January/February 2009, Edition 20


BOSTON SEMINAR FILLING FAST

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Boston Park Plaza Hotel Extends Special Group Rate until February 6

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Patient and Family Advisory Councils Now Required by Massachusetts' Law ~ Learn More at our Boston Seminar
Meet our Newest Team Member: Dolores Coutts
Action Plan Update: St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Congratulations to Award Winning Pinwheel Sponsors!
The Practice Change Fellows Program 2009 Call For Applications
Institute for
Family-Centered Care
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Patient and Family Advisory Councils Now Required by Massachusetts' Law ~ Learn More at our Boston Seminar

The Institute is offering its Intensive Training Seminar, Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care, March 2-5, 2009, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a result of a recent change in Massachusetts’ law, each hospital in that state is required to establish a patient and family council, thereby involving patients and family members in improving the quality of care. In addition, each hospital must establish early recognition and rapid response methods to allow medical staff, patients, and family members to request immediate assistance when a patient is deteriorating. This new law, An Act to Promote Cost Containment, Transparency and Efficiency in the Delivery of Quality Health Care passed in August 2008, has sparked interest not only in Massachusetts, but also across the United States and Canada.

One of the Institute’s Seminar goals, relevant to this new law, is to identify strategies for developing and sustaining patient and family advisory councils and other collaborative endeavors. Among the wide array of topics being offered at our Boston seminar will be a multitude of training sessions on patient and family advisors and advisory councils.

Here is a sampling of some of the sessions to be offered:

° Patient and Family Advisory Councils – How to Get Started;

° How to Be an Effective Patient and Family Advisor;

° Patient and Family Advisory Councils: Overcoming Common Barriers and Sustaining Success;

° Partners and Allies – Collaborating with Patients and Families (video session);
   
° Collaborating with Patients and Families for Quality Improvement;

° Collaborating with Patients and Families for Quality, Safety, and Risk Management; and

° Partnering with Patient and Family Advisors to Improve Your Organization’s Forms, Information, and Patient and Family Education Materials.


The Seminar offers an opportunity for current patient and family leaders to attend a networking breakfast facilitated by our faculty members.

Also germane to the new Massachusetts’ law, the Seminar will include a session about rapid response teams: Partnering with Patients and Families in Creating the Process for Patient/Family Activation of Rapid Response Teams.

The Institute is pleased to announce a special panel discussion:The Role of the Chief Nursing Officer in Assuring a Comprehensive and Interdisciplinary Approach to Patient- and Family-Centered Care. The panelists are the Chief Nursing Officers from the five sponsor organizations for the Seminar: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Boston, and Massachusetts General Hospital, plus the CNO from Cambridge Health Alliance.

This is just a sampling of what will be offered at our Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care Intensive Training Seminar, to be held in Boston, March 2-5, 2009, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.  Check out the agenda for more details.

So, if you haven’t already, reserve your spot! There is still time to REGISTER, but spaces are going fast!

Meet our Newest Team Member: Dolores Coutts

The Institute team has a new member! Dolores Coutts is our Business Manager, and she brings to the Institute a wealth of experience. With over 20 years of experience in business, Dolores spent much of her career as an executive for a finance company. She successfully increased assets and secured revenue growth, implemented cost savings, and defined and implemented best business practices. Most recently, Dolores put her finance and management skills to work for a local non-profit organization, Arlingtonians Meeting Emergency Needs, working closely with the Executive Director, to provide financial assistance to individuals with housing, medical, and other emergency needs.

In joining the Institute for Family-Centered Care, Dolores found that our mission—to promote the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care—resonated with her. We are delighted to welcome Dolores to our team.

Dolores is responsible for the oversight of the Institute’s financial and business operations. She works closely with senior staff, and reports to our President and CEO. Dolores’ responsibilities include financial management and analysis, management and review of contracts, human resources, and strategic planning.  

Serving as precinct captain, Dolores used her management skills as a volunteer for the Obama campaign, and had the pleasure of attending one of the inaugural balls in celebration.

Dolores is originally from Philadelphia, and is one of five children. She, her husband and two sons live in Virginia. In her free time, Dolores enjoys reading, gardening, and volunteering at local theaters.  

Action Plan Update: St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Family-Centered Care (FCC) committee at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan, is comprised of family members and staff. In the last five years, the committee wrote the neonatal intensive care unit’s first Family-Centered Care Mission Statement, established the unit’s vision and philosophy, provided the first set of workshops to educate all staff on the principles of Family-Centered Care—what it looks like and what it does not look like, established 24/7 "Spending Time With Your Baby" (visitation) guidelines, and wrote a Family-Centered Care survey that is handed out to every family member at discharge to evaluate real time practices.

The committee developed a Family-Centered Care Strategic Plan with over 80% of the goals accomplished, established the first Family Advisory Board and the first Parent-to-Parent Program at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and partnered with the Family Advisory Board fundraising efforts. In November, through a combined effort of the Family Advisory Board, the NICU staff, and the Family-Centered Care Committee, the 4th annual Fashion Show for the NICU raised over $18,000.  



Several of the Family Advisory Board members sit on NICU hospital committees. Their contributions have created a new way of thinking about the relationships between families and health care providers. Having a family waiting to see their baby outside the nursery, while nurses reported off at shift change, is now a thing of the past. Now families are welcome to be with their babies at any time of the day or night.

The Family-Centered Care committee meets monthly and is finalizing written guidelines for “Criteria for Parent Presence at NICU Medical Interventions/Resuscitation.” Recently, the Chairperson for FCC and a past Chairperson of the Family Advisory Board presented at the 2008 National Trinity Conference in Chicago. The topic was “Developing a Remarkable Patient and Family Experience: Relationship and Family-Centered Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.”  


President Obama's Website


Congratulations to our 44th President!

President Obama seeks input from citizens on health care reform. Partnerships with patients and families are essential to the redesign of health care. Share your stories with President Obama about how partnerships among patients, families, and health care professionals improve the experience of care and have a positive impact on the quality and safety of health care, as well as cost efficiency. See what is on the President’s health care reform agenda, and encourage him (via the Office of Public Liaison) to support the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care.

Congratulations to Award Winning Pinwheel Sponsors!

The Institute extends warm congratulations to its Pinwheel Sponsors for the following honors:

Congratulations to Poudre Valley Health System, the recipient of the prestigious 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in Healthcare! Poudre Valley Health System, a locally owned nonprofit in Fort Collins, Colorado, is nationally recognized as a role model for excellence in healthcare.

Many of our Pinwheel Sponsors ranked in the top thirty of the Parents Magazine 2009 Survey of Children's Hospitals. Their names and website links are included at the bottom of this e-newsletter. A special congratulations goes to the Number 1 ranked hospital, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which is a sponsor of the Institute’s 4th International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care to be held in Philadelphia in August 2009. Kudos also go to the Number 2 ranked Children's Hospital Boston which is sponsoring, along with other Pinwheel Sponsors, the Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care Intensive Training Seminar to be held in Boston, March 2-5, 2009. 

For additional information on rankings of Children’s Hospitals, see the U.S. News & World Report Annual Survey of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals released in June 2008, which also includes many of our Pinwheel Sponsors.

The Practice Change Fellows Program 2009 Call For Applications

The Practice Change Fellows Program: Enhancing Leadership in Geriatric Care
2009 Call For Applications

This program is a two-year opportunity for nurses, physicians, and social workers to develop leadership skills and expertise to positively influence care for older adults. Up to ten Practice Change Fellows will be selected to complete a project aimed at implementing a new geriatric program or service line integrated within their organization, allowing them to remain at their full time job throughout the program.

Eligible applicants must hold a leadership role in a health organization or institution, have programmatic responsibility, decision-making authority, and be able to effect change.     

Fellows receive $90,000 over the two-year program and work with accomplished national mentors to design, implement, and evaluate a new project. Participants will attend tri-annual meetings where they will receive input on their projects from national program Mentors and Advisory Board Members, join in case-based discussions on how to effectuate change, and attend interactive presentations led by national experts.  

The Practice Change Fellows program is funded by the Atlantic Philanthropies and the John A. Hartford Foundation. Information and applications are available from the Division of Health Care Policy and Research at the University of Colorado Denver, which administers the program in partnership with the National Council on Aging.

The application deadline is April 1, 2009.

Interactive Websites Promote Patient- and Family-Centered Care

These websites invite participation and provide an opportunity to advance the practice of patient- and family-centered care. See what others are doing and let your voice be heard! Share your stories about patient- and family-centered care.

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) provides resources to educate nurses to foster the competencies necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the health care systems. The project focuses on the development and sharing of quality and safety curriculum for entry and graduate level nursing training programs. Patient-centered care, teamwork, and collaboration are among the six quality and safety competencies. Professionals are invited  to use, critique, and submit strategies to the QSEN website.

The Health Care Innovations Exchange is a program of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) designed to encourage health care professionals to share and adopt innovations that improve the delivery of care to patients. Included on this site are innovative strategies and quality-related tools, ways to innovate and adopt new ideas, and the opportunity to network and share your innovations.

Pinwheel Sponsors Ranked within the Top 30 of the

Parents Magazine 2009 Survey of Children's Hospitals:

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Children's Hospital Boston
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
St. Louis Children's Hospital
Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
Texas Children's Hospital, Houston
Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Cleveland
The Children's Hospital, Denver
Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center (now Seattle Children's)
Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis
Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit
Miami Children's Hospital
Hasbro Children's Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island

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