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BACKGROUND: Although person-centred care (PCC) is growing globally in popularity it is often vague and lacks conceptual clarity and definition. The ambiguity stretches from PCC's underlying philosophical principles and definitions of the concept to how it is operationalised and practised on the ground by health care professionals. We explore how the PCC model by the Gothenburg University Centre for Person-centred Care (GPCC) was operationalised in a real-world setting by using a set of recommendations by Fixsen and others that define and structure the core components of innovations in four distinct but interrelated components: philosophical principles and values, contextual factors, structural elements and core practices. Thus, this study aimed to increase knowledge about core practices in PCC in six health care units in real-world circumstances.

METHODS: A case study with six embedded health care units was conducted from 2016 to 2019. We collected data from three sources: interviews (n = 12) with change agents, activity logs and written documents. Data were triangulated, and core practices were identified and deductively coded to the PCC model's structural elements: initiating, working and safeguarding the partnership with patients.

RESULTS: We identified operationalisations of PCC in line with the three structural elements in the GPCC model at all included health care units. A range of both similarities and dissimilarities between units were identified, including the level of detail in describing PCC practices, when these practices were conducted and by whom at the workplace. The recommendations for describing the core components of PCC also helped us identify how some operationalisations of PCC seemed more driven by contextual factors, including a new regulation for planning and documenting care across health care specialities.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show how PCC is operationalised in different health care units in a real-world setting based on change agents' understanding of the concept and their unique context. Increased knowledge of PCC and its philosophical principles and values, contextual factors, structural elements and core practices, is necessary to build a common understanding of the PCC-concept. Such knowledge is essential when PCC is operationalised as part of implementation efforts in health care.