Uniquely positioned to influence change

Our role is to incorporate principles of patient and family centered care into all MCG academic programs at the graduate and professional level. We also study how this philosophy affects clinical quality, patient safety, cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.

 

The Medical College of Georgia is uniquely positioned in patient and family centered care cultural change, education and research agendas.

 

We are nationally recognized for work in creating facility designs which nourish and support collaboration in patient/caregiver relationships in adult and children’s clinical programs.

 

As a health sciences university and as an academic health center we are able to have an impact on nearly every kind of health professional trained for today’s health care systems.

 

Populated with leaders

Medical College of Georgia Schools are populated with PFCC leaders within the faculty and staff, and we collaborate with more than 130 experienced patient advisors.

 

These individuals are participating in experiments across the academic health center at the institutional level and at the clinical Microsystems level to effect cultural changes, and are now a resource available to a more focused agenda.

 

From a national perspective, there is a groundswell of interest and support in moving the cultures of our health care facilities from their current technical orientation to one which balances exquisitely honed science with the need for focus on professional/patient relationships.

 

Patients need care that meets their needs as individuals living within the context of a family support system. The Institute of Medicine has laid out these principles in its paradigm shifting “Crossing the Quality Chasm” publication of 2001. 

 

National Agenda

In summary, a national agenda has emerged that is tied to safety and quality to move the health care culture of our nation to one that reflects partnerships with patients and families

 

The Medical College of Georgia is uniquely positioned to be a national leader in all aspects of this work, including patient care, teaching and research by virtue of its eleven year track record.

 

The Center for Patient and Family Centered Care, as a virtual unit within the university, will facilitate cultural change, measure the effects of these changes on outcomes and on the participants in health care, and further the university’s national reputation as a world class academic center.