‘Sick Girl Speaks’ at PFCC Conference on Jan. 25

There are just a few days left to register for the 11th annual Patient- and Family-Centered Care Conference: IMPACT the Patient Experience, happening Thursday, Jan. 25, at the Natalie and Lansing B. Lee Jr. Auditoria Center on the Health Sciences Campus of Augusta University. There are duplicate sessions, the first from 8-11:30 a.m. and the second from 1:30-5 p.m., in order to provide more faculty, staff, and students an opportunity to hear the guest speakers.

Two-time double-lung transplant recipient, cystic fibrosis survivor, and Sick Girl Speaks author Tiffany Christensen will share the patient point of view. Christensen, who is the new vice president of The Beryl Institute, is a national presenter on patient advocacy, and she’s written books on advocacy, end-of-life planning, and partnership strategies in healthcare. Christensen formerly served as a patient advocate at Duke Hospital, working primarily in oncology, and as a program coordinator for Duke Medicine’s Patient Advisory Council Expansion Program. She later served as a patient and family engagement specialist for the North Carolina Hospital Association.

Christina Dempsey, the chief nursing officer for Press Ganey, will share clinical advice, including how to make a connection with every patient in just 56 seconds. Dempsey, who gave a presentation at Augusta University in September 2017 about what really moves the needle in patient satisfaction, returns to offer practical advice on providing genuine care that transcends the diagnosis. Dempsey is widely published and frequently speaks nationally and internationally on patient experience, nursing, patient flow, physician-hospital collaboration, and balancing cost and quality. In November 2017, she released her first book, The Antidote to Suffering: How Compassionate Connected Care Can Improve Safety, Quality, and Experience, published by McGraw-Hill.

An additional conference event on Friday, Jan. 26 at 8 a.m. will be a PFCC Grand Rounds presentation on clinician burnout and patient suffering by Dr. Thomas Lee, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and chief medical officer for Press Ganey. Lee joined Press Ganey in 2013, and brings more than three decades of experience in health care performance improvement as a practicing physician, a leader in provider organizations, researcher and health policy expert. As CMO, Lee is responsible for developing clinical and operational strategies to help providers across the nation measure and improve the patient experience, with an overarching goal of reducing the suffering of patients as they undergo care, and improving the value of that care.

Everyone who works in the patient care environment is encouraged to attend, as well as students and faculty of the Medical College of Georgia, Dental College of Georgia, College of Nursing, and the College of Allied Health. Be sure to register for the PFCC Conference in order to receive continuing education credit. Again, there are morning and afternoon sessions to help accommodate more schedules, as well as the PFCC Grand Rounds session on Friday.

More PFCC Conference information is available on PAWS. If you have any questions, please call the Center for Patients and Families at 721-7322.

Note: Juliette Schlucter, previously scheduled to speak, is under the weather, and will not participate this year.