Integrating the Principles of Patient-Centered Care

Patient-Centered Care (PCC) has emerged as a way for healthcare organizations to achieve better quality and lower costs. This approach considers the patients’ cultural traditions, their personal preferences and values, their family situations, and their lifestyles. It makes the patient and their loved ones an integral part of the care team who collaborate with healthcare professionals in making clinical decisions and ensures that transitions between providers, departments and health care settings are respectful, coordinated and efficient. When care is patient centered, unneeded and unwanted services can be reduced. A truly patient-centered health care system may provide higher quality healthcare, improve patients’ experiences and increase efficiency.