THE FUTURE OF PATIENT-CENTERED CARE
What's New? Patient-Centered Care at the forefront: see High-Touch Telemedicine
The concept of Patient-Centered Care was designed to be a guiding principle for positive transformation in medical care.
The concept of patient-centered care was designed to be a guiding principle for positive transformation in medical care, (see the Institute of Medicine's Crossing the Quality Chasm.) “Patient-centered care”, with its “sibling” concept, the “medical home,” has been an organizing principle energizing thousands of hours of effort and millions of dollars in spending toward quality improvement, particularly in primary care. Unfortunately, after all the time and money expended, the medical
home effort, (changing practice patterns to improve information management, adding coordination of care, and improving access), has been much more successful than the patient-centered care effort with its goal of changing the relationships between patients and health professionals to improve transparency, accommodate to patient preferences and values, and make the patient the “source of control” in planning care. The Institute of Medicine’s call for the patient to be empowered in designing their care, including having access to all their medical information and to be helped to experience of self-efficacy needed to participate as a partner with their healthcare team, has been realized in very few primary care practices. There is a need for a handbook on how to realize the Institute of Medicine's vision.
​
Patient-Centered Primary Care helps primary care practices involve patients as partners in their own healthcare in ways shown to improve health outcomes and lower costs.
"Asking Alexander “Sandy” Blount to write a book about patient-centered primary care is akin to asking Michael Jordan to reflect on basketball. There is perhaps no one better to reflect on their experience and history on the ground. . . .I’d recommend the book to anyone starting in primary care as it offers a primer on the thinking about primary care, the history of primary care, and models for team-based care. And it’s a tour de force delineating the difference between care delivery and partnership with the patient that empowers." Review in Family Medicine.*
Get on our list to receive the Integrated Primary Care Newsletter