A recent trip to the American College of Health Care Administrators conference where person-centered care was conspicuously absent from the agenda and a recent study that revealed that hospital boards may not be paying as much attention to quality as they should have me worried. Because inherent in both is the assumption that quality of care and quality of life are good.

Sort of like Robert DeNiro's latest movie Everybody's Fine. His character Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.