Moving Toward Patient- and Family-Centered Care:
Beginning a Process of Change
Adopting a patient- and family-centered approach requires the evaluation of existing policies, programs, facility design, and staff practices and attitudes as well as the identification of goals and priorities that will direct a process of change. It requires creating an organizational culture that will ensure that planning and implementing the process of change are collaborative efforts. True collaboration incorporates the views and the active participation of members of the population served and their families, as well as planners, administrators, providers of care, and other staff members.
It may be helpful to create the planning process for these changes in several phases. Phase I involves introducing all stakeholders, including consumers, care providers, and those typically involved in planning, about the process and the benefits of a collaborative approach. Phase II then initiates formal consumer participation by creating diverse advisory roles for consumers within the organization. Phase III incorporates the collaborative approach into planning structures as part of a process of implementing comprehensive change. Details about these phases may be found in the recently released publication, Advancing the Practice of Patient- and Family-Centered Geriatric Care, available from the Institute for family-Centered Care as listed in the Resources section of this site.