Unpacking The Three Levels of Person-Centered Care

Imagine a healthcare system where every individual’s story—from medical history to social support—is fully integrated, creating a panoramic view that empowers providers to deliver exceptional care. This is the vision at the heart of whole-person care, a transformative healthcare approach made possible through innovative data strategies with a comprehensive care approach.

Whole-person care ensures that consumers can access a full spectrum of care by combining critical information across different care settings, like behavioral health, social services and justice systems. But, as appealing as it sounds, achieving this goal is no small feat. Let’s explore the three levels of person-centered care and how they bring us closer to the vision of integrated care.

3 Levels of Person-Centered Care

1. Restricted-Person Care: For years, restricted care models have dominated healthcare, limiting providers’ access to sensitive data due to legal and technical barriers. In this model, patient records are incomplete—a significant roadblock to whole-person care. For example, substance use treatment data often remains invisible, creating gaps that hinder effective treatment and care coordination. 

The impact? Providers are left to make decisions without a full understanding of the patient’s needs, resulting in fragmented care. 

2. Partial-Person Care: Taking a step beyond restricted person care, partial care models offer more inclusivity. Here, sensitive information can be flagged and excluded, allowing some visibility into patient records while adhering to patient confidentiality. While it’s a stark improvement, these systems still obscure critical details, such as substance use treatment. These gaps in the record leave providers unaware of key health factors.

The result? Decisions are still based on incomplete data, which could compromise outcomes but better than restricted-person care. 

3. Whole-Person Care: The gold standard, whole-person care is a fully integrated approach. It aggregates all relevant data—medical, social, behavioral and more—together in one view. This approach provides a 360-degree view of the individual, enabling informed, compassionate and effective care. For example, incorporating data about housing stability or criminal justice involvement can inform tailored interventions that address root causes of health challenges, potential relapses in addiction or a lack of social support.

Why it matters? Whole-person care empowers providers to see the entire picture, improving outcomes and fostering trust. 

Whole-person care is the goal of the healthcare journey, accounting for all of an individual’s health factors. By transitioning from restricted to partial and then to fully integrated care, healthcare organizations can deliver individuals better outcomes and build trust with the communities they serve. 

As organizations proceed down this path and unpack what it means to participate in delivering on the promise of whole-person care, it is important not merely to focus on what you need to accomplish today but rather to plan for the needs of tomorrow as well. Healthcare is a constantly changing environment, and decisions made today can enable progress but could also potentially limit your options in the future. The rules governing a consumer’s information are complex and despite ongoing change, those complexities will persist. It goes without saying that sharing that data needs to be simple and straightforward now and in the future. That’s why the vendor relationships you make today are so important. Choosing the right technology partner today can make all the difference for tomorrow.