Patient and Family-Centered Care encompasses a continuum of programs and services that includes a range of support services, as well as survivor and palliative care.
Elements of patient-centeredness include:
- Attention to physical and emotional comfort
- Communication
- Coordination and continuity of care
- Shared-decision-making and care planning
- Transitions of care
A range of patient- and family-centered services are available to people from the moment of diagnosis through all phases of treatment, and beyond treatment into cancer-free survival. When cancer progresses and is resistant to cure, our patient and family-centered services extend to palliative care through the last chapter of people's lives and encompasses bereavement support for families.
