The following section details more than 150 practices in place at patient-centered hospitals across the country. These practices were identified during a series of site visits and conference calls undertaken in early 2008 with hospitals whose leadership and staff generously shared their time, their insights and their implementation strategies in order to assist other like-minded hospitals in creating their own patient-centered cultures.
The practices are organized around those aspects of the patient experience prioritized by patients themselves, as indicated by focus group data collected and analyzed by Planetree. The programs, policies and practices spotlighted in the pages that follow have been selected because they have effectively responded to expressed patient needs and preferences. To reinforce how these practices are satisfying what patients are looking for in their health care experiences, each section begins with direct quotes from patients detailing their previous experiences with hospital care and envisioning what could be done to improve upon the care they receive. Their perspective is complemented by the points of view of both leaders and staff from patientcentered hospitals. Their invaluable insights shed light on how they have managed to overcome many widely perceived barriers to providing care the way patients prefer, and the differences they have observed in the overall environment of care.