Patient & Family Advisory Council

Who are we?

Our Patient & Family Advisory Council (PFAC) is a volunteer group of CMC patients, family members and caregivers who work in partnership with the CMC staff in a wide range of areas to make sure that patients’ and family members’ perspectives are part of the decision-making process. Our goal is to help promote a more patient-centered and family-centered environment at all CMC facilities.

What do we do?

Our Patient & Family Advisors (PFAs) are active in several areas:

• Hospital Committees—Most of our members serve on hospital committees. They provide input into the topics for which a committee is responsible. Examples include: Infection Prevention Committee, Patient Education Committee, Telemedicine Steering Committee, Quality & Patient Safety Committee, and Palliative Care Committee.
• Performance Improvement Projects—As a need for projects is identified, PFAs offer insight from the patient and family perspective. This ensures that new programs and processes are patient-centered, thus contributing to the high quality of care provided at CMC.
• Patient Rounding—Some of our PFAs visit with in-patients to make sure the patients’ needs are being met, and to help relay any unmet needs to unit managers.
• Staff Orientation—Some of our PFAs assist with leading staff orientation. We were instrumental in introducing two communication tools to CMC:   
  • Language of Caring^©
  • AIDET^©

These communication tools are an integral part of staff orientation and help establish communication standards throughout CMC for both staff-to-patient communication and staff-to-staff communication. We’ve heard it has also helped staff to communicate better in their personal lives.

• State of New Hampshire—Some of our PFAs participate in the State of NH PFA group to share ideas and “best practices” with PFAs from hospitals throughout the State.