Person-Centered Care & The Medical / Institutional Model

Long-term care is founded on an institutional model, which is based on the premise that, We know what is best for you. Because of the health needs of the people we serve, we tend to focus only on what is wrong with a person and the need to treat and/or cure illness. We want to fix the medical condition of the patient.

In the medical model, care and services are planned and structured around the schedule of staff, and staff are accountable for performing the tasks as assigned within their shift.

In the medical model, Schedules for patients dictate when they get up in the morning, when they eat their meals, what day and time they bathe, when they go to an activity, when they go to therapy, take their meds, go to bed at night and, sometimes, even when they go to the bathroom.

We do a good job taking care of patients, but how can we move beyond this?

Person-Centered Care transforms a patient into a PERSON, and an institutional environment into a HOME. Person-Centered care is based on the premise that when we go to work, we are working in someone’s HOME, and each person should be in charge of what happens to them in their own home.

So how do we DO Person-Centered Care

• Organize care and services around the unique preferences, needs and desires of each resident.

• Implement true Care Partner Teams, and treating each other as Care Partners.

• Have staff consistently work with the same residents so they really get to know each other and form genuine relationships.

• Collaborate with the residents on their unique plan of care.

• Make sure that residents choose when they get up, when they go to bed, when they take their shower or bath, and what they do each day.

Our goal is to enable the well-being of each resident, to make sure that they live in a home setting and maintain their normal routines. The only thing that should change is their address.