Where Is the Patient? Finding the Person in Patient-Centered Health Care

Abstract

Below we present a case study to illustrate one of the more hazardous drawbacks we must work to avoid in our embrace of technology and process efficiency in the American health-care system. The case presented below comes from a series of focus groups conducted with African American men who had a stroke and their care partners. Mr. and Mrs. Green (pseudonyms) are 50ish year-old African Americans from Cleveland. Before suffering an ischemic stroke (about 6 months before the focus group), Mr. Green worked as a pastor in his church. In the verbatim transcript below, the couple relays to the group the narrative of Mr. Green’s acute care experience on discharge day of his post-stroke hospital stay.