Definition

The 2001 Institute of Medicine (IOM) Envisioning the National Health Care Quality Report defines patient-centeredness as follows:

Health care that establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families (when appropriate) to ensure that decisions respect patients' wants, needs, and preferences and that patients have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care.

In an article published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the American Geriatrics Society Expert Panel writes, “[i]mproving healthcare safety, quality, and coordination, as well as quality of life, are important aims of caring for older adults with multiple chronic conditions and/or functional limitations.” The article goes on to state that “[p]erson‐centered care is an approach to meeting these aims in a way that assures the primacy of individuals’ health and life goals in their care planning and in their actual care.”

PW_05-15_259
Updated_05/17/2019