Patient safety in a pediatric centre: partnering with families.

Patient Centred Care (PCC) is a recognized pillar of quality healthcare. According to the Institute of Medicine (Kohn et al. 2000), PCC respects and is responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values, and ensures they guide all clinical decisions. In a pediatric setting, both the child and family's preferences and values are critical; as a result, the concept of PCC is broadened to include the entire family, and is termed Family Centred Care (FCC). True FCC requires transparent and ongoing collaboration between the child, family, and all members of the healthcare team. An institution's commitment to Family Centred Care must be explicit and permeate all aspects of healthcare provisions. At Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the Families as Partners in Patient Safety Committee has proven to be a successful initiative based on Family Centred Care principles. This interdisciplinary committee includes healthcare providers, parents and representatives from our hospital's Children's Council. The mandate of the group is to: (1) identify patient safety (PS) issues, (2) make recommendations to improve PS and (3) increase awareness and promote the partnership between parents and staff in PS. Key initiatives to date include developing PS information for families, a combined hand hygiene campaign and a campaign to make the hospital 100% smoke-free. A task-oriented partnership between families and healthcare workers has proven to be a productive model for advancing pediatric patient safety.