Extra Additions for Patient Centered Care Model Within the rubric of 21st century medicine, it is often surprising that we need to be reminded that it is not the technology, the clinical expertise, or even the health care and institutional debates that should drive the paradigm of appropriate medical care -- it is the patient. Patient Centered Care is a model that focuses on the patient as the center of a multi-dimensional approach that considers patients' cultural traditions, their personal preferences and values, their unique family situations, and their lifestyles. The PCC model allows for families to become an integral part of the process of medical care, and the entire care team who assist the patient in making decisions and allowing the patient a modicum of responsibility for their own healing process. Indeed, PCC places the responsibility for important milestones of self-care and monitoring squarely in the patient's hands, yet still provides significant tools and support needed to carry out that long-term responsibility. Additionally, in this day and age of numerous departments, specialists, and specialized procedures, PCC ensures that transitions between...

Implementing PCC, however, is crucial for the continued improvement of the contemporary health care model. It not only allows for a multi-faceted approach that involves patients and families in the design of care, it reliably meets patient's needs, preferences, and becomes the locus of informed and shared decision making, thus allowing for greater efficiencies and cost savings (General Overview: Patient Centered Care, 2010).
One of the key aspects of patient care is to combat the impersonality of the managed care paradigm. We know that costs abound within the system, and it is necessary to trim and make tough decisions in order to keep the system going. Escalating pressures on the physician and supporting medical staff, though, mandate more paperwork, justification for procedures, and a quicker turn-around for patient appointments. By implementing a PCC model as part of Best Practice, one can still see patients at a rapid rate, along with still treating the patient with dignity and respect (McKerns, 2009).

The key to this model is actually…