Initial steps to measurement and improvement of family-centered communication during the pediatric patient journey of bone marrow transplantation

Abstract

Often, pediatric patients' caregivers feel like they are not being heard or consulted by the healthcare system they have entrusted for their loved ones’ care. These difficulties are well known to the healthcare system, and significant research has been conducted to understand how to provide what’s come to be known as patient- and family-centered care (PFCC). PFCC is grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients, and families. In 2019 we started a quality improvement initiative, partnering with families to increase our family-centeredness, initially focusing on communication. We report our quality improvement initiative's initial steps to understand communication between patients and caregivers in the inpatient setting. We report variables identified as barriers to PFCC, and our initial interventions, including small tests of change, to implement and improve PFCC in the inpatient setting. We hope that our experience will inspire others to undertake similar initiatives at their institutions.

Keywords

• quality improvement
• patient-centered care
• communication
• patient participation
• inpatients