2021 was a time of tremendous growth for the Patient-Family Partnership Program (PFPP). Despite ongoing challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program made great strides in developing the foundational elements critical to ensuring successful patient and family partnerships. In addition, the work expanded to include key partnerships with highly engaged departments throughout the Mount Sinai Health System.
As the PFPP Steering Committee expanded its membership to include representation from several departments, its members prioritized identifying opportunities for partnership and raising awareness of the PFPP locally. Diana Grillo, a Patient Experience Coach at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, led the creation of the PFPP subcommittee, composed of front-line staff from Social Work, Spiritual Care, Patient Relations, and Interpreter Services. Subcommittee members are uniquely positioned to identify patients and caregivers who are emotionally ready to share their story with a balanced perspective.
“Staff who are at the front lines can create special relationships with patients. They celebrate with patients when they hear good news and offer a shoulder to cry on when patients face tough times,” Diana says. “These staff are key to growing partnerships with patients who will contribute to improving the patient experience.”
Erica Connerney has shared her stories as a patient and is a valued member of the Patient-Family Partnership Program.
In April 2021, the achievements of the PFPP were highlighted by Nicole Porto, Associate Director of Patient Experience at Mount Sinai Downtown, and Erica Rubinstein, MS, LCSW, CPXP, Vice President of Service Excellence and Patient Experience, during a Quality Leadership Council meeting. The council is composed of executive leadership from across Mount Sinai to guide the Health System not only in having courageous conversations, but in making steps toward positive change.
It was the first time the council heard the story of one of the team’s valued partners, Tartania Brown, MD. Tartania was one of the first patient partners to join the program in 2020. Through sharing her story, Tartania validated the notion that each person in the Health System affects the patient experience—with the opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one and to ensure that every patient is cared for respectfully and effectively. The Quality Leadership Council unanimously expressed a commitment to supporting patient and family partnerships, and the Department of Emergency Medicine doubled down on their intention to partner closely with Tartania.
The close partnership between Patient Experience and Emergency Medicine illustrates what is needed to bring meaningful patient and family partnership to fruition. Emergency Medicine’s Patient Experience leads—Deborah Dean, MD, Kaedrea Jackson, MD, MPH, Allison Dempsey, MPH, and Dumond Austin, MBA—have guided this effort, demonstrating the high-level investment and ownership of the work. The Department committed to creating a Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) in 2022, in which patients with experiences at any Mount Sinai Emergency Department can gather and meaningfully share their voice in forums. This effort has traditionally included only staff, but because of the work done in 2021, patients can now benefit as well.
The Office of Patient Experience has elevated the patient partners through their storytelling. Patient storytelling has given color to patient experience data and is an anchor for empathetic investment in important patient experience work. The Patient Experience forums in 2021 included four patient stories, and though all are quite different in perspective and needs, there were common themes: that patients want to be considered as members of the care team and that compassion and connection go a long way. Through listening to these patients, the Office of Patient Experience has already implemented fundamental changes in the Emergency Department redesign, as well as procedural changes that can help patients feel more comfortable within Mount Sinai's doors.
These stories provide a perspective of what it is like to be a patient in the health care setting and educate staff on how to improve quality of care. In addition to the executive leadership, these patient stories were shared with the Patient Experience Council and Council on Quality. Throughout 2021, patient stories were also shared widely throughout the Health System so staff and leaders could learn from Mount Sinai patients.
“Mount Sinai’s Patient Experience team owes credit to many for the progress the PFPP has made over the past few years,” says Nicole Porto, Patient-Family Partnership Chair and Associate Director of Patient Experience, Mount Sinai Downtown. “In addition to the support of the Health System’s patient experience team, our Child Life colleagues, who have led two successful PFACs for many years, have been incredible resources along this journey. Justin Gunn from Marketing has helped the team capture and recount their PFP’s stories; and our colleagues from the Department of Health Education, Alyssa Gale and Lajeanna Haughton, have provided insight on key pieces of standard work and will be supporting future Department of OBGYN’s patient partnership efforts.”
In addition to Tartania, two patient partners, Martin Greenberg and Erica Connerney, helped the Office of Patient Experience in their efforts to be more equitable in gathering feedback from patients. “In all of these cases, we were able to shed light onto patient experiences that are key to serving our communities, and ones that we will not soon forget,” Ms. Porto says.
Martin Greenberg, who faces many challenges as a person who is deaf and has low vision, is an active partner in elevating the patient experience.