BACKGROUND: Person-centered care (PCC) is a key component to effective illness management and high-quality care but conceptually underdeveloped in outpatient care settings for long-term disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and there is a lack of instruments measuring patient perceived PCC.

AIM: To conceptualize and operationalize outpatient PCC as a basis for measuring patient-perceived PCC in nurse-led outpatient rheumatology clinics.

DESIGN: A conceptual outpatient PCC framework was developed based on theory and patient experiences.The resulting framework was operationalizedinto items that were tested regarding their accordancewith the theoretical framework and their measurement properties according to Rasch measurement theory (RMT) using the RUMM2030 software. 

RESULTS: The conceptual framework comprised five intermingled domains (personalization, shared decision-making, empowerment, communication, and social environment) that were operationalized into a 24-item PCC instrument for outpatient care in rheumatology (PCCoc/rheum). RMT analyses found items to successfully map out a quantitative continuum from lower to higher PCC levels, with generally acceptable model fit and a reliability of 0.88. Three items exhibiting multidimensionality, dysfunctional response categories, and/or unexpected hierarchical ordering were omitted. The revised PCCoc/rheum showed good accordance with the conceptual framework, improved fit, functioning response categories, and no DIF; reliability was 0.86.

SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS: We found support for the PCCoc/rheum as a conceptually based outcome measure of patient perceived PCC. Results implied minor theoretical reconsiderations, and related scale revisions improved theoretical and clinical clarity. While in need of further testing, the PCCoc/rheum has great potential as a measure of outpatient PCC from a patient perspective.