“Patient-Family” Centered Care Versus “Disease-Based” Approach to Health Care

1990 Words8 Pages
Abstract The goal of this paper is to inform those who may not understand the principles and benefits of Person- and family-centered care, and persuade those that believe in “disease centered care” that health care is not just a “cookie cutter” matter and needs to be addressed on an individual case basis. Using both research and personal experience, from the hospital floor, I will explain all the benefits of family centered care and how it can outweigh any and all complications. Person- and family-centered care is a coordination to the delivery of health care and supportive services that address an individual’s needs, goals, preferences, cultural traditions, family situation, and values. Person- and family-centered care can improve care and quality of life by its focus on how services are delivered from the perspective of the patient and when appropriate, his or her family. “Patient-Family” Centered Care versus “Disease-Based” Approach to Health Care Medicine faces several critical and conflicting challenges. The tremendous and changing cultural diversity of our population requires physicians to develop new skills in communication and negotiation with their patients. But managed care constraints, litigation, and growing regulatory pressures have compromised communication and trust between physicians and patients. This, along with the surge in technologic development, has driven the medical system even further toward a “disease-based” approach to health care that views individuals as “cases” and undervalues the sociocultural and humanistic aspects of patient care. The results are a diminishing faith in the medical establishment and the rise of alternative medical philosophies and practices. A medical system that allows physicians to refocus on the patient-centered, personal, and unique experience of “illness” is an imperative for our
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