• Traditional approaches aren’t working. They are costly. They are not consistently yielding optimal medical and developmental outcomes.
• Traditional approaches fail to provide the necessary support to patients and families. Further, they foster dependency and can be disempowering to patients and families.
• Complex care provided over extended periods of time in the hospital, at home, and in communities requires new approaches and new systems of support.
• Hospitals, agencies, and programs around the country have been successfully incorporating patient- and family-centered practices and are seeing improved outcomes.
• Patient- and family-centered care offers new approaches to care and a new definition of support, defining it in positive, proactive ways.
• Collaboration among women, families, and providers has dramatically changed aspects of birthing practices and services for children with chronic conditions in the last two decades. Further collaboration is needed to design a system of services that more effectively meets a broader range of needs and priorities of patients of all ages and their families.
• Hospital experiences have long-lasting impact on patients’ and families’ attitudes about health care and health care providers.
• Many of the patients treated in hospitals today are especially vulnerable. Traditional hospital services are often most inaccessible for those most in need.
• Patients- and families offer unique perspectives and expertise about systems of care, the design of programs, and the formulation of public policy.
• Standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations require quality care and a collaborative process for improving quality. A first step in the delivery of quality services is the development of a shared definition of quality, with consumers included in the process.
• Patient- and family-centered care makes economic sense for patients and families, hospitals and other agencies, and for communities and states. By collaborating with patients and families in planning and evaluation, moneys and other resources can be expended in more efficient and effective ways.

But, above all, this is why we’ve chosen this approach to your care:

Patient- and family-centered care is the right way to treat people.

References:

For the most recent references on this topic, please see the Institute’s Compendium of Bibliographies at http://www.ipfcc.org/advance/supporting.html

Institute of Medicine. (2000). To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Report available online at http://www.nap.edu/openbook/O3O9O68371/html /

Institute of Medicine. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 2111 Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Report available online at http://www.iom.edu/includes /dbfile asp?id=4124

Institute of Medicine. (2002). Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Report available online at http://www.nap.edu/books I 030908265X/html/
Davis, K., Schoen, C., Schoenbaum, S., Audet, A., Doty, M., & Tenney, K. (2004). Mirror, mirror on the wall: Looking at the quality of American health care through the patient’s lens. Report available from The Commonwealth Fund at http://www.cmwf.org