Patient-focused care: what managers should know.

Implementation of PFC is considered a "rational" strategic choice in that it is thought to decrease the cost of providing health care while increasing the quality of services. Published research and evaluation studies that describe PFC are analyzed and the information is synthesized in hopes of discovering and describing commonalties among definitions, goals, and principles underlying PFC. The commonly accepted description of PFC is a model which "seeks to integrate the organization's values and culture with the operational excellence vision and processes to transform the institution into a customer-focused organization." Staff satisfaction is addressed by encouraging staff to plan and execute their clinical work in ways that are most responsive to patient needs. Grouping similar patients, bringing services closer to these patients, and appropriate cross-training of multidisciplinary care providers to enhance continuity of care are seen as the four most common elements described in most of the literature.