Person-centered care is a healthcare practice in which patients actively participate in their own medical treatment in close cooperation with their health professionals. It is based on a holistic approach to healthcare that takes the whole person into account instead of a narrow perspective where the focus lies on the illness or the symptoms. The person-centered approach also includes the persons abilities, resources, wishes, health and well-being as well as social and cultural factors.
Person-centered care includes the following elements:
- Care that’s guided and informed by patients’ goals, preferences, and values
- Success measured by patient-reported outcomes
- Integrated and coordinated care across health systems, providers, and care settings
- Involvement of family and friends
Person-centered care is a concept used in the United Kingdom by various organizations such as Skills for Health, the Health Foundation, the Social Care Institute for Excellence, the Royal College of General Practitioners, NHS England, and the Care Quality Commission. The Health Innovation Network defines person-centered care as "a way of thinking and doing things that sees the people using health and social services as equal partners in planning, developing and monitoring care to make sure it meets their needs".
Person-centered care means treating patients as individuals and as equal partners in the business of healing; it is personalized, coordinated, and enabling. It is more holistic and inclusive of family, significant others, context, prevention, promotion, and preferences, among other elements. In their concept analysis of person-centered care, Morgan and Yoder identified four attributes of person-centered care, which includes that it is holistic, individualized, respectful, and empowering.
The main goal of a patient-centered care model is to improve individual outcomes—when patients are more involved in their own care, they often recover more quickly and are more satisfied with the care they receive.
