What Is Known About the Benefits of Patient-Centered Care in Patients with Heart Failure.

Treatment for chronic heart failure (CHF) has improved, and symptom burden has been identified as an important treatment goal. Because patient-centered care may ease the burden, we need to know its benefits for patients with CHF, hence this systematic literature review. We found that one benefit of person-centered care is an increase in quality of life in patients with CHF. Improvements were found in self-care, physical and mental status, health care costs, general uncertainty regarding illness and recovery, patient dignity, treatment, and systems of care. Improvements also were observed in symptom burden, self-efficacy, and quality of life. These findings indicate that person-centered care is a powerful approach to current and future health care. However, because an appropriate tool to measure person-centered care does not yet exist, it will be a challenge to determine whether the goal has been reached from a long-term and patient perspective.