Strategies for effective patient care: Integrating quality communication with the patient-centered approach

Advancements in medicine and health technology have transformed the roles and dynamics of patient-provider interactions and communication in healthcare. To date, the health communication literature contains two distinct approaches to modern healthcare delivery, with earlier empirical works emphasizing features of effective communication and more recent studies endorsing patient-centered care. Despite substantial overlap in both aims and methods, no work to date has considered these two approaches in tandem as complementary strategies for improving healthcare delivery. Thus, this study offers a novel framework, the person-centered communication model of care, in an effort to integrate these two approaches to offer a unified and concise structure for future studies and development of innovative interventions to improve healthcare quality.