The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia integrates the principles of Family Centered Care into the healthcare delivery system by its commitment to ensuring that our system honors, empowers and respects the central role of the family by supporting them as the constant in a child's life. Family Centered Care is an approach to the planning, delivery and evaluation of healthcare that is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among patients, families and healthcare practitioners.

At The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, we strive to accomplish this by promoting an understanding of Family Centered Care through service, education and advocacy for the needs of patients and their families. Our ultimate goal is to create partnerships among healthcare practitioners, patients and families that will lead to the best outcomes and enhance the quality and safety of healthcare while contributing to the ideal patient experience. Please take a moment to browse the following:

Principles of Family Centered Care
Programs
Family Centered Care in Action - A Timeline of Success

Principles of Family Centered Care

Dignity and Respect. Healthcare practitioners listen to and honor the patient and family perspectives and choices. Patient and family knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds are incorporated into the planning and delivery of care.

Information Sharing. Healthcare practitioners communicate and share complete and unbiased information with patients and families in ways that are affirming and useful. Patients and families receive timely, complete and accurate information to effectively participate in care and decision-making.

Participation. Patients and families are encouraged and supported in participating in care decision making at the level they choose.

Collaboration. Patients, families, healthcare practitioners and hospital leaders collaborate in policy and program development, implementation and evaluation; in healthcare facility design; and in professional education as well as in the delivery of care.

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Programs
At The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, we facilitate family and professional collaboration at all levels of service by encouraging family-to-family support and designing accessible service systems that are flexible, culturally competent and responsive to family-identified needs. Our programs include:

Family Faculty
Founded in 1994, the Family Faculty program prepares adult family members to teach physicians and staff about the experience of health and illness. Through personal narrative, family members illustrate how healthcare professionals can fulfill the mission, values and philosophy of the hospital. Parents, grandparents speak with new employees, medical students, attending physicians, interdisciplinary groups - all kinds of healthcare professionals - about what they most want and need from caregivers to collaborate and communicate effectively.

With more than 10 years experience, the Family Faculty members have done hundreds of presentations. The program has received national recognition and stands out as a unique way of enlisting families in the educational mission of the institution. The Family Faculty recruits yearly for new members and requires members to participate in program training. For more information please call Laura Bedrossian at 215-590-5501.

Family Consultant Program
Developed in 1995, the Family Consultant Program hires both full-time and part-time staff who are parents and whose child(ren) are served at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Uniquely prepared to support families and consult with staff about strategies for communication and care, the hospital's Family Consultants meet with families, create programming for families and bring a family member's voice to committees. In much the same way that a family draws strengths from one another in a support group, families can turn to the hospital's Family Consultant as "someone who has been there." For more information please call the department of Social Work and Family Services at 215-590-2072.

The Family Advisory Council
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia began its Family Advisory Council in 1996, to work with senior administrative staff and physician leadership at the strategic planning level. Members of the Family Advisory Council have the unique perspective of being family members of children who are, or have been served, at Children's Hospital. Two of the roles that are performed include developing and participating in a Council work plan that complements the Hospital's strategic plans and being a family member of task forces, project teams and committees that seek to demonstrate active family centered care. Council members are also invited speakers to a wide variety of audiences that seek “family voices” on important topics. Family members meet with physicians and staff monthly from September through May. Recruitment for the Family Advisory Council occurs yearly. For more information please call Amy Martiner at 215-590-7012.

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Family Centered Care in Action - A Timeline of Success

1994
Established a Family Faculty, with teaching forums that include new employee orientation, nursing seminars, as well as partnering with students from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and Allied Health Professions.

1995
Created the Family Consultant Program. Today, Children's Hospital has five paid professional family leaders on staff (whose children are patients here). The consultants meet with families and staff to create programs that bring a patient and family voice to communications and patient care.

1996
Established the Family Advisory Council, which works to inform senior administrators and clinical leaders at the strategic planning level while also working with key Hospital committees when planning and creating new programs. Completed projects include family-friendly Web design, family beepers and communications materials, including “A Families' Guide to Billing” and a patient/family orientation video.

1997
Opened The Connelly Resource Center for Families in the main building, providing space for information, support and other resources. Today, Children's Hospital also has five family resource centers in ambulatory care locations throughout our network.

1999
Formed the Youth Advisory Council (YAC) by recruiting teenage patients who meet monthly to provide input to improve the Hospital socially and physically for patients and families. Projects include leading Grand Rounds, creating a training video for the healthcare team, conducting patient food surveys, developing teen night activities and other efforts.

2000-2003
A family-centered approach to care continues to influence patient care practices. Children's Hospital provides a family presence at physician-led patient rounds and in the Emergency Department during resuscitation; family sleep space has been incorporated into the new unit design of critical beds in the CICU and PICU; and family members are represented on key Hospital committees including bioethics, clinical research and patient safety.

2004
Opened a new Outpatient Welcome Center for patients and families. Family members continue to be included as equal participants in numerous committees, task forces and unit-based workgroups to help plan, evaluate and improve care and services to children and their families.

2005
Introduced the Little Rock Foundation Family Resource Room, a resource room for blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard-of-hearing children and their families. The Little Rock Resource Room offers high-tech amenities such as a computer that scans books and reads them aloud, a phone that allows parties to communicate by typing instead of talking and Braille typewriter and embosser that allows children to print documents in Braille from a computer. These resources and many more help children integrate into the community.

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