OBJECTIVE This comparative study in two ICUs examines the impact of the patient-centered unit design on family involvement, operationalized as percentages of family presence and family-patient/family-staff interaction in patient rooms. BACKGROUND As hospitals have become more patient-centered, there has been a trend toward including a family area inside the patient area to promote family pres...

Drawing on several decades of work with families, pediatricians, other health care professionals, and policy makers, the American Academy of Pediatrics provides a definition of patient- and family-centered care. In pediatrics, patient- and family-centered care is based on the understanding that the family is the child's primary source of strength and support. Further, this approach to care reco...

Patient involvement in decision-making is an increasingly recognized ethical imperative, one that requires attention to health literacy. Health care that is truly patient- and family-centered, however, is the exception rather than the rule. This first person account of a hospitalization describes the lack of patient and family inclusion in decision-making, failure to use plain language and othe...

Patient- and family-centered care is a model of providing care in which the patient and family are partners with the provider and care team. A resurgence of interest in patient- and family-centered care is due, in part, to increasing consumerism in health care and the linking of reimbursement to the patient experience. Individual radiologists, practices, enterprises, and radiology professional ...