Comprehensive Primary Care
Update on HCGC led Patient Family Advisory Councils
by David Brackett, Vice President of Accounting and Special Projects, HCGC
In an effort to emphasize true patient-centered primary care, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) requires participating practices to convene Patient-Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) at each of their sites on a regular basis. Since August of 2017 HCGC has worked with Central Ohio Primary Care (COPC), the country’s largest physician owned primary care group to help facilitate PFACs at each of their 39 CPC+ sites.
Since then, COPC has held more than 375 successful council meetings engaging more than 1700 patients since. Over the last ten quarters of implementation, October-December 2018 saw the highest total attendance across all practice sites with 231 patients attending a meeting! Our average quarterly attendance total was 189 attendees and the average attendance per site at each meeting was 5 attendees. HCGC worked with staff across practices to design and execute meetings on a quarterly basis that involved patient education, experience, and quality improvement. Many practices sites were able to use PFAC members to help improve patient experience around the office and get feedback on what the practice is doing well. A representative from HCGC has been able to attend most of these meetings to gather organization wide feedback and identify themes that are prevalent across many sites. HCGC is then able to work closely with administrators at COPC to identify solutions and opportunities for additional learning and organizational growth.
Looking ahead to 2020, HCGC, COPC and their PFACs look to sustain the momentum built over the last two years to spread the information, education, and action steps taken as a result of PFAC meetings. Other questions HCGC and COPC will be asking when measuring PFAC success in 2020 and beyond are: How can practices best be supported to bolster recruitment, planning, and executing efforts? In what ways can organization administrators and practices collaborate to stimulate and drive effective, ongoing partnerships for increased quality and patient-experience. The success of PFAC meetings moving forward requires all parties working collaboratively to design, test, and implement interventions and processes that ensure the patient is at the center of their care team and the way they experience care.
How is your organization engaging patients to improve experience and quality in 2020?
If you have questions, or would like to learn more about Patient and Family Advisory Councils or engagement, please contact David Brackett at david@hcgc.org.
