Partnering with children and their families—always

I started my career in healthcare as a social worker at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia—also known as CHOP. During my 15+ years there, I served in myriad roles. My focus remained on partnering with patients, their families, and fellow caregivers to advance outcomes and create safe, high-quality, and family-centered experiences.  

My experience at CHOP has led me to think about care differently. Children have important developmental needs, and those require a unique kind of support system that includes their family. In pediatrics, patient care must be centered around and developed in partnership with the family. The period that follows a diagnosis can often be a confusing and deeply vulnerable time for children and those who love them. My goal, throughout my career, has been to make that experience supportive, compassionate, and less stressful for everyone involved. Today, I continue this work at Press Ganey.  

Partnering for exceptional care and driving the best possible outcomes

Purposeful listening empowers pediatric teams to best serve children as well as their families, who know the patient and the routines of their personal lives better than anyone else. This is powerful information that can strengthen care plans and improve outcomes. It also creates an environment of partnership, teamwork, and trust. And an environment of trust leads to optimal outcomes.  

We created our survey tool in close partnership with families and pediatric experts to help hospitals and health systems continuously open the channels of communication to improve the overall patient and family experience. When we look through the eyes of a patient and their family, we can identify both big and small opportunities to make it easier to be a child receiving care and a member of their family whose world has just been turned upside down. Our ability to understand the full continuum of care to detect gaps, identify opportunities, and work with organizations to drive improvement is one of the most meaningful ways to continually serve pediatrics.  

The team behind Press Ganey’s technology includes advisers who have devoted decades-long careers to pediatric care, children and families themselves, and an executive council that hails from leading organizations, including Boston Children’s, Texas Children’s, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, my former physician counterpart at CHOP Dr. Alan Cohen, and hundreds more.  

I’m proud to say that, as of today, 80% of U.S. News & World Report’s top 10 children’s hospitals rely on Press Ganey’s solutions to ensure they have the most impactful insights to drive the best possible outcomes. What’s more, 96% of pediatric Magnet® facilities partner with us to consistently deliver world-class experiences with every child and family. This panel of industry-leading, high-performing organizations provides robust benchmarks across 14 pediatric subspecialties, helping each measure themselves and continually improve.  

Safety is a top priority

Pediatrics has been at the forefront of safety for years. They recognize that safe, high-quality care is family-centered care at its very best. 

At Press Ganey, patient safety anchors everything we do. Our High Reliability Platform (HRP), bolstered by best-in-class safety data, is paving the way toward achieving zero harm. It also helps ensure we are consistently driving improvements to make healthcare safer for each and every child when they need it. 

Press Ganey supports healthcare professionals, too

At Press Ganey, our job is to surface meaningful insights that enable leaders across healthcare to amplify the right conditions and cultures where people can bring their best selves to work. Especially in pediatrics, this means making it easy for caregivers to perform at the highest level, day in and day out.  

Of course, the pandemic made this a lot more difficult. Burnout and turnover rates among healthcare professionals are reaching crisis levels across the country. A troubling staffing shortage, coupled with an increase in pediatric COVID cases and a return to postponed care, means the healthcare workforce is overworked and understaffed.  

With many medical professionals—most significantly nurses—reconsidering the industry, retaining top talent remains a critical objective. An engaged, resilient workforce is key to delivering safe, high-quality care and an exceptional experience time after time. Our employee experience surveys screen for burnout, catch flight risks, and return a blueprint that enables organizations to best support the people who put on the badge every single day. 

As patients and families navigate treatment options within your health system, remember that great experiences are rooted in humanity—and partnership. Caring for children is an enormous responsibility and privilege. The field of pediatrics plays an important role in the continuum of care. We are shaping the way children experience health and well-being: Each opportunity and moment truly matters as we seek to develop and ingrain healthy habits that will help them thrive as adults. My career-long goal has been to consistently improve health and well-being by ensuring we remove unnecessary barriers and stressors from the most vulnerable moments all of us experience.  

Read more about how Press Ganey partners with children’s hospitals, or get in touch with one of our experts to discuss your organization’s needs directly.