Integration of Person-Centered Narratives Into the Electronic Health Record.

BACKGROUND: Care delivery that is not person-centered has been called "discordant care." There has been a shift to incorporate more of a person's narrative into their individual health care treatment plan to reduce discordant care. Aligning with this shift in health care delivery, we developed a person-centered narrative intervention (PCNI) to address existing gaps in delivery of person-centered care.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of conducting a randomized study and describe the outcomes of PCNI to usual care on the following person (patient) reported outcomes: perceptions of the quality of communication with their nurses and their psychosocial and existential well-being.

METHODS: This study's design was an Obesity-Related Behavioral Intervention Trials (ORBIT) model Phase II proof-of-concept randomized study. The participants were people admitted to an acute care hospital diagnosed with heart failure and/or end-stage renal disease.

RESULTS: Despite COVID-19 challenges, the PCNI was feasible in an acute care setting; it showed a moderate positive difference between conditions in the person's perception of their quality of communication and a small positive difference in their perception of feeling heard and understood. For our secondary outcomes of anxiety, depression, and psychosocial illness effect, there were small or no effects in the acute care setting.

DISCUSSION: Using a person-centered narrative, such as the PCNI, can help inform delivery of care that incorporates a person's (patient's) beliefs, values, and preferences into their health care. This study used a pragmatic approach to evaluate the PCNI in real time in an acute care setting to assess patient-reported outcomes. These positive results in a small sample indicate the need for continued testing of the PCNI. These promising effects require further testing in a Phase III efficacy study within a larger randomized controlled clinical trial.