health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

, person-centered care is a practice in which patients actively participate in their own medical treatment in close cooperation with their health professionals. Sometimes relatives are also included in creating the health plan. The person-centered model of health care is used both for in and

outpatient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health care ...

settings,

emergency care Emergency medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (often called “ER doctors” in the United States) continuously learn to care for unsche ...

palliative care Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...

as well as in

rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

Background

The concept of person-centered care can be distinguished from a traditional treatment model which views the patient as a passive receiver of a medical intervention. Many health professionals are traditionally focused on the needs of the patients instead of their resources. Rather than the conventional way of making medical recommendations from health professionals to a patient, the person-centered care model allows for the inclusion of the patient and their relatives in making a joint design and mutual agreement on the medical plans and treatments. The overall perspective of the life situation of the patient is considered to create objectives and strategies for both short- and long-term monitoring. The concept of person-centered care has grown to be internationally associated with successful outcomes in health care. Initially, the method was developed for senior patients and patients with intellectual disabilities but the ideas have later spread to other medical fields. Within person-centered care, the patient is considered an independent and capable individual with their own abilities to make informed decisions.

Autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

and participation are emphasized and respected. For the patient, the person-centered approach allows for involvement and extended possibilities to take responsibility for their own health and treatment.

Key principles

There are four vantage points that constitute the foundation of person-centered care: * The health care should be based on the unique person's needs and his or her

right to health The right to health is the economic, social, and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international agreements which include the U ...

* The health institution should focus on the abilities of the person and encourage activity * The health care should be coherent * Health professionals should always approach patients with dignity, compassion and respect. They should work with an ethical perspective. Person-centered care is based on a

holistic Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...

approach to health care 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 person's abilities, or resources, wishes, health and well-being as well as social and cultural factors. According to the Gothenburg model of person centered care there are three central themes to person-centered care work: the patient's narrative, the partnership and the documentation.

The Partnership

The health care team may consist of several different professionals with varying expertise from different health care units. The patient is a natural part of the team. Within the team, the patient and relatives have discussions with health professionals aiming to reach a mutual understanding on how to achieve safe and accurate care for the unique patient.

The Documentation

The personal health or care plan is designed to capture the patient's narrative. A common understanding of strategies, goals and evaluation of the outcomes should be established. The documentation should clearly state the responsibilities of each member of the team, including the patient's own role and obligations. To fully live up to the person-centered care concept, patients should have full and easy access to all information and documentation about them. For reasons of security, accessibility and cost effectiveness, all documentation should be digital and include all medical records. The person's own notes, reports of health status and the overall health plan should also be carefully documented. The collected documentation is the foundation of the health care.

Person-centred care in the United Kingdom

Person-centred care is a concept used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

by Skills for Health, in their 2017 framework; by the

Health Foundation The Health Foundation is an independent charity for health care for people in the UK. The organisation’s aim is a healthier population, supported by high quality health care that can be equitably accessed. Its programs include making grants to ...

, set out in their 2016 "quick guide"; by the

Social Care Institute for Excellence The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE; pronounced 'sky') is a UK charity and improvement agency. SCIE shares knowledge about what works in practice across social care, social work and beyond, covering adults’, families’ and children ...

; by the

Royal College of General Practitioners The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is the professional body for general (medical) practitioners (GPs/Family Physicians/Primary Care Physicians) in the United Kingdom. The RCGP represents and supports GPs on key issues including l ...

and

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

, who have developed a Person-Centred Care toolkit; by the

Health Innovation Network Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiz ...

South London; and by the

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

, in their regulations for service providers. The Health Innovation Network defines Person-centred care as: The concept is defined as including decision-making that is shared between services users and professionals, ensuring service users have access to

advocacy Advocacy is an Action (philosophy), activity by an individual or advocacy group, group that aims to influence decision making, decisions within political, economic, and social institutions. Advocacy includes activities and publications to infl ...

, providing personal budgets for people to access services, treating people with dignity, ensuring service users have all the information they need, supporting individual choices and ensuring treatment and support are personalised and take into account people's preferences. The Royal College of GPs notes that the key question is not '"what's the matter with you" but "what matters to you". The Health Foundation states that "a commonly cited barrier is that many ervice providersbelieve the care they provide is already person-centred. However, the evidence shows that this is often not the case".

Person-centered care research

Research on person-centered care is carried out in many different universities. The

University of Gothenburg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

Centre for Personcentred Care (GPCC), in Sweden, has been established since 2010. The center conducts interdisciplinary research funded partly by the Swedish government's investments targeted towards care sciences.

Person-centered care according to McCormack

A conceptual framework for person-centered care has been presented by McCormack and McCance. The holistic framework by McCormack and McCance consists of four constructs; prerequisites, the care environment, person-centred processes, and expected outcomes.

Related concepts

Patient-centered care Patient participation is a trend that arose in answer to medical paternalism. Informed consent is a process where patients make decisions informed by the advice of medical professionals. In recent years, the term "patient participation" has been ...

is a concept that also emphasises the involvement of the patient and their families in the decision making of medical treatments. A main difference is that person-centered care describes the whole person in a wider context rather than the patient-centered approach which is based on the person's role as a patient. There is a difference between the word “patient” and “person”, still there is a widespread use of the concept of patient-centered care and person-centered care as equals. The word “patient” can be defined as a person who receives treatment for a disorder or illness. Characteristic of a patient is vulnerability and dependence. To get a deeper understanding of the word “person” we need to define the philosophical concept of personhood. Personhood is linked with responsibilities and human rights, and characteristics such as rationality and consciousness. The goal of person-centered care is for the person to live a meaningful life. The concept has a more holistic focus on the person’s uniqueness in disregard to the sickness. Patient-centered care has sprung out of resistance against the paternalistic and biomedical approach to medicine. People-centered care is an umbrella term, articulated by

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

among others, which entails the right and duty for people to actively participate in decisions at all levels of the health care systems. People-centered care focuses both on the individual's right to health, access to health care and information, but also

health literacy Health literacy is the ability to obtain, read, understand, and use healthcare information in order to make appropriate health decisions and follow instructions for treatment. There are multiple definitions of health literacy, in part, because heal ...

on a collective level.

Health activation Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiz ...

is a condition where a health care consumer is equipped, educated, and motivated to be an effective manager of their own health and use of health care services. The concepts are very similar, although person-centered care places the emphasis on the healthcare provider, whereas the term health activation is used in reference to the attitude and behavior of the patient. Good care focus on empowerment, respect, humanization, and absence of infantilization. Good care implies, on the one hand, prevention of abuse or mistreatment, and on the other, patient-centered care. Good care is measured via a self-reported questionnaire. The Good Care Scale in Nursing Homes (GCS-NH)a) has been used, which is a 62-item questionnaire that assesses empowerment, respect, humanization, and non-infantilization, by measuring how strong nursing home staff agree with each statement on a scale of 0- 4.