Each October, Patient Centered Care Awareness Month is held to commemorate the progress that has been made toward making patient centered care a reality and to build momentum for further progress. This year marks the celebration’s tenth anniversary. Healthcare organizations and patient groups worldwide participate in the campaign.
Patient centered care is defined as “providing care that is respectful of, and responsive to, individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensuring that the patient remains the center of all clinical decisions”. While this may be the textbook definition, at Careteam+ patient centered care is our way of doing business every day.
In fact, it so important that we have developed the following creed:
1. Everything we do throughout the day is about serving you. You are the reason for our day, not an interruption of our day.
2. Patient centered care is about relationships; the way we speak to, treat and support you, each other and our community partners.
3. Patient centered care means creating an inviting physical environment that is clean, warm and accessible.
4. Patient centered care provides you with the information you need regarding the services we provide, how to access those services and how to be your own best advocate. The provision of service is consistent. To deliver that continuity of care, our staff supports one another.
“While we are all very different, we are all very much alike,” said Johanna Haynes, Executive Director & CEO of Careteam+. Although we vary in age, gender, race and personality, we all want to be treated as individuals. We embrace that here,” she said. “Our doctors take their time with each of our patients making sure that they understand their diagnoses and the treatment. While personalized care is important in all service industries, nowhere is it more important than in the medical industry. Here at Careteam+ we pride ourselves in treating each person as an individual, not a number.”
While there are many factors surrounding patient centered care, there are several key premises:
