Person-centered Care Elicits More Positive Responses From Family Planning Clients

A critical element of a positive family planning care experience is for the client to be able to ask all of their questions and get complete answers from their provider. In fact, in a recent Child Trends survey, 75 percent of family planning clients cited this person-centered approach when asked what had contributed to their positive care visit. High-quality family planning care is both person-centered (meaning it centers individual clients’ preferences during care visits) and offered in settings with efficient infrastructure for ensuring client access and comfort (such as scheduling, record-keeping, and supportive front desk staff). Understanding the most important aspects of a positive or negative family planning visit experience can help health centers adopt strategies to improve service delivery.

Child Trends surveyed 1,016 individuals assigned female at birth who had recently received family planning care and were income-eligible for publicly funded services.[1] Of the 893 respondents who reported a prior sexual and reproductive health (SRH) visit, over three quarters (78%) reported a prior visit they considered “mostly positive” while 19 percent reported a “mostly negative” visit. Respondents were also asked to report on the most important characteristics (up to three) that made their visit experience mostly positive or mostly negative; characteristics were related to interactions with providers and features of the clinic or the appointment. Survey respondents also provided write-in answers that described, in more detail, the factors that made their visit positive or negative; figures 1 and 2 include select quotes that illustrate the top reasons for positive and negative visits. (The full distribution of categorical responses can be found in the Appendix.)

Among responses related to provider-patient interactions (Figure 1), clients characterized positive SRH visits as those in which the provider/staff:

1. Gave clients the opportunity to ask questions and answered their questions completely (75%)
2. Gave clients needed referrals or follow-up care (56%)
3. Were kind and understanding toward clients (51%)

Visits that the clients described as negative were characterized by clients as those in which the provider/staff:

1. Treated clients unfairly, made them uncomfortable, and/or were dismissive (51%)
2. Did not give clients the opportunity to ask questions or have their questions answered completely (35%)
3. Did not give clients needed referrals or follow-up care (28%)