Question

Discuss the difference between physician-centric care and patient-centric care and why you think it is important.

Answer 1

Ans) Physician-centric care: The process of delivering reactive patient care where a physician is solely responsible for the patient’s care and flow of information.

- A patient-centric approach is a way healthcare systems can establish a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families to align decisions with patients' wants, needs, and preferences.

- In a patient-centered care model, it is important for patients to always be in complete control when it comes to making decisions about their own care and treatment. Clinicians are there to inform, advise and support, but it is ultimately up to the patient to determine what course of action they will take.

- This is the perfect example of the difference between a physician centered and a patient-centered approach to promotional images. As acupuncturists, pictures of needles inserted in a person’s back, smoking moxa, and red marks left behind from cupping are appealing to us. We are passionate about acupuncture and are not turned off by the thought of being “needled” at all. But the vast majority of people have a fear of needles. To them, those images aren’t relaxing at all. They can be anxiety producing and repulsive. Dentistry is a great example. Have you ever seen a dentist’s advertisement contain pictures of a large needle puncturing the gum for freezing or a drill digging into a tooth to remove a cavity? Obviously not. Instead, dentists use pleasant photos of adults and children looking happy, displaying perfectly straight white teeth and a beautiful smile. To borrow from the travel industry: sell Paris, not the airplane.

Remember, patients aren’t coming to you for acupuncture; they’re coming to you for a solution to their problems. If your website is full of acupuncture pictures, then you are not fully putting yourself in your prospective patients’ shoes, and this may be costing you new patients.