Partnering With Patients and Families To Improve Hospital Care | AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange

Partnering With Patients and Families To Improve Hospital Care | AHRQ Health Care Innovations Exchange

Partnering With Patients and Families To Improve Hospital CareWednesday, July 15, 2015

Partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families are essential to advancing the practice of patient- and family-centered care (PFCC). Hospitals are implementing innovative policies that embody the core PFCC concepts of participation and collaboration and promote meaningful, sustained partnerships.

This issue’s featured policy Innovationsdescribe a medical center that replaced its traditional visitation policy with a “Partners in Care Welcome Policy” to encourage round-the-clock presence and participation of patients’ families and friends; and a children’s hospital that hired parents as family-centered care coordinators to ensure the voices of patients and families are heard throughout the organization.

The featured QualityTools include a guide that provides hospitals with a clearly delineated path to successful collaboration among providers, patients, and families; and an evidence-based AHRQ resource to help hospitals work as partners with patients and families to improve quality and safety.

Featured Innovations:

• Welcome Policy Eliminates Visiting Restrictions and Allows Loved Ones To Be With Patients Round-the-Clock, Generating Positive Feedback From All Stakeholders
• Children’s Hospital Hires Parents To Promote Patient- and Family-Centered Care, Leading to Eightfold Increase in Patient and Family Advisors and Higher Satisfaction

Featured QualityTools:

• Patients as Partners Training Guide
• Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety