Patient-centered care in adult trauma intensive care unit.

The purpose of this study was to discover unique aspects of caring for adult trauma intensive care unit patients with respect to implementing patient-centered care. The concept of patient-centered care has been discussed since 2000, but the actual implementation is currently becoming the focus of health care. The Institute of Medicine defined patient-centered care as "providing care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions" in the 2001 Crossing the Quality Chasm report. Discussion and documentation of patient centered-care of the intensive care trauma patient population are limited and yield no results for publication search. This article explores the concept of delivering patient-centered care specifically in a trauma adult intensive care unit.