The Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care is proud to announce speakers for The 5th International Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care, to be held in Washington, DC, June 4-6, 2012.

Among those presenting:

Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, brings to the podium his experience as a pediatrician, professor at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, co-founder and former President and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and recent administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Included among Dr. Berwick's many awards are the 2007 Purpose Prize for "enlisting wide-scale collaboration across the health care industry to save lives" and the 2011 Picker Award for Excellence for a "lifetime of unwavering commitment to improving the quality of healthcare for all people worldwide."

Steven Johnson is an award-winning author on innovation and the intersection of science, technology, and personal experience. Mr. Johnson was recognized as one of the Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future, and his writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Time Magazine, Wired, and other periodicals. Mr. Johnson's recent books include Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation and The Ghost Map.

Tiffany Christensen, CEO of Sick Girl Speaks, Inc., is a nationally recognized author, patient advocate and leader, and TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer. Ms. Christensen—the author of Sick Girl Speaks! Lessons and Ponderings Along the Road to Acceptance—has spent over 30 years in and out of hospitals, and is the recipient of two double lung transplants. She travels throughout the United States, speaking about her experience. 

The Conference will feature a variety of other speakers as well. Read More...

Register Now for this important meeting. In addition to the keynote speakers, the Conference will include nearly 100 cutting-edge sessions presented by leaders in patient- and family-centered care from the United States, Canada, and other countries. Learn more about the Conference...

The Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care is grateful to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for its support to upgrade, enhance, and refine the PFAC Network—Patient and Family Advisors and Leaders of Advisory Councils Network listserv.

The new and enhanced listserv began formal operation on March 1, 2012. Discussions cover all topics related to promoting patient- and family-centered care in a hospital or medical center, ambulatory care clinic or office, long-term care facility, and home care.

This site is a meeting place that provides members of the PFAC Network with a shared calendar, discussion forums, member profiles, photo gallery, file storage, and more. The shared calendar will be used to broadcast events of interest to all members of the forum; the file cabinet allows users to upload policies, procedures, brochures, and other materials to distribute to interested forum members. A Help Page contains step-by-step instructions, videos, and screencasts to help use this website, as well as a Help Forum to ask questions about website features. You are encouraged to upload your photo, complete your profile, and participate!

The Institute's Information Specialist, Joanna Kaufman, and IT consultant, Jeff Johnson, worked extensively over the past months to create this new forum which includes a searchable database and archive, and ten distinct forum discussion categories. Thanks to the advisory team who provided Joanna and Jeff invaluable input throughout the process: Nick Masi, Karen Bergan, Michelle Collis, Deejo Miller, Marlene Fondrick, Sheryl Chadwick, Monica Flynn Urness, Julie Moretz, Lona Bryant, Michelle Barone, and Melissa Winger.

Congratulations to Baptist Health South Florida ~ Winner of Pinwheel Sponsor Scholarship 

Congratulations to Baptist Health South Florida—selected in a random drawing of participating Pinwheel Sponsors—as the winner of the Institute's Pinwheel Sponsor scholarship! With this complimentary registration, Baptist Health can now add an extra member to their team attending the Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care Seminar to be held in Atlanta, GA.

Check out the Agenda for the seminar and learn more about other benefits offered to Pinwheel Sponsors.

Continuing Education Units (CEU) for the Atlanta Seminar 

The Atlanta Hospitals and Communities Moving Forward with Patient- and Family-Centered Care Intensive Training Seminar has been awarded 22.5 contact hours for nurses and social workers, and 25.5 Prescribed (not Category 1) credits for physicians. To receive a CEU certificate, participants must attend the entire program, sign-in daily, and complete the online seminar evaluation by April 16, 2012. More detailed information can be found on the Institute's website. General attendance certificates will be available upon request.

Hotel Accommodations for Atlanta Seminar

The Emory Conference Center Hotel is now sold out, but rooms are available at the Emory Conference Center Inn. Contact information for the Inn is available at Seminar Registration. Seminar registration is still open, but spaces are going fast.

Register Now

E-Newsletter Archives ~ Content Now Searchable on Institute Website

The Institute's archived e-newsletters, Pinwheel Pages, are now searchable! When you search for a topic on the Institute's website using the search feature, which can be found at the top right and bottom right of any page on the website, relevant articles from the past Pinwheel Pages e-newsletters will be included in the search results. Another feature was added to the archive page for Pinwheel Pages: a listing of the contents of each issue. Just click on the link to the issue to see the contents in a pop-up box which includes a link to take you to the entire issue. These changes are as a result of feedback from our readers, so please keep those great comments coming by contacting us!

January 2012 marked the opening of Perham Health's new hospital and clinic, a 120,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility. Over 2000 people attended their open house celebration.

The main four goals of the building design included supporting:

• Patient- and family-centered care;
• Future growth;
• Caregivers and providing for efficiency; and
• Sustainability, commonly known as "building green."

Perham Health included patients and family members on its design teams. Input from patient and family members included adding: family rooms, private consultation rooms, a family resource center, a family kitchen, a meditation chapel, and outdoor garden areas close to the patient unit. Read More...

In 2011, the U.S. government funded hospital systems to serve as Hospital Engagement Networks to improve patient safety. The Networks will identify solutions to reduce health care acquired conditions, coach other hospitals to implement new strategies to reduce health care acquired infections and learn from each other. Working at the regional, state, national, or hospital system level, these Networks will develop learning collaboratives, conduct intensive training programs, establish and implement tracking systems to monitor hospital progress, and evaluate the capacity of large improvement networks to bring about rapid improvements in patient care.

The Hospital Engagement Networks program is part of the Partnership for Patients, a nationwide public-private collaboration sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Learn more...

National Patient Safety Foundation's Ask Me 3^TM Fosters Patient Engagement

The National Patient Safety Foundation's Ask Me 3^TM patient education program is designed to promote communication between health care providers and patients to improve health outcomes. The program encourages patient engagement by encouraging patients to ask, and understand the answers to, three questions. Watch a training video...   

New Website Seeks Input From Nurses

Check out Caring4Nurses, which is an emerging website looking for input from nurses and women's advocates interested in sharing their thoughts and opinions in the Community of Nurses section. The website is a work in progress and is in need of more content. If you have some feedback, or want to contribute your ideas, please contact Dennis Conlin, President of Caring4Nurses, Inc., at info@caring4Nurses.net.