Care Center in Santa Monica. A program inspired by the Patient Voice project, MyCare is being studied for its emphasis on patients' thoughts and feelings about their treatment and utilizing that information to improve healthcare and increase patient satisfaction.

The program

MyCare was developed to address the needs of patients at the Santa Monica-based office who have had two or more visits to the Emergency Department within a six-month period. Although these patients usually have a chronic health condition — unstable diabetes, congestive heart failure, recurrent bowel obstructions or the like — any patient who has used emergency services may receive this attention.

Once these patients are identified, they are assigned a healthcare team that includes a pharmacist, a registered dietitian, a psychologist and a care manager, in addition to their primary care doctor. These professionals spend time individually with the patient to help him or her manage the condition more effectively and avoid exacerbation that leads to an ED visit.

The program's success can be measured by the most recent data: ED visits in 2014 were reduced by 55 percent; all hospital admissions decreased by 48 percent; and re-admissions to the hospital within 30 days saw a 33-percent decline.

Improving the program with Patient Voice

Although these statistics are promising, Negar Kahen — a medical student in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA — wants to further analyze the success of the project through the parameters of Patient Voice. The Patient Voice toolkit offers providers a systematic way to understand feedback from the patient's perspective. To this end, Kahen and her team are performing interviews with patients enrolled in the MyCare program to hear their thoughts on the benefits and deficiencies of their experience in the program. Physicians will also be interviewed to evaluate how the initiative is perceived from the provider side.

Along with Kahen, the Patient Voice project team consists of another medical student, a resident and Dr. Alice Kuo — director of the combined residency program and developer of the MyCare program — as well as those involved in the program itself. After each interview is complete, the team will discuss the results of the interviews and, in a synthesis meeting, identify common themes from which to develop an action plan that improves upon the program for the future.

A unique perspective

Kahen has personally conducted several interviews and contacted all the patients enrolled in the MyCare program to gauge their interest in providing feedback. Having been involved in the program for more than a year, she is looking forward to the data they will collect as they complete the Patient Voice project. "It's unique because we listen to the patients first and then develop a plan, whereas in other projects, the physicians would make a decision and develop a plan. But starting with the patient needs, especially in this population, can really improve the quality of our care," she says.

Results from the Patient Voice project will form an important part of MyCare, particularly as they are implemented across the UCLA healthcare system in the foreseeable future.

By Kyleigh Roessner

Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
  • Giving
  • Publications
  • Newsroom
  • Weekly Digest
  • Directory
  • Contact Us
  • Diversity
  • Emergency
  • Maps & Directions
  • UC Regents
  • Abuse Free
  • Volunteer
  • Biomed Library
  • Disability Resources
  • UCLA Health
  • Smoke-Free
  • Sitemap
  • Terms of Use
Top 10 U.S. Medical Schools
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Flickr Follow us on Sharecare