Greetings,

Our October issue of Pinwheel Pages is full of news! This month we are pleased to announce Cherie Craft joins IPFCC Board of Directors. Also, sign up for our free informal conversation, Do PFACs Make A Difference? Measuring Their Impact. This issue includes a number of great resources and updates.

Kind regards,

The IPFCC Team

Upcoming PFCC.Connect Informal Conversation

November 2, 2023 from 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET 

Join IPFCC for our next Informal Conversation, Do PFACs Make A Difference? Measuring Their Impact. Despite their importance as a mechanism to integrate the voices of patients and families into health care transformation and improvement, little is known about the actual impact of PFACs. This event will engage participants in a discussion about ways to evaluate PFACs and better document their significance to the field. 

Thank You to Our PFCC.Connect Pinwheel Sponsors

Join the IPFCC Team! New Position Available

IPFCC is hiring a Program Specialist to support multiple projects and initiatives. This is a new, part-time, fully remote position. IPFCC seeks an individual with 5-8 years of work experience and an understanding of and commitment to patient- and family-centered care. Learn more here.

Cherie Craft Joins IPFCC Board of Directors

IPFCC is honored to announce Cherie Craft, MEd, Founding Executive Director and CEO of Smart from the Start as Member-at-Large on the IPFCC Board. Cherie’s broad experience within health care, government, and community organizations also includes 25 years as IPFCC senior faculty. Cherie is considered an expert in the field of early childhood education, community organizing, family engagement and empowerment, cultural competence, diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as mental health and wellness. She has addressed audiences both nationally and internationally presenting upon a wide range of topics, specifically focused on addressing the social determinants of health and advancing the causes of equity and equality.

Partnering to Build Trust and Confidence in Pediatric Vaccines

Through a Cooperative Agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) is supporting stronger collaboration between teaching hospitals and local public health and community organizations. IPFCC served as consultants during the 2nd year of this work to enhance the focus on patient- and family-centered care. As part of the work, IPFCC developed a 4-part video series along with several new guidance resources for ambulatory clinics to increase understanding of ways to partner with families and youth from diverse communities to build trust in vaccines and other aspects of health care. 

Access the IPFCC videos and new ambulatory guidance resources here.

Access practical tools and guidance to increase vaccine confidence via the AAMC's informational website VaccineVoices here.

Caring as Communities Podcast: Project INSPIRE

INSPIRE is a multi-organization project with the goal of advancing partnerships between individuals with lived experience and health care organizations. Evelyne Kane from the Camden Coalition and Stephanie Burdick, INSPIRE partner, discuss the power of community engagement to transform healthcare. IPFCC is part of the project INSPIRE team, which is led by the Camden Coalition with partnership from Community Catalyst, PFCCpartners, and the Commonwealth Care Coalition's Center to Advance Consumer Partnership. 

Access the podcast here.

New DEI Key Learnings Resource

IPFCC, in collaboration with the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, conducted a project funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health to identify best practices within children's hospitals for strengthening the representativeness of PFACs and for partnering with patient and family advisors on DEI initiatives. Our new resource, Strengthening the Diversity and Role of Patient and Family Advisory Councils: Opportunities for Action offers real world examples, practical steps, and strategies to strengthen PFACs and improve diversity.

Want to learn more? Access this resource and check out our new webpage on DEI and PFACs here.

Hispanic Family Advisory Council at Cook Children's Hospital

Cook Children's Hospital formed a Hispanic Family Advisory Council (HFAC) in 2016 to advocate for Hispanic families, identify gaps in family centered, culturally congruent care experiences and empower Spanish-speaking parents to be partners in the care of their children. The HFAC is a valuable mechanism for connecting patients’ and families’ viewpoints and experiences with organizational decision-making. Access the article here.

Engaging Patients in Improving Safety

In this “Now Is the Time to Routinely Ask Patients About Safety” commentary published in the Joint Commission Journal of Quality and Patient Safety, Dr. Tejal Gandhi presents the critical need to capture the perspectives of patients about safety. In addition to background about why this is not done routinely, recommendations for how to obtain information about patient safety are described. 

Access the article here.

"Smart from the Start" Testifying Before the US House of Representatives

Cherie Craft, Founding Executive Director and CEO of Smart from the Start, was invited to testify before the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee on September 28th to share their work, successes, and challenges in both Boston and Washington, DC. Describing the deep collaborative and unique funding relationship DC’s Smart program has with the Mayor’s administration, the committee learned how best to support community-based organizations serving diverse, underserved communities and their collaborative endeavors.

NIH’s Research Explores Health Disparities For People With Disabilities

National Institutes of Health (NIH) designates people with disabilities as a population with health disparities to ensure their inclusion in minority health and health disparities research. NIH recognizes the importance and need for research advances to improve our understanding of the complexities leading to disparate health outcomes and multilevel interventions. NIH institutes launched a new research program to better understand the health disparities faced by people with disabilities. 

Access the article here.

Special Thanks to our Pinwheel Sponsors!

Akron Children's Hospital

Alliant Health Solutions

American College of Radiology

Augusta University Health

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance

Children's Mercy Kansas City

Children's Minnesota

Children’s Specialized Hospital

Emory Healthcare Inc *

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute 

Hasbro Children's Hospital

IWK Health Centre

Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center

MHA Keystone Center

Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center 

Providence Health Care *

St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Stanford Health Care

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre

University Health *

University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital

University of Miami Health System

University of New Mexico Children's Hospital

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

* PFCC.Connect Pinwheel Sponsors

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