Assuring Measurement Quality in Person-Centered Care

Abstract

AbstractThe quality-assurance of measurement in person-centered care (PCC) – is introduced firstly by “bookending” the topic in the overall context of the quality assurance of the care itself. At the start the chapter we ask: What are the end-user objects and constructs of PCC – for instance as specified by the profession and in legislation? At the end: What decisions about PCC objects and constructs can be made and how reliable are they? Examples and illustrations from PCC have included (i) neuropsychological cases (dealt with in more detail in the accompanying chapter by Melin and Pendrill (Person centered outcome metrology. Springer, 2022)) and (ii) patient participation. In the two central sections of the chapter, assuring the quality of measurement in PCC has obliged consideration of how traditional metrological concepts – particularly metrological references for comparability via traceability and reliable estimates of uncertainty – need to be extended. In providing an overview of the benefits of combining Rasch measurement theory and quality assurance, the unique properties of Rasch Measurement Theory are exploited to the full. Replacing the instrument at the heart of a traditional measurement system with a human being provides a truly “person-centered” model of the metrology. This in turn enables a viable procedure to establish metrological references in fields such as PCC in the form of “recipes” analogous to certified reference materials or procedures in analytical chemistry and materials science. It also informs the measurement uncertainties which determine the final decisions about PCC taken at the end of the chapter.