The Patients Care Collective represents a wide range of stakeholders, from physicians and nurses to patients and consumers. Its mission is to educate and advocate for public policy that advances primary care and the medical home model of care. One way to achieve this is by ensuring that care focuses on the whole person. This means that clinicians work with their patients and families to determine their needs, values and preferences.

Personalized Medicine

Personalized medicine is an emerging field that uses a person’s genetic profile to guide the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease. It can help doctors prescribe medications with greater efficacy and minimize side effects.

For example, a HER2 protein test can identify patients who have a high chance of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer and can recommend preventative treatments. This can help women avoid these diseases and lower healthcare costs.

However, it takes time to develop diagnostic tests and to build the infrastructure necessary for clinical adoption. It also requires reimbursement and coverage processes that are unique to each payer.

Many barriers to the adoption of personalized medicine are based on knowledge gaps, system-wide process obstacles and resistance to the cultural changes required to move toward a more personalized care paradigm. They are often more significant in community hospital systems than in academic health centers and can differ by region. These challenges can be addressed by empowering patients, improving program infrastructure and information management processes, and demonstrating value across stakeholder groups.

Patient-Centered Care in the Doctor’s Office

Patient-centered care in the doctor’s office is a key element of a patient’s overall health and well-being. It involves developing a trusted relationship with patients through compassion, deep communication, and eye contact.

Patients who have a trusted physician-patient relationship have greater satisfaction and are more likely to adhere to their prescribed treatment plans, as well as use fewer tests, hospitalizations, prescriptions, and referrals than patients who do not have this type of patient-centered care.

Under patient-centered care, patients have a trusting relationship with their doctor and have access to services such as peer support programs, social workers, financial counselors, mental and emotional health providers, transportation, and daily living assistance.

A patient-centered practice also emphasizes physical comfort and supports their emotional needs, especially when they are dealing with anxiety over clinical status, treatment options, and prognosis. Family members and friends are encouraged to visit and are given authority to do so, so they can participate in discussions and decisions about their loved one’s care.

Patient-Centered Care in the Hospital

Patients care collective in the hospital involves a partnership between patients and health professionals. It is based on the concept that patients know best how their health care providers are meeting their needs, and that a true partnership should result in better care and outcomes for both parties.

It also involves listening to and honoring patients’ knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds. These factors can help healthcare professionals understand patients’ needs and preferences, which they can use to make care more individualized and patient-centered.

In hospitals, the practice of person-centered care goes a step further by incorporating family members into care plans. This allows patients to feel more involved in their own care, which can lead to increased patient satisfaction.

Patient-centered care is often difficult to achieve, however, as it runs counter to decades of conventional wisdom that promotes a paternalistic patient-provider relationship. Power hierarchies that place clinicians at the top and patients lower can get in the way of a truly patient-centric relationship, but experts say that strategies like appointment agenda-setting and wellness goal setting can help overcome these barriers.

Patient-Centered Care in the Community

Patients Care Collective mission, vision, values, leadership and quality-improvement drivers are aligned with a patient-centered approach. This includes a focus on active collaboration and shared decision-making between patients, families and providers to design and manage a comprehensive care plan that honors the patient’s physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, social, financial and cultural needs.

As a result, patients’ health outcomes improve and healthcare costs are reduced. In addition, staff morale and job satisfaction are higher when healthcare facilities implement this patient-centered approach.

For this to work, health professionals must build trust with patients and show their commitment to supporting their emotional well-being. This requires strong leadership skills and advanced nursing practice knowledge. It also requires software that streamlines the care process to conserve clinician time and energy.