Patient & Family Partner Program: Emergency Department

Mission Statement
Provide experience and insight to integrate the voice of patients, loved ones, and caregivers into organization-wide programs and standard work in the Emergency Department (ED) with the goal of improving the Stanford Health Care experience by emphasizing patient-centered care.   Work collaboratively with ED leadership to leverage patient and caregiver feedback to continuously improve the care provided by the department.

Goals for 2024

• Create a monthly patient advocacy award, The Orchid Award, to recognize staff for their outstanding work in the ED. The award will recognize staff members who go beyond their regular job description to advocate for patients and caregivers.  Based on nominations from patients, caregivers, and staff, the PFAC will select the recipient and present him/her with a certificate at a huddle.   
  
  
• Continue to support the geriatric care initiative in the ED with leadership from one PFAC board member who sits on the committee.  Identify ways for the PFAC to be more involved in representing patient and caregiver interests in developing and improving geriatric care.
  
  
• Continue to work with the MyHealth team to increase application features and usage in the ED.  Identify ways to see PFAC suggestions put into action by moving them higher on the MyHealth priority list. 

Recent Accomplishments

• Consulted on Hospital-at-Home, a program now being studied at Stanford, that enables some patients to receive care at home with monitors and regularly scheduled in-person visits from medical professionals who remain responsible for care outcomes. 
  
  
• Submitted a proposal to the 2023 Patient Family-Centered Care conference describing work done with the MyHealth team to develop and improve the application for ED patients and caregivers.
  
  
• Supporting Dr. Mike Gisondi's presentation at the 2023 meeting of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, PFAC members provided feedback on the topic of precision medicine, a system that considers individual variability in environment, lifestyle, and genes of individual patients and delivers individualized care.
  
  
• Supporting an initiative designed to redirect patients who do not require acute care to other resources, the PFAC provided input on how ED patients and caregivers are surveyed. Suggestions included ways to engage patients and caregivers, plus feedback on proposed survey questions.
  
  
• Focusing on Medicare’s Hospital Presumptive Eligibility program, the PFAC provided feedback from the patient’s viewpoint on accessing healthcare financial coverage for ED visits. The PFAC made suggestions on proposed survey questions.
  
  
• Provided valuable insight into food availability concerns for patients and caregivers during a discussion with Food Services management.  PFAC and Food Services both gained information from the discussion.
  
  
• Met with Navigation Services representatives to better understand what services they provide in the ED.  The meeting proved helpful to both parties, and there are plans for ongoing discussions.