Health equity work is most effective when it is aligned and supported across the organization. However, in many hospitals, PFACs and PFAs are disconnected from organizational-level health equity work and initiatives. Creating intentional connections between the PFAC program and health equity initiatives helps build pathways for PFAs to partner in efforts to improve hospital care and services.

Opportunities to create and strengthen connections between the PFAC program and hospital health equity initiatives include the following:

• Connect with organizational health equity leaders
  • Reach out to leaders at the organizational or system level who have roles related to health equity. This may include leaders in Offices of Health Equity, Outreach and Belonging, Population Health, Community Engagement, and Community Health. Schedule a meeting to learn more about strategic priorities, share information about the PFAC program, and discuss opportunities for PFAs to contribute to health equity initiatives.
  • Invite individuals doing work within the hospital related to health equity to attend a PFAC meeting to learn more about the PFAC program. Consider inviting organizational and system-level leaders who have roles related to health equity; chairs of task forces or workgroups related to social determinants of health; division or department health equity leads; and leaders in charge of community outreach and relations. Prior to inviting additional hospital staff to attend a PFAC meeting, work with PFAC members to develop plans for their participation.
• Connect with programs working on health equity within the organization
  • Identify and initiate conversations with centers, programs, or departments within the hospital working on health equity (e.g., centers for health equity research, centers for social justice, community outreach programs, centers for Indigenous health, and programs that address social determinants of health).
  • As part of this outreach, discuss potential opportunities for PFAs to partner on specific projects.
• Include PFAs on workgroups focused on health equity
  • Identify health equity-focused workgroups, committees, or task forces within the organization that would benefit from PFA participation—e.g., workgroups focused on Race, Ethnicity, and Language (REaL) data or language access. Meet with representatives from these workgroups to discuss how patient and family perspectives are included and advocate for PFAs to serve as standing members.
  • To ensure consistent input from patients and families, some hospitals have developed policies stating that all hospital workgroups must include PFAs. Talk with leaders (e.g., the PFAC executive sponsor, C-suite leaders, Vice President of Quality and Safety) about opportunities to formalize requirements for PFA inclusion.
• Include a representative group of PFAs as members of standing hospital committees
  • Create opportunities for PFAs to serve as members of standing hospital committees (e.g., community health needs assessment, culture council, language access, patient education, and technology committees) to ensure input from the full range of patient populations served by the hospital.
  • Provide education about best practices for PFA involvement. This includes providing appropriate onboarding for PFAs, training committee leaders and members to support meaningful partnerships, identifying a mentor for new PFA members, and ensuring that committees include more than one PFA member to avoid tokenism and power imbalances.

Example: Creating Intentional Connections with Hospital Health Equity

One children's hospital asks representatives from the Office of Health Equity to attend a PFAC meeting in the first quarter of every year to share hospital-level health equity data, strategic goals, and priorities. The PFAC uses this information to identify areas of alignment between PFAC interests and hospital health equity goals. PFAs then brainstorm opportunities to support hospital strategic priorities. During the meeting, PFAC co-chairs share what the PFAC has been working on with representatives from the Office of Health Equity, highlighting learnings and promising practices that could be implemented at a broader hospital level. The connection between the PFAC and the Office of Health Equity has also facilitated the inclusion of PFAs in hospital-level health equity work. For example, after learning more about the PFAC, health equity staff advocated for including PFAs on a workgroup overseeing the transition to a new electronic medical record (EMR) platform. PFAs provided critical input to ensure the new system was accessible and understandable for all patients.