Background: Ensuring hospital-based Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) include members from diverse, vulnerable and underrepresented communities is important to ensure that all voices are represented and heard when providing input into hospital quality improvement and research efforts. However, ensuring diverse membership of PFACs remains a challenge. This study aims to describe strategies to recruit [...]

Background: Ensuring hospital-based Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) include members from diverse, vulnerable and underrepresented communities is important to ensure that all voices are represented and heard when providing input into hospital quality improvement and research efforts. However, ensuring diverse membership of PFACs remains a challenge. This study aims to describe strategies to recruit [...]

Background: Elderly inpatients often require the support of family and informal caregivers at transitions and yet adequacy of communication between hospital physicians and members of the patient’s social support is poorly studied. Methods: Mixed methodology survey of patients, their preferred social support member, and physicians as part of a communication quality improvement initiative on the [...]

Background: Family members often play a significant role in the care of geriatric patients during and after hospitalization. Both patients and families have expectations for communication with the provider team in the acute setting, but navigating the flow of medical information across the family unit is challenging with current care models. Pediatric medicine recognizes that [...]

Background: Internal medicine residents face multiple barriers to participating in and documenting goals of care (GOC) meetings in the intensive care unit (ICU). Barriers include heavy workloads, need for urgent stabilization of critically ill patients, and inadequate communication skills training. Guidelines recommend regularly conducting and documenting GOC meetings for critically ill patients, to facilitate communication [...]

Background: Patient & Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) are groups of patients, family members and caregivers who meet regularly to share their experiences of healthcare or perspectives on a specific topic. Over 50% of acute care hospitals have PFACs. PFACs can also provide an opportunity to engage its members in research and quality improvement (QI) efforts, [...]

Background: Family centered rounds (FCR) was first defined by Sisterhen in 2007 as “interdisciplinary work rounds at the bedside in which patient and family share in the control of the management plan as well as in the evaluation of the process itself.”1 Since then, recognition of the benefits of FCR have led to widespread adoption. [...]

Background: Medical students and interns are the primary communicators during pediatric patient- and family-centered rounds (PFCR). Presenter empowerment actions (PEAs) represent behaviors that empower presenters during PFCR to deliver effective, patient- and family-centered care. Third year (M3) and fourth year (M4) medical students are not formally trained on PEAs and their use of PEAs has [...]

Background: Family centered rounds (FCR) are used in pediatric hospital settings as a multidisciplinary method to communicate with families and involve them in medical decisions. This study is intended to evaluate how medical providers and families perceive family centered rounds and their effectiveness in providing care to patients. Methods: Participants include patient families, medical residents, [...]