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:
- Recognizing that the family is the constant in the child's life
- Facilitating family/professional collaboration at all levels of service delivery
- Honoring the racial, ethnic, cultural, spiritual, and socioeconomic diversity of families
- Recognizing family strengths and respecting different ways of coping
- Encouraging family-to-family support
- Sharing with families, on a continuing and supportive basis, complete and unbiased information
- Understanding and incorporating the developmental needs of infants, children and adolescents into the delivery system
- Implementing policies and programs that provide emotional and financial support
- Designing accessible service systems that are flexible, culturally competent and responsive to family-identified needs
To learn more about family-centered care at CHOP, including ways you can get involved as a family member, please visit their website.
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.
- We are committed to providing care and services that are guided by the needs of families and are perceived as flexible, accessible, responsive and sensitive. Therefore, we will develop systems that enable staff to respond to family preferences and priorities in a timely and creative manner.
- We recognize that families provide a constant source of support in the child's life. While we, as caring professionals, play an important role, families maintain the central role.
- We turn to families to define their members, understanding that each family has different values and unique ways of functioning.
- We value the importance of the family's role in educating staff and future health care providers.
- We welcome families' participation in the planning and evaluation of new and existing programs and policies of the institution.
- We believe that care should be provided by an identifiable health care 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.
- We strive to provide coordinated care and linkages between our services and the family's community, including schools, local physicians, services and agencies.
- Approaches to care will be built on the family's strengths. We value exploration of what they can and cannot do. We will be accepting about strengths and needs, and recognize that the stresses families face can influence their ability to cope. We strive to promote family competence through knowledge and skills. In all cases, we believe that competence is enhanced by sharing complete information.
- 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.
- We recognize that care is a human undertaking. When there are differences of opinion, we will try to seek quick and respectful resolution among ourselves and with families.
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