To improve patient care through a learning collaborative of up to 20 New York City hospitals focusing on supporting visiting policies that recognize, engage, and support family caregivers as partners in care.
Strong evidence shows that the presence of family caregivers has a significant impact on the quality of care and safety of patients in the hospital. Yet research shows that many hospitals have restrictive visiting policies that give families limited access to the bedsides of loved ones during a hospital stay.
Through this project, two nonprofit organizations—New Yorkers for Patient and Family Empowerment and the Institute for Patient- and Family-Centered Care—will work together with a group of New York City hospitals to change visiting policies from those that restrict family presence and participation to policies that are more welcoming and recognize that families are essential members of the care team.
Invitations will be sent to the leaders of all New York City hospitals, and up to 20 hospitals will be selected to participate—with teams of four to five staff from different disciplinary areas. Participating hospitals will assess their current policies and practices, participate in training sessions, receive tested toolkits and guides to help them change policies and practices, and attend an international conference (held in New York City) on the topic. The project's products will include a report on a comparative survey of hospitals' posted “visiting policies” on their websites to measure change that has occurred over the time of the project, both for participating and non-participating hospitals.