Patient-centered care becoming 'person-centered care'

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Michael Callero, Allina Health vice president of consumer insights

[Modern Healthcare, September 14, 2019]

A growing focus on patient-centered care—sometimes being called person centered care—at health systems is putting a spotlight on access, experience and the possibility of “hospital at home.”

Health systems are broadening their definition of patient-centered care, sometimes extending the concept beyond clinical care by replacing the term “patient” with a seemingly more holistic “consumer” or “person.”

There’s also a growing contingent of health systems transitioning to the phrase “person.” Froedtert Health in Milwaukee tends to use the phrase “person-centered care,” while Allina Health in Minneapolis has opted for the phrasing “whole-person care.”

“We’re not just treating the condition of the patient that happens to be in front of us,” said Michael Callero, Allina’s vice president of consumer insights, highlighting initiatives related to social determinants of health. Allina established Callero’s role less than a year ago to help the system better “understand the people that we deliver care to,” he said.

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