We are pleased to present the Suburban Hospital 2020 Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) Annual Report.

The PFAC’s dedicated team of volunteers and professionals spent thousands of hours during the last year to make sure the patient and family voice was heard on every aspect of hospital operations. It is only through this partnership of Patient and Family Advisors (PFAs), representing your community and hospital staff, that we can ensure Suburban provides the best patient- and family-centered care, a touchstone of excellence throughout the Johns Hopkins system.

In the words of Charles Dickens in A Tale of Two Cities (1859), 2020 was “the best of times and the worst of times.”  The dedication of Suburban’s North Building in January 2020 represented the best of times. The new facility, years in the making, enabled Suburban to provide among many other things, a tremendous expansion of space allowing for primarily private patient rooms, units dedicated to dealing with pandemics, all new operating rooms equipped with the latest technology and last, but certainly not least, a Patient and Family Resource Center staffed by PFAs and other volunteers.   

The timing of the North Building opening was fortuitous, for both Suburban and the community, as the hospital faced the COVID-19 pandemic within weeks of moving patients into the new building. The additional space allowed the hospital to isolate its large number of COVID-19 patients from those who were not infected. A section of the relatively new garage, part of the Campus Enhancement project, became a drive-thru COVID-19 testing center.

Unfortunately, COVID-19’s exceptionally infectious nature, which represented the worst of times, necessarily limited the ability of care partners and families to be with all patients in the hospital. A 24-hour family or care-partner presence, a key tenet of patient- and family-centered care, had to give way to the protection of patients, families and the community from the disease. Needless to say, the PFAC was unable to staff its new Resource Center.

Despite the difficulties imposed by the pandemic, the PFAC did not miss a beat. In-person meetings gave way to virtual meetings. In fact, attendance by both staff and PFAs at our virtual monthly meetings actually improved. Moreover, our PFAs stayed fully engaged in the numerous committees and councils in which they participated through video and teleconferencing. Given the inability of PFAs to be in the hospital as a result of COVID-19 infection control procedures, senior and line staff became the eyes and ears of the PFAs. Through participation in a consortium of Johns Hopkins system-wide PFACs, our members also played a leadership role in assisting Johns Hopkins Medicine set patient- and family-friendly policies.

This report addresses the role of the PFAC both before and during the pandemic. We look forward to reporting on more normal times in the future.

Stephen Bokat

LeighAnn Sidone, D.P.N., R.N., C.E.N.P., Interim President, Vice President of Nursing/Chief Nurse Officer

Co-chairs, Suburban Hospital/Johns Hopkins Medicine
Patient and Family Advisory Council
 

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