May 31 - June 1
Bruce Chernof, MD, a former chair of a Congressional Commission on Long-Term Care and an adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, can explain in a couple of sentences the clear and important distinction between patient-centered health care and person-centered health care.
"Even people who are seriously chronically ill spend most of their time living in the community," he said. "They are with their families, going to church, doing whatever, living their lives, and they are patients only when they're plopped in the doctor's office or sitting in a hospital bed in one of those lovely gowns that open in the back."
That clear distinction, of course, only serves to heighten the challenge of making modern health care delivery methods responsive and effective for everyone. Chernof said solving that challenge grows more important by the day.
"Almost half of all people over age 55 will actually need some fairly significant amount of help," he noted. "Delivering it in the current broken system we have only guarantees that we are going to spend more money inefficiently.
"The health care delivery system today is purpose-built to meet the needs of those who pay for care and those who provide care. But those who use care are not really actively part of the discussion. Person-centered care really gets at transforming the system for those who use it a lot."
The Institute for Person-Centered Care at St. Ambrose will host a two-day conference May 31-June 1 that will address ways to advance this new way of delivering health care.
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Chernof, president and chief executive officer of the SCAN Foundation, is one of four leading experts on the topic of person-centered care who will provide a keynote address. Other speakers are:
• Jon Broyles, Executive Director, Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC)
• BJ Miller, MD, Physician, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Denese Neu, MD, Engagement Officer, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)
Family caregivers as well as health care workers from many sectors - such as social work, hospice, nursing, occupational therapy, and palliative care - will gain valuable information about practices, new directions, and approaches to designing, promoting, and implementing person-centered care.
"Changing health care delivery with a person-centered focus will require a long-term shift in our practice and, indeed, in our thinking," said IPCC founder Thomas Higgins. "This conference, and others to follow, is an important means of achieving that goal. We are bringing thought leaders and practitioners together to learn about and disseminate best practices that will truly empower people to make treatment choices that best meet their needs for compassionate and effective care."
Continuing Education and Continuing Medical Education credits are available to physicians, physician assistants, as well as practitioners in social work, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and other fields to help meet licensing criteria.
"SAU is uniquely qualified to provide that leadership by virtue of our skills, experience and resources," Higgins continued. "Doing so is also central to our mission as a university that is historically committed to improving the life of our community, particularly those who are most vulnerable among us."
Registration is open and walk-ins will be welcome May 31 and June 1.
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