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Central Peninsula Hospital has been formally designated by Planetree, Inc. as a “Planetree Designated® Patient-Centered Hospital.” This designation recognizes Central Peninsula Hospital’s achievement and innovation in the delivery of patient-centered care. Central Peninsula Hospital is the first and only hospital in Alaska, and one of only 45 healthcare organizations worldwide to receive the Patient-Centered Designation since the program’s launch in 2007.
“The Planetree Designation® is the only award that recognizes excellence in person-centeredness across the continuum of care,” said Susan Frampton, President of Planetree, Inc., an international not-for-profit organization that has been at the forefront of the movement to transform healthcare from the perspective of the patient for more than 30 years. “The designation signals to healthcare consumers that Central Peninsula Hospital is a hospital where providers partner with patients and families, and where patient comfort, dignity, empowerment and well-being are prioritized with providing top-quality clinical care.”
The criteria that a hospital must satisfy to achieve designation reflect what patients; family members and healthcare professionals in hundreds of focus groups say matters most to them during a healthcare experience. This qualitative data aligns with the growing evidence-base for patient-centered care, and establishes the Planetree Designation® as a concrete framework for defining and measuring excellence in patient-centeredness.
More than 60 specific criteria address components of a patient-centered healthcare experience, including patient-provider interactions, access to information, family involvement, the physical environment, food and nutrition, spirituality, arts and entertainment, and integrative therapies. In addition, the criteria focus on how the hospital is supporting its staff, opportunities for staff, patients and families to have a voice in the way care is delivered, and the ways that the hospital is reaching beyond its walls to care for its community.
Guided by these core components of a patient-centered culture, over the past 10 years, Central Peninsula Hospital has implemented a substantial number of initiatives and practices designed to enhance both the patient and staff experience.
“This is a true legacy to those who have persevered over the years towards a Planetree Designation,” said Rick Davis, CEO of Central Peninsula Hospital. “There are countless nurses, physicians, volunteers, staff, and board members past and present, who have made certain that care delivered at CPH is centered on patients and their families and encourages them to be engaged in their care.”
Alyson Stogsdill, President of the CPGH, Inc. Board of Directors adds, “Our long sought Planetree designation solidifies our commitment to patient centered care at CPH. Congratulations to all involved in the process and to the CPH family who practice the Planetree philosophy daily. Caring for each other as a whole person is essential; nice matters. We are proud to be joining other Planetree hospitals that recognize and practice this philosophy.”
As part of the designation process — which included a site visit by representatives from Planetree — focus groups with recent Central Peninsula Hospital patients and current staff validated that specific patient-centered policies are in place, including non-restrictive visiting hours and an open medical chart policy; that staff members at all levels are involved in the implementation of patient-centered care; and that the hospital’s physical environment is a healing one engaging all of the human senses. The process also included a review of the hospital’s performance on publicly reported patient satisfaction and quality of care measures.
“A strength of the designation program has been the integration of qualitative and quantitative measures,” explained Frampton. “Acute care hospitals in the U.S. awarded designation are held accountable for exceeding quality benchmarks for both quality and patient satisfaction.”
All designation determinations are made by an independent committee of healthcare experts and CEOs from previously designated hospitals.
Founded in 1978 by a patient in San Francisco, today Planetree is an internationally recognized leader in the growing movement to transform the health care experience by considering health care facilities, processes and protocols from the perspective of the patient. In diverse healthcare settings throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America and Europe, Planetree is demonstrating that patient-centered care is not only an empowering philosophy, but a viable, vital, and cost-effective model of care. Today, the Planetree membership network is a global community of more than 250 acute care hospitals, continuing care facilities, outpatient clinics, and consumer health libraries. The Planetree model is implemented in a variety of settings, ranging from 25-bed critical access hospitals to large urban medical centers with more than 2,000 beds.
