Patient-centered care shouldn’t be just a marketing slogan

Recently I heard from a woman in rural Nebraska who told me about her 76-year-old father, who in late April had a lemon-size cancerous mass removed from his brain. The man chose to have his chemotherapy and radiation treatments at a hospital close to his home instead of at one of the larger hospitals farther away. Not surprisingly, he wanted family nearby.
Nearly two months later, in mid-June, his treatments finally began.

Why the delay?

His daughter told me the nearby hospital “had no record of two appointments they had made with my dad and rescheduled at least once.” She asked me if her father was being neglected because he was on Medicare, adding, “He is so angry. We are so angry. So much for urgency and professionalism.”

So much for patient-centered care — that buzz phrase that’s all the rage in health care circles. It goes by a lot of different names like patient engagement, patient activation and shared decision-making. If care is truly patient-centered, it revolves around eight principles identified in research by the Harvard Medical School and the Picker Institute. They include respect for patient preferences, coordination of care, information and education, physical comfort, emotional support, involvement of family and friends, continuity and transition, and access to care.

For the family in question, the Nebraska hospital simply didn’t meet those standards.
 

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