Greetings ,

This issue is filled with invaluable resources designed to inspire patients, families, and healthcare professionals.

Register below for our third upcoming Leadership Series webinar titled “The Many Faces & Facets of Leadership,” on October 30th and join the conversation with Children’s Mercy Kansas City’s Leadership about their 25 year history transforming patient- and family-centered care. 

Kind regards,

The IPFCC Team

The Art of the Possible: An IPFCC Leadership Series

The Many Faces and Facets of Leadership

October 30, 2025 from 1:00 - 2:00 pm ET

Join us for our next Leadership Series webinar on Thursday, October 30, 2025, 1pm ET. Liz Crocker, MEd, Vice Chair of the IPFCC Board, member of the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council, and co-author of Privileged Presence, will be interviewing DeeJo Miller, Director, Patient and Family Engagement, and Sheryl Chadwick, Program Manager, Patient and Family Engagement, Children’s Mercy Kansas City. The title of the conversation with these two family leaders is, “The Many Faces & Facets of Leadership.”

• Fee for this live and recorded webinar is $60 USD.
• Fee for individuals from IPFCC PFAC Learning Community Hospitals is $40 USD.
• All employees and PFAs from IPFCC Pinwheel Sponsors’ Hospitals and Health Systems have complimentary registration.

Thank you to our PFCC.Connect Sponsors!

IPFCC at Work

Leaders' Perspectives of Family-Centered Care

This new article, “Hospital Leader Views on the Family-Centeredness of Pediatric Care: A Global Survey,” published in Medical Care, reports the results from a multi-country study. The team from the University of California, San Francisco, with support from the Ronald McDonald House Charities®, partnered with IPFCC to develop the survey and analyze the results. The purpose of the study was to obtain leaders’ perceptions of family-centered pediatric care through the assessment of culture, policies, and practices using a Likert-type scale survey and open-ended questions. Key findings included leaders’ reporting an overall high level of commitment to support and encourage engagement of families in care, decision-making, and organizational system improvement. Fewer leaders reported family partnership at the organizational level, health professional education on FCC, or organizational accountability for FCC.

Leaders in hospitals that have active patient and family advisory councils gave significantly higher FCC ratings, suggesting that engaging with families at the organizational level is a valuable resource. Several recommendations emerged from this study including the need to partner with families in the education of clinicians and staff, quality improvement, and aligning with the current accreditation standards for FCC. This study demonstrated preliminary reliability for the FCC assessment scale that can be used for measurement of FCC in practice and research. The article and FCC assessment scale can be accessed here.

Informal Conversations Recording

Better Together: Supporting Family Presence and Participation to Improve Safety and Quality: Part II

Access the recording for the Informal Conversation, Better Together: Supporting Family Presence and Participation to Improve Safety and Quality: Part II held on September 10th from 12 – 1 pm. We know that family presence has a positive impact on care quality, experience, and safety. An expert team from the Ontario Caregiver Organization’s Essential Care Partner Support Hub, Lisa Raffoul, Implementation Lead, Alison Kilbourn, Manager, Melissa Ngo, Implementation Lead, Alia Pota, Implementation Lead, Sarah Tariq, Implementation Lead, and Fardowsa Halane, Knowledge Exchange Lead served as presenters. They shared their policies, strategies, best practices, and resources for supporting essential care partners to be present and participate in care and decision-making to ensure safety and quality.

Access the recording here.

Resources and Opportunities

Learning from Families Study

The Learning from Families study, was funded by Ronald McDonald House Charities®. The article, "Prevalence of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Parents of Hospitalized Children in 14 Countries," was published in the journal, Children. Among the 3,350 participants (families whose child had been hospitalized and were staying in a Ronald McDonald House®) from 14 countries who participated in the study, half reported depression symptoms and over two-thirds reported anxiety symptoms. Parents who reported poorer rating of their child’s health had an increased risk of depression and anxiety symptoms, whereas those with higher levels of self-care and social support had a reduced risk of depression and anxiety symptoms. Recommendations to provide support services to prevent and address mental health in parents were included. Access the article here.  

Upcoming Pre-Conference Workshop and Conference: 

Putting Care at the Center

Engaging the Patient Voice for the CMS Structural Measure Domain 5

Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA) hosted a Hot Topic webinar, "Patient and Family Advisory Councils: Uplifting for CMS Structural Measure Domain 5" in July. This informative webinar included a presentation on the CMS Structural Measure and the perspectives of Cambridge Health Alliance staff and patient partners who serve on PFACs and committees. Watch the webinar.

IPFCC's Resource Center

IPFCC is proud of its Resource Center that contains a multitude of useful publications, guides, self-assessment, tools, and other resources. The resources are relevant for advancing patient- and family-centered care in all settings. Many of the resources are available for purchase but free downloads are also available. Visit the Resource Center. Check out the invaluable resource: Essential Allies — Patient, Resident, and Family Advisors: A Guide for Staff Liaisons. It will serve as a resource for anyone who is working with Domain 5 of the CMS Patient Safety Structural Measures.

Advancing the Science of Quality Improvement

Listen to this inspirational podcast. Interviewed by Dr. Shlomit Schaal, Dr. Don M. Berwick, a foundational figure in health care quality improvement, shares his perspective on how far we've come in our pursuit to improve patient safety through the design of a safer health system — and how far we have left to go. Access the recording here.

2025 IPFCC PINWHEEL SPONSORSHIP – Renew, Upgrade, or Join Now! 

Pinwheel Sponsors may join Bev Johnson for our next Pinwheel Leadership Forum on October 9th and collaborate with other Pinwheel Sponsor leaders. Also, our Pinwheel Sponsors' staff and PFAs will receive complimentary registrations for our upcoming Leadership Series Webinar to be held on October 30th. 

We invite you to renew, upgrade, or join as a Pinwheel Sponsor today by completing the online Pinwheel Sponsor Application. If you need more information, please contact Sherry Hajec at shajec@ipfcc.org.

Thank You to Our 2025 Pinwheel Sponsors!

PFCC.Connect

University Health

Health System

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Hospital/Organization

Akron Children’s Hospital

American College of Radiology

Children’s Mercy Kansas City

Children’s Specialized Hospital

IWK Health Centre

Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center

Moffitt Cancer Center

Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre

University of Miami Health System

University of New Mexico Children's Hospital

Wellstar MCG