About Us

Our Philosophy of Care

At The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, we are committed to providing the best care and services to you and your child. We understand that you are your child's primary caregiver and source of safety and support — a role that shouldn't change as a result of an illness or injury. We value our ability to partner with parents and family members in the care of their children, and this partnership is the keystone of our philosophy of care.

This partnership with families in the care of their loved-ones is often referred to as family-centered care.

The key elements of family-centered care are:

To learn more about family-centered care at CHOP, including ways you can get involved as a family member, please visit  family-centered care.

A detailed look at our philosophy of care

The staff of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia respects each family's values, needs, cultures, resources and strengths. We strive to provide the highest quality of care by successfully blending patient care, education and research. The following beliefs serve as the foundation of our care and partnership with families.

  1. We acknowledge that family can be defined in a number of ways and regardless of composition, are essential to patients’ health and well-being and are allies for quality and safety within the healthcare system.
  2. We are committed to providing care, treatment and services that are respectful of the needs of families. Our goal is to be compassionate, flexible, accessible, responsive and sensitive to the needs of families.
  3. We respect each family’s values, needs, culture, resources and strengths and seek to incorporate them into the overall care experience. Therefore, we develop systems that enable staff to compassionately communicate with families around care expectations and needs that support safe and high quality care experiences.
  4. We will work with patients and families to identify their key support people and partner with them around care needs as appropriate.
  5. We value the importance of the family’s role in educating staff and future healthcare providers. This occurs in our daily practice when we partner with patients and families around care plans. It also includes more structured collaborations that occur through our Family Relations and Family Partners program, where patients and family members actively serve as strategic partners in advancing the care experience at CHOP.
  6. We welcome families’ participation in the planning and evaluation of new and existing programs and policies of the institution.
  7. We believe that care should be provided by an identifiable healthcare team that includes families as an integral part of developing a plan and caring for their children. The family-professional partnership is based on mutual respect for the understanding that each brings to the situation. The names of the members of a patient’s care team are posted and updated as necessary on the "We Care" communication board in a patient’s room.
  8. We strive to provide coordinated care and linkages between our services and the family’s community, including schools, local physicians, services and agencies consistent with privacy practices.
  9. Approaches to care are built on the family’s strengths. We value exploration of what families are and are not able to do. We are accepting of strengths or needs and recognize that the stresses families face can influence their ability to cope. We strive to promote family competence through knowledge, skill building and compassionate and effective communication strategies. In all cases, we believe that competence is enhanced by the ongoing sharing of honest and complete information in a way that families can understand.
  10. We are committed to creating a healing, supportive environment that respects privacy. We believe that all oral and written communication must respect the family’s right to confidentiality.
  11. We recognize that care is a human undertaking. When there are differences of opinion, we try to seek quick and respectful resolution among ourselves and with families.

Updated: October 2012

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