Health Affairs, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.4.w555 (Published online May 19, 2009) © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Senate Health Reform Bill   Rewarding Providers   Public Option Policy Brief   Health Reform & Abortion   Delivery System Reform

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What 'Patient-Centered' Should Mean: Confessions Of An Extremist

¹ Donald M. Berwick is president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

^*Corresponding author.

Abstract

"Patient-centeredness" is a dimension of health care quality in its own right, not just because of its connection with other desired aims, like safety and effectiveness. Its proper incorporation into new health care designs will involve some radical, unfamiliar, and disruptive shifts in control and power, out of the hands of those who give care and into the hands of those who receive it. Such a consumerist view of the quality of care, itself, has important differences from the more classical, professionally dominated definitions of "quality." New designs, like the so-called medical home, should incorporate that change. Health Affairs 28, no. 4 (2009): w555-w565 (published online 19 May 2009; 10.1377/hlthaff .28.4.w555)]

Key Words: Ethical Issues, Consumer Issues, Health Reform, Managed Care - Consumers, Physicians, Quality Of Care

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