Greetings,

We invite you to explore the new opportunities and resources featured in May's Pinwheel Pages. 

Mark your calendars for our upcoming Informal Conversation titled “Better Together: Supporting Family Presence and Participation to Improve Safety and Quality,” scheduled for June 18, 2025, at 12:00 PM ET. 

This engaging discussion is an opportunity to connect with fellow professionals who share your passion for improving safety and quality in healthcare through family involvement. 

Kind regards,

The IPFCC Team

Upcoming PFCC.Connect Informal Conversation

June 18, 12 – 1 pm ET

Join IPFCC for our next Informal Conversation, Better Together: Supporting Family Presence and Participation to Improve Safety and Quality. We know that family presence has a positive impact on care quality, experience, and safety. Two expert presenters will be joining us, Lisa Raffoul, Implementation Lead for Essential Care Partner Support Hub based at Ontario Caregiver Organization and Shanne Keeny, Director, Patient & Family Experience at Johns Hopkins Hospital. They will share their policies, strategies, best practices, and resources for supporting essential care partners to be present and participate in care and decision-making to ensure safety and quality.

Thank you to our PFCC.Connect sponsors!

Patient Safety Toolkit 

Partnering with Patients and Families to Enhance Safety and Quality: A Toolkit is now available at IPFCC's Resource Center. This toolkit was developed by IPFCC to describe the history of patient safety, and the evolution of patient and family partnerships in quality improvement and safety. In addition, this resource will provide information about the CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure and on current and emerging best practices, as well as practical tools for creating and sustaining these essential partnerships. Available for purchase here.

Resources and Opportunities

Join the Coalition for Care Partners

The Coalition for Care Partners is a partnership among patients, care partners, clinicians, care delivery systems, health information technology vendors, and researchers. Their mission is to help develop and spread health information technologies that support care partners and alleviate stress as they work to deliver care. They offer many helpful resources and tools.

Join the Coalition.

University Health Orientation and PFCC Training for PFAs and Staff

At University Health in San Antonio, Texas, an innovative approach has been developed to introduce the principles of Patient- and Family-Centered Care (PFCC) and to strengthen essential partnerships between patients, families, and healthcare providers. A 90-minute PFCC training is a required component of orientation for all Patient and Family Advisors (PFAs) and is also integrated into the onboarding process for team members in select clinical departments.

The primary goal of this training is to ensure that PFAs and staff members not only understand the core concepts of PFCC but are also equipped to apply them in everyday practice. Learn more here.

Engaging People with Lived Experience in

Behavioral Health Improvement

Engaging people with lived experience of behavioral health requires a thoughtful and sensitive approach. This resource, developed by the Center for Health Care Strategies in partnership with consultants with lived experience, provides state policymakers with practical steps to meaningfully engage people with lived experience with behavioral health needs to advance behavioral health reforms. Access the resource here.

2025 PCORI Annual Meeting — Apply for a Scholarship Today!

PCORI is pleased to offer scholarships for patients and caregivers for their 2025 Annual Meeting being held on October 21 and 22 in Washington, DC. Scholarship recipients will be able to attend all sessions, including optional programming on Monday, October 20. Financial support will cover the recipient's travel (within the United States only, inclusive of territories); hotel; and a per diem allowance for both the recipient and a caregiver/support person (if medically required or if the recipient is under 18 years old). These scholarships are a need-based opportunity for those with lived experience who would not otherwise be able to travel and participate in person at the PCORI Annual Meeting. The due date for this application is June 4th. Apply now.

2025 IPFCC PINWHEEL SPONSORSHIP – Renew, Upgrade, or Join Now! 

Your support as a Pinwheel Sponsor assists IPFCC in continuing our work to transform health care by developing and sustaining meaningful partnerships with patients and families in all settings. Pinwheel Sponsor organizations gain national and international visibility for your commitment to patient- and family-centered care. 

Sponsors may join Bev Johnson for our next Pinwheel Leadership Forum on July 17th and collaborate with other Pinwheel leaders, discuss specific PFCC issues on a one-hour connection call with our staff, and also receive discounts on IPFCC events and resources. 

We invite you to renew, upgrade, or join today by completing the online Pinwheel Sponsor Application. If you need more information, please contact Sherry Hajec at shajec@ipfcc.org.

Thank You to Our 2025 Pinwheel Sponsor Renewals!

PFCC.Connect

University Health

Health System

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Hospital/Organization

Akron Children’s Hospital

American College of Radiology

Children’s Specialized Hospital

IWK Health Centre

Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center

Moffitt Cancer Center 

Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre

University of Miami Health System

University of New Mexico Children's Hospital

Wellstar MCG