Putting Patients First with Patient-Centered Care

I recently read an account written by a primary care doctor (PCP) describing a patient who had been passed from one specialist to another—each one focusing on ordering tests, prescribing medications, and ultimately sending her off with more questions than answers. 

No one paused to truly listen to the patient’s story. 

No one asked about the broader picture of their health, her life, her lived experiences, her concerns. 

The patient had become a pass-off—shuffled between providers but never fully seen.

A fragmented system: The cost of medical system hand-offs

Here’s a version of what the doctor described:

The patient sent a portal message: "The specialist I saw says my primary care doctor should prescribe a statin. The over-the-counter options are expensive—can you prescribe one for me?" 

I read this message and felt a flash of annoyance. The patient is middle-aged. Cardiovascular disease risk often increases with age—why was she sent to a specialist for prevention in the first place? Why is she now being sent back to us? Why does every specialist say "ask your PCP"? Why do these medical system hand-offs continue to happen? Does it occur to anyone that this is not supportive or sustainable?

My resident covering the message comes to me, perplexed. She’s smart and kind… We talk about the patient and calculate her risk score. It’s indeterminate, meaning that what’s needed is a real conversation about lifestyle not medication. Risk versus benefit. 

At the end of the day, it comes down to whose time is valued. We’ll have that evidence-based, patient-centered conversation—but I refuse to do it over the portal.

This story is not unique. In fact, it’s the norm.

Without patient-centered care, patients are reduced to transactions

For many patients—especially those dealing with contested conditions or needing chronic illness support—the healthcare feels like an endurance test rather than a path to healing. It’s a relay race where the baton—the patient—is constantly passed, yet no one holds on long enough to find the root causes of their suffering.

Real examples of the handoff cycle

• A woman with relentless digestive distress sees a gastroenterologist, who prescribes acid blockers—never asking about her diet history, gut microbiome, or underlying inflammation.

• A man with chronic fatigue is tested for thyroid dysfunction, but no one asks about sleep, stress, or explores nutrient deficiencies based on his daily food intake to inform lifestyle-based interventions.

• A child with unexplained skin rashes is cycled through dermatologists and allergists, but no one explores histamine intolerance or gut health.

Each specialist applies their protocol, their set of tools, their defined scope of practice—but few zoom out to see the full picture. Patients are left with symptom management at best—or gaslit into believing their symptoms are imaginary.

And in the end? The patient carries the baton of fragmented non-patient-centered care from provider to provider, struggling to understand their own treatment plan.

The danger of one-size-fits-all medicine in chronic illness support

The conventional healthcare model excels at acute care—broken bones, infections, emergencies. But when it comes to chronic, complex conditions, the plug-and-play approach falls apart.

How one-size-fits-all medicine fails patients

• A patient with high cholesterol gets a statin—but no discussion of nutrition, inflammation, or metabolic health.

• A woman in perimenopause is given birth control pills—but no explanation of estrogen metabolism or gut detoxification (ie. poop).

• A patient with anxiety is prescribed medication—but no one considers their gut-brain connection or micronutrient deficiencies.

And often, the doctor prescribing the medication never had the original conversation. A recommendation lands in their inbox, passed along from a specialist, a test, or an algorithm, and they are expected to act on it—no context, no discussion.

The patient assumes the prescription is the next step because it’s the clearest directive they’ve been given. The promise of resolution is alluring!

The conversation that could help them understand their options?
Never happens.

Lifestyle-based interventions are lost in the shuffle

I feel the weight of the provider’s exhaustion in the doctor’s account above—not just from the workload, but from how care gets fragmented, passed along, and stripped of real connection.

I keep coming back to the question: Whose time is valued most?

But I also think about the patient’s understanding. She is shuffled through a system without clear explanations, without truly knowing what she needs.

• She asks for a prescription because that’s what she was told to do.

• But what about the conversation she never knew to ask for?

How many people take prescription medications—not because they’re the best choice, but because of assumptions and medical system hand-offs?

And is the same “this-for-that” approach happening with the rise of supplement recommendations?

What are we changing—both in healthcare and in the body itself—when this is how we practice medicine and nutrition?

Reclaiming patient-centered care with Functional Nutrition

Functional Nutrition operates differently as a systems-based approach that focuses on patient-centered care. 

Functional Nutrition:

• Asks bigger questions

• Looks for patterns

• Listens to the whole person

Rather than reducing patients to symptoms, Functional Nutrition Counselors:

• Honor individual health timelines, acknowledging that history (medical, dietary, environmental, emotional) shapes current symptoms.

• Use the Functional Nutrition Matrix to map connections that others overlook.

• Work within key frameworks—understanding that genes, digestion, and inflammation are at the core of effective chronic illness support.

And we don’t pass the patient along. We sit with them. We witness them. We help them navigate the system, filling in the gaps conventional care leaves behind.

The problem isn’t just the medical system—it’s the mindset that allows patients to be treated as cases, not people. As Functional Nutrition practitioners, we have an opportunity—and a responsibility—to change that.

• We can be the ones who listen first, without the impulse to "fix."

• We can ask the questions that haven’t been asked.

• We can educate clients about their bodies, so they can better advocate for themselves.

But we must also challenge ourselves. Are we truly seeing the whole person—or just offering a different version of "this for that"?

Swapping pharmaceuticals for supplements is not the answer if we are still missing the bigger picture.

Functional Nutrition is not about quick fixes. It’s about understanding the full complexity of the individual. Because when we stop seeing patients as pass-offs and start seeing them as people, we create a new standard of patient-centered care—one where healing becomes possible.

Related articles:

• Functional Nutrition in Practice

• Therapeutic Partnership

• How to Make Empathy an Asset Instead of a Liability in Your Practice