Patient-centered care in Russian maternity hospitals: Introducing a new approach through professionals' agency.

The article relies on qualitative research methods to investigate how by the means of institutional work healthcare professionals introduce patient-centered care in Russian maternity hospitals. Post-socialist healthcare is commonly viewed in academic literature as a highly centralized and state-controlled domain, where autonomy and agency of both patients and practitioners are significantly restricted. Our research contributes empirically to scholarly debate by questioning this assumption and by providing shreds of evidence of healthcare professionals' ground-level initiatives.