FAMILY CENTERED CARE

Family Centered Care



Family Centered Care

Introduction

In this paper we learn how proper implementation of patient- and family-centered care can improve the safety, quality, and patient satisfaction associated with the delivery of hospital-based care.

Hospitals and health care providers are being asked both by consumers and the federal government to be more transparent today than ever before. Patient safety and satisfaction have become paramount. The health care landscape in the United States is constantly evolving, and hospitals and health care providers must change along with it (Aviezer and Sagi, 2003).

Discussion

Regulatory and oversight issues, not to mention the daily struggles of patient care, human resource issues, and reimbursement for services, can overwhelm and demoralize the physician and administrator. Physicians are under scrutiny, not only with respect to the quality of care that they provide, but also in the way in which they interact with patients and their families.

That brings us to the issue of patient- and family-centered care. What is it? Why should physicians practice it? Why should hospitals encourage it?

The patient- and family-centered care movement began in the early 1990s in the United States when the Institute for Family-Centered Care was in its infancy. At that time, the Institute was mainly focused on increasing the involvement of children in their own health care decision-making (Biringen, 2000).

Family-centered care was thought of as a pediatric entity. Over time, however, ideas have changed, and it has been recognized that patients, regardless of age, and their families needed to be involved in their own health care decision-making. Patient- and family-centered care is based upon four principles:

1. Health care providers must listen to and respect the decisions of patients and their families, attempting to incorporate their values and beliefs into the rendering of care.

2. Providers must communicate with patients and their families in a clear, timely, and unbiased fashion.

3. Patients and families are then encouraged to participate in care and decision-making to the extent that they choose.

4. Patients and families then collaborate with health care entities and providers to develop and evaluate programs, physical plant structure, and professional education.

I am a practicing pediatric intensive care physician in a children's hospital within a large community hospital. Our group of critical care physicians is a contract private practice within that entity. There are no competing intensive care groups providing care in our unit (Biringen, 2000).

Although we teach residents and other allied health profession students, we are not an academic institution. We care for approximately 1,700 critically ill and injured children annually in a 28-bed unit. We were approached several years ago to develop a clinical best practice for patient- and family-centered care in our pediatric ICU (Biringen, 2000).

As a group, we were fortunate to have clinical and physical plant infrastructure in place that allowed us to develop this practice. A director of family-centered care was already employed by the health care system.

A physician "champion" of family-centered care was also employed by the hospital system. Both provided our clinicians with the encouragement necessary to accomplish this ...