Greetings,

We invite you to explore the exciting new opportunities and resources featured in June's Pinwheel Pages!

This issue is filled with insights designed to inspire and empower patients, families, communities, and health care professionals.

Kind regards,

The IPFCC Team

Supporting Essential Care Partners

In IPFCC's June Informal Conversation that focused on the role of care partners in improving safety and quality, Lisa Raffoul, Implementation lead at the Essential Care Partner Support Hub based in Ontario Caregiver Organization and Shanne Keeny, Director, Patient and Family Experience at Johns Hopkins Hospital served as expert presenters. The Informal Conversation was engaging and inspiring to participants. The video, "Caregivers Are Essential," shared by Lisa Raffoul, provided perspectives about how care partners are essential to care, decision-making, and supporting their loved one was integrated into the presentation. Watch the entire session.

Thank you to our PFCC.Connect sponsors!

Resources and Opportunities

Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center’s PFCC Commitment 

IPFCC is pleased to add a new PFCC profile of excellence to our website. Dartmouth Health Children’s Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) has had a long-term commitment to a philosophy that the family is an essential partner in their infant’s care. Learn more about the ICN’s leadership commitment to family support and innovative roles for the family support specialist. View the profile and video that welcomes families to the ICN and describes the care team, care processes, and the roles that families play.

Measuring the Impact of PFACs

Betsy Lehman Center's, online newsletter, Patient Safety Beat included an interview with Barbara Lewis, MBA and doctoral candidate, who has been studying PFACs for a decade. Measuring the impact of PFACs provides data that supports leadership buy-in, informs the health system, and proves the value of PFACs. Ms. Lewis recommends using three measurement types: process, structural, and outcomes. Read the article and view the short video here.

Building and Evolving PFACs: Eight Lessons Learned

Vicki Mascareño Nelson, coordinator of the Patient- and Family-Centered Care program at the University of Vermont Medical Center and the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital, shares eight lessons learned on her journey from advisor to PFAC leader. Her insights include the need to be curious, seek collaboration, empower advisors, and assess and measure progress. Access article here.

Using the What Matters to You Approach to Health Care

In June, the Health Quality BC and other Canadian organizations celebrate the “What Matters to You?” day. Health Quality BC has dedicated a page on its website that provides information, resources, and tools about how to ask this simple but important question to patients and families. Asking "What matters to you?" builds trusting relationships among health care providers and patients and their families and supports providing the right care, at the right time, and in the right place. Access the page here.

Understanding Complex Care Through Narrative Medicine

This article published in the June issue of Pediatrics, "Understanding Complex Care Through Narrative Medicine: A Qualitative Study," describes how narrative medicine can have a profound effect preparing pediatricians to care for children with medical complexity. Clinicians and family partners participated in three separate cohorts and four themes were identified that aligned with patient- and family-centered care. If you are a subscriber to Pediatrics, access the article here.

Improving Family-Centered Care (FCC) In the NICU

The article, "Improving Commitment to Family-Centered Care in the NICU: A Multicenter Collaborative Quality Improvement Project," published in Journal of Perinatology in 2025 describes a process taken to improve FCC in NICUs through the development of FCC Committees and Family Partnership Councils (FPCs). Former NICU families and health care professionals were recruited to participate to provide important perspectives for QI improvement. Three exemplary case studies are included in the article. Access the article here.

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

Pinwheel Sponsors may join Bev Johnson for our next Pinwheel Leadership Forum on July 17th and collaborate with other Pinwheel Sponsor leaders.

We invite you to renew, upgrade, or join as a Pinwheel Sponsor 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 Sponsors!

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