People-Centeredness

People-centeredness means organizing the health system around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases. This involves engaging with people, families, and communities as equal partners in promoting and maintaining their health - including through communication, trust, and respect for preferences, as well as ongoing education and support so that they can participate in health care decisions.

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Timeliness

The ability of the health system to provide primary care services to patients when they need them, with acceptable and reasonable wait times and at days and times that are convenient to them.

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Safety

The practice of following procedures and guidelines in the delivery of PHC services in order to avoid harm to the people for whom care is intended.

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Efficiency

Efficiency refers to the ability of a health system to attain its desired objective(s) with the available resources, while minimizing waste and maximizing capacities to deliver care to those who need it.

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Effectiveness

Effectiveness measures whether health care and services are driven by evidence, adhere to established standards, and achieve their intended result.

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People-Centeredness

People-centeredness means organizing the health system around the comprehensive needs of people rather than individual diseases.

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First Contact Accessibility

The capacity of a primary care system to serve as the first point of contact, or a patient's entry point to the health system, for most of a person's health needs.

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Coordination

Coordination of care refers to the system's ability to oversee and manage patient care over time and across levels of care to ensure appropriate follow-up, minimize the risk of error, and prevent complications.

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Continuity

Continuity is the degree to which a patient experiences a series of discrete healthcare events as coherent and consistent with their medical needs and personal context.

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Comprehensiveness

The provision of holistic and appropriate care across promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative, chronic and palliative service needs.

Indicators
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People’s perceptions of health system and services
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Patient-reported experiences
Related Concepts

Delivering high-quality primary health care requires many elements of the health system working effectively together. This mapping explores how different concepts with the framework relate to one another.

Upstream elements are those that are required to develop or improve a particular concept. Absence or poor performance of an upstream element is expected to negatively impact the performance of the concept of focus.

Complementary elements are those where improvements or developments in this area will be mutually beneficial to the concept of focus but not required for improvement.

UPSTREAM CONCEPTS
COMPLEMENTARY CONCEPTS
UPSTREAM SUBDOMAINS
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Policy and Leadership
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Population Health Management
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Service Availability & Readiness
People-Centeredness
COMPLEMENTARY SUBDOMAINS
Adjustment to Population Health Needs
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Participatory priority setting mechanisms are one method of ensuring people-centeredness in PHC at the national level by ensuring input from communities is considered and integrated.
Information & Technology
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Well-functioning information systems empower and engage patients, improve communication among team members, and improve continuity and coordination of care.
Multi-Sectoral Approach
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Social accountability mechanisms ensure patient involvement in decision making and planning processes, and create channels for holding governments and providers accountable.
Physical Infrastructure
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Physical insfrastructure that is designed to be accessible for persons with physical limitations (ex. disability, pregnancy, elderly) can help to increase the person-centerdness of care that is delivered.
Continuity
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Relational continuity between patients and providers often supports the delivery of person-centered care as a facility and provider becomes more familiar with a patient's context and needs over time.
Management of Services
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Facility leadership commitment to person-centeredness supports the implementation of person-centered models of care. Quality interventions for engaging patients, families, and communities in their care supports person-centeredness.
Organization of Services
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It is important that the selection, organization, and provision of PHC services is people-centered and reflective of community needs.
Improvement Strategies

Each PHCPI Improvement Strategy is designed to help decision-makers begin to plan and enact reforms within their own context by providing additional resources and evidence on the topic, as well as practical recommendations for action.

The explainer graphic below presents a quick overview of the concept of People-Centeredness. View the full Improvement Strategy on Primary Care Functions to learn more.

People-centered Care explainer graphic
Potential Funding opportunities

Interested in understanding how this topic intersects with investment opportunities from major funding streams? The Global Frameworks Mapping provides a starting point to help identify and make connections between key PHC topics, relevant funding initiatives, and investment cases.

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Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Health Care After COVID-19
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UHC in Africa: A Framework for Action
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The UNICEF Health Systems Strengthening Approach
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Supplies Partnership 2021-2030
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Phase V (2021-2025)
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Maternal and Newborn Health Thematic Fund 2018-2022
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HIV and Universal Health Coverage - A guide for civil society
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HIV
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Health Sector Framework Document
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Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026
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Catalytic Investments
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2020-2022 Strategic Initiatives