Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University - Palo Alto, California

Their Story
Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) at Stanford is an academic medical center located in Palo Alto, California, that serves children, adolescents, and expectant mothers. The Pediatric Critical Care area at LPCH currently consists of 24 beds with plans to expand to a total of 44 critical care beds. More than 1300 critically ill children are admitted per year including children receiving solid organ transplantation (liver, kidney, heart and lung)
as well as children suffering acute respiratory failure, septic shock, or neurological deterioration. LPCH has built a foundation of many excellent services for families including a hospitality program and family waiting rooms. The least developed areas, information, communication, and educational programs, are being addressed through the CCFAP, which was funded in June 2005.

Unique to LPCH is the Family Advisory Council, which is composed of family members who currently have children cared for at LPCH. A major goal of the CCFAP was to build on LPCH's current "family-centered infrastructure" to develop specific "ICU components". To this end, the Council has become an integral part of the CCFAP and is currently developing A Family Guide for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit as part
of the CCFAP. A Family Greeter Program is also being developed to orient families to the ICU. Another goal of the CCFAP is to improve communication.
A daily family goal sheet has been created to provide a document for representatives from the various medical teams to state their medical goals for the day. The ICU Family Advisory Council is also helping to train a cadre
of Spanish/English speaking parents is being trained to participate in the ICU Family Advisory Council as Parent Mentors who will provide family-to-family support in the ICU. The goal of this program is to help parents develop positive communication strategies and partnerships with the health care providers caring for their child.

Meet the Team

From left to right:
Jan Dineen; Michele Ashland; Karen Wayman; Jodi Coombs; Karen Wayman; Karen Jenson; Lorry Frankel; Judy Borcherdt; Sharon Hofstedt; Carolyn Glauz-Todrank; Lori Bizzell; Diana Hoffman and Myra Monsalud

Implementing the Program