Analyzing models of patient-centered care in Canada through a scoping review and environmental scan

The objective of this study was to identify and synthesize models of patient-centered care in Canada and compare them with the normative models described in the literature.

Patient-centered care has gained momentum in the twenty-first century as a component of quality care. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the crisis often shifts the focus to the disease rather than the patient. The multiplicity of Canadian systems, including the federal, provincial, and territorial contexts, made a good case to search for a variety of models. This study was conducted using a scoping review method supported by an environmental scan to identify patient-centered care models in Canada.

The study identified 19 patient-centered interventions across Canada. The interventions included bedside interventions, patient-engagement projects at the organizational level, and citizen advisory panels at the system level. The organizational model was the most common. The goals of interventions ranged from enhancing the patient's experience of care to identifying ways to cut costs. In most organizational-level projects, there was a marked tendency to engage patients as members of quality improvement committees. Respecting patient dignity and autonomy in one-on-one clinical interactions was minimally addressed in the models.

Health systems are not only technical, biomedical organizations but also socio-political institutions with goals of financial protection, the fair distribution of services and resources, and the meaningful inclusion of the citizens in the system, and thus patients need to be respected as individuals and as collectives within the healthcare system.