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Web End = Health Care Anal (2015) 23:272287
DOI 10.1007/s10728-013-0257-0
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Sandra J. Tanenbaum
Published online: 27 June 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Recently adopted health care practices and policies describe themselves as patient-centered care. The meaning of the term, however, remains contested and obscure. This paper offers a typology of patient-centered care models that aims to contribute to greater clarity about, continuing discussion of, and further advances in patient-centered care. The paper imposes an original analytic framework on extensive material covering mostly US health care and health policy topics over several decades. It nds that four models of patient-centered care emphasize: patients versus their parts; patients versus providers; patients/providers/states versus the system; and patients and providers as persons. Each type is distinguishable along three dimensions: epistemological orientations, practical accommodations, and policy tools. Based on this analysis, the paper recommends that four questions be asked of any proposal that claims to provide patient-centered care: Is this care a means to an end or an end in itself? Are patients here subjects or objects? Are patients here individuals or aggregates? How do we know what patients want and need? The typology reveals that models are neither entirely compatible nor entirely incompatible and may be usefully combined in certain practices and policies. In other instances, internal contradictions may jeopardize the realization of coherent patient-centered care.
Keywords Health policy Medical practice Patient-centered care
Philosophy of health care United States
S. J. Tanenbaum (&)
Division of Health Services Management and Policy, College of Public Health, The Ohio State University, 200B Cunz Hall, 1841 Neil Ave., Columbus, OH 43201, USAe-mail: [email protected]
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Web End = What is Patient-Centered Care? A Typology of Models and Missions
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Introduction
The meaning of the term patient-centered care is at once obvious and obscure. Most of us think of patients as being at the center of care; if not the patient, then who? Students of health care, however, understand that the politics and economics of medicine often position professionals and institutions at the center of...