Planetree

From the vision of one patient to a global reach extending across six continents and touching the lives of millions…Planetree is a passionate not-for-profit global healthcare leader setting the global standard for person-centered excellence across the continuum of care. Unlike formulaic approaches, we honor the unique qualities of your organization and partner to strengthen meaningful connections between staff, patients, families, and the communities you serve. Planetree delivers the leading evidence-based framework for co-designing our roadmap to improved patient and family engagement, better clinical outcomes, increased staff retention and recruitment, and high value care

Central Peninsula Hospital became Alaska’s first Planetree affiliate in 2003. 

Planetree Timeline:  (click for PDF)

Person-centered care: as defined by The National Academy of Medicine.

“Care planned, delivered, managed, and continuously improved in active partnership with patients and their families (or care partners as defined by the patient) to ensure integration of their health and healthcare goals, preferences, and values. It includes explicit and partnered determination of goals and care options, and it requires ongoing assessment of the care match with patient goals.”

This definition is explicit in emphasizing the partnership between patients, families, and their clinical team. By highlighting “partnered determination of goals and care options,” this definition advances understanding of person-centered care as going beyond working for patients and families to working with them – not only in designing their care at the personal level and in continuous improvement at the organizational level, but also in defining the outcomes that matter most to them.

Why Person-Centered? This terminology moving from “patient-centered” to “person-centered” is in line with an approach to healthcare that treats individuals as more than a sum of their body parts and medical conditions. When it comes to how individuals view themselves and how they want to be viewed by others, rarely is “patient” the primary definer of their identity. They are multi-dimensional human beings, whose care should be provided in a holistic way to address their full range of their needs, preferences, and experiences. In other words, it is an approach that focuses on the person first. Furthermore, to truly promote health, wellness, and holistic care, we must look beyond an individual’s health history and their list of complaints and symptoms to consider their experiences outside of the healthcare delivery system. Better understanding the social determinants of an individual’s health is an integral component of person-centered care. Finally, adoption of this terminology better captures the inclusiveness of person-centered care. A person-centered culture is not built solely around the patient experience and the needs and preferences of patients, but also must address the experiences and needs of family members, as well as of healthcare professionals.

Planetree Steering Team Members: We invite you to contact any of the chairs of the teams if you would like more information or would like to serve on a team or share an idea. (Click Here)

Learn more at planetree.org  or contact Bonnie Nichols at 714-4500 or Frank Alioto at 714-4610.