Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, a member of Johns Hopkins Medicine and an IPFCC Pinwheel Sponsor, recently presented its first annual PFAC Leadership Award. Suburban’s Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) established this award to recognize the ongoing patient- and family-centered care (PFCC) practices and initiatives of selected staff.

The PFAC selected Cora Abundo, RN, Manager, Progressive Cardiac Care (PCU) Unit, Kimberley Kelly, RN, Director, Critical Care and Dr. Amirali Nader, MD, Medical Director, Progressive Cardiac Care Unit, for their work on three key initiatives:

Bedside Shift Report Pilot. Cora Abundo and Kim Kelly were key champions in planning and implementing the Bedside Shift Report pilot for the Progressive Cardiac Unit, working in partnership with two patient and family advisors from the PFAC. This pilot was so successful that it now serves as a model to other units in the hospital.

PCU Multidisciplinary Rounds. Dr. Amir Nader, along with Kim and Cora, instituted and conduct multidisciplinary rounds on the PCU. Rounds include the hospitalist, nurse practitioner, pharmacist, nurses, and others on the care team, including the patient and family, who together review the patient’s care at the bedside each morning.

Patient/Family Advisor Participation in the PCU Collaborative. These three leaders further embraced and demonstrated their commitment to PFCC by inviting two patient and family advisors from the PFAC to participate regularly as active members in the PCU Collaborative, which brings together PCU managers and representatives from many departments, including hospitalists, intensivists, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Infection Control, and others, to discuss care issues and initiatives to improve care for PCU patients.

At the annual medical staff dinner, Toby Levin, co-chair of the PFAC, along with Jacqueline Schultz, Chief Operating Officer, presented the award, which included a plaque to be displayed in the cardiac unit, and individual personally inscribed clocks.

Suburban’s PFAC established criteria, and the nomination and selection process for making this award. Criteria include:

• Demonstrating a strong commitment to promoting the four core principles of PFCC;
• Taking a leadership role in implementing one or more PFCC initiatives that promote PFCC;
• Demonstrating effective leadership by educating and motivating colleagues to implement PFCC principles; and
• Serving as a model for the delivery of PFCC.

Congratulations to Suburban Hospital, and their PFCC champions, Amir Nader, Cora Abundo, and Kim Kelly.

Health Care For All (HCFA), a Boston-based nonprofit health care advocacy group, released PFAC 2014 ~ A Review of 2013 Massachusetts Patient & Family Advisory Council Reports. This is the third annual summary report produced since Massachusetts became the first and only state in the country to mandate the development of Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) in all of its hospitals. The same state law also requires each Massachusetts hospital to publish an annual report summarizing the work of the hospital's council.

HCFA’s annual report presents the data from across the state in order to share PFAC accomplishments and challenges. The 2014 report examined annual reports provided to HCFA by 79 hospitals. This is an increase from the 59 reports reviewed the previous year. Common themes reported included member recruitment and retention, placing PFAC members on hospital committees, increasing interaction with staff, and improving information for patients and families.

This report includes information about specific efforts, such as recruitment practices, orientation processes, and quality improvement initiatives, so that PFACs can learn from one another. Each of the full reports is posted on the PFAC hospital report page of the HCFA website.

This summary report provides a wealth of information that will be helpful to PFACs as they set future goals and expectations and determine how best to reach those goals, for PFACs in Massachusetts, and beyond.

The 2014 Report can also be accessed from IPFCC's website.

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On a related note, on May 14, 2014 HCFA hosted Massachusetts’ second annual statewide Patient and Family Advisory Council Conference—a day-long meeting attended by PFAC representatives from more than 50 Massachusetts hospitals. Keynote speaker John Polanowicz, Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, and a former hospital CEO, said that members of PFACs will play a key role as health care services change. "It's important to have the patients' and families' voices to be able to provide quality care," he said. "Working together with families and patients makes a stressful situation less so…Collaboration is key to improving patient outcomes."

• Meaningful Patient and Family Partnerships: Evidence and Leadership to be Featured at International Conference

• Early Bird Registration Through June 4, 2014!  ~  Register Now for The 6th International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care 
  

• Come to Vancouver Early and Stay Late

• Suburban Hospital Presents New  Annual PFAC Leadership Award
  

• Health Care For All Releases Report, PFAC 2014 ~ A Review of 2013 Massachusetts Patient & Family Advisory Council Reports

• IPFCC Summer Webinar Schedule Now Available

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  Better Together: Partnering with Families
  

• Healthcare Risk Management Week is June 16-20, 2014

• Publication of the First Issue of Patient Experience Journal  

• Words That Matter ~ Time to Move Beyond Engagement
  

• IPFCC Salutes Nurses and Hospitals This Month!  

• Save the Date! ~ IPFCC's Fall Intensive Training Seminar in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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