Measure of Processes of Care: a review of 20 years of research

Abstract

This article reviews literature on findings from the Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC) to assess family-centred services. Systematic searches for papers citing MPOC in both PubMed and Web of Science identified 107 articles. Fifty-five met the criterion for inclusion in this review in that they reported MPOC data. Over the past 20years MPOC has been used in settings additional to the children's treatment centres for which it was designed; used in 11 countries and translated into 14 languages; and used to measure change in respondents' perceptions over time. MPOC findings have also informed our understanding of the provision of family-centred services. Overall, parents report that service providers do a good job of providing respectful, comprehensive services in partnership with families, but that there remain limitations in the provision of general information, an area for improvement. Finally, MPOC has been shown to correlate with various other measures related to the provision of family-centred services. The MPOC 'family' of measures can be used to assess both families' and service providers' experiences and perceptions of the family-centredness of services received/provided. Opportunities abound for further research enquiries.