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Patient and Carer Experience
Solutions: Improving Patient and Carer Experience
Involvement of Family and Friends
Family Given Enough Information to Help with Care at Home
Family Involvement in Rounds
Family Involvement in Rounds
Patient- and family-centred care is an approach to the planning, delivery and evaluation of health care that is governed by collaborative partnerships among healthcare professionals, patients and families. Families and carers are an extension of the patient and the more involved family are in patient care and treatment decisions (to the extent desired by the patient), by participating in multidisciplinary rounds for example, the more we are able to improve quality and safety outcomes, and patient/carer/family satisfaction or experience (Engaging Patients & Families: A high leverage tool for health care leaders, August 2006).
Evidence of Success
Case Study - Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital: Where Families Are Included in Rounds
This story originally appeared in IHI's 2008 Annual Progress Report. 01/06/2008
Under the “old rules” of care, when a group of doctors and nurses entered a hospital room or ICU to confer about a patient during medical rounds, any visiting family members would be asked to step out. In some hospitals, this is still the norm, but fortunately, that is changing.
“The more families know about the patient’s status, the better,” says Susan Fuchs, RN, BSN, Nurse Director at Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital, an Ascension Health hospital in Binghamton, New York. That philosophy is why family members have been included in rounds there since 2003. Fuchs says it has worked well, saving nurse’s time and making patients and families happier.
Sometimes the rounding team is rather large, and can include the case manager, charge nurse, social worker, home care nurse, spiritual caregiver, nutritionist, or pharmacist. The hospitalist might also join if he or she is available. “When a team comes in, sometimes the patient can feel overwhelmed with information,” says Fuchs. “A family member brings a second set of ears to hear and remember things that are said.”
And the information flow goes both ways, she says. “Sometimes families will be able to provide information the patient hasn’t mentioned,” such as obstacles at home that should be addressed before the patient is discharged.
Fuchs says that patient satisfaction surveys indicate that patients are increasingly satisfied by how well informed they are.
Resources
Institute for Family-Centered Care: http://www.familycenteredcare.org/
The Institute offers a wide variety of free downloadable PDFs to use in your organization visit: http://www.familycenteredcare.org/tools/downloads.html
Self-Assessment Tools for Evaluating Patient- and Family-Centered Practices: http://www.familycenteredcare.org/resources/other/index.html
Opportunities for Improvement
Dimensions of Care
Measures
- Enough information given to family and friends
- Family or Friends had enough opportunity to be involved in care and treatment
- Family or Friends were given enough information to help with care at home
For more information
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. 2008 Progress Report: www.ihi.org
