Patient-centered care coordination: a qualitative study of the lived experience of residents in Philadelphia recovery homes

Abstract

Background Individuals struggling with a substance use disorder often have a variety of co-occurring service needs that go unmet due to the difficulty in coordinating these services. As the substance use treatment system moves toward treating addiction as a chronic disease, it will be necessary to develop models for the coordination of general medical and addiction treatment services, coupled with a number of social services. Patient-centered care models are one way of improving care coordination by incorporating the goals as expressed by the patient into the treatment plan, which is then coordinated by all members of the treatment team to surround the patient with all necessary resources [1]. Recovery residences, such as recovery homes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, could represent a potentially important mechanism for such coordination that is patient centered by providing a stable, supportive, living environment that promotes access to a variety of community-based resources.