The Medical College of Georgia has formed a Center for Patient and Family Centered Care that will integrate the health care philosophy practiced by the MCG Health System for more than a decade into the university’s educational and research mission.

“This new center is central to our mission,” said MCG President Daniel W. Rahn. “Whether we are teaching future health care providers, looking for better ways to find and treat disease or providing health care, MCG exists for patients and families.

“The Center for Patient and Family Centered Care provides a center of gravity for what we know about this essential philosophy of care that strengthens partnerships between patients, families and health care providers,” Dr. Rahn said. “It also provides an opportunity to find still better ways to fortify those partnerships and to imbed this collaborative approach in the hearts and minds of future health care providers.”

Patricia Sodomka, director of the new center and senior vice president of patient- and family-centered care for the MCG Health System, will discuss MCG Health System’s history with patient- and family-centered care and the mission of MCG’s new center at a national conference, hosted by the Institute for Family-Centered Care, Sept. 27-29 at Augusta’s Radisson Riverfront Hotel.

“The creation of a patient-centered philosophy of care is one of the six quality aims of the Institute of Medicine, which is comprised of the national thought leaders engaged in quality improvement in this country,” Mrs. Sodomka said. “The Institute of Medicine published the seminal works, ‘To Err is Human,’ about medical errors, and ‘Crossing the Quality Chasm,’ which provides a roadmap for quality improvement for our country.”

The center will bridge the gap between patient- and family-centered care in clinical services, medical education and research, Mrs. Sodomka said. “The center will incorporate patient- and family-centered principles into the experience of care across our clinical enterprise and into the curriculum of all academic programs at the professional and graduate level. In addition, we will research the impact that this philosophy of care has on clinical quality, patient safety, cost-effectiveness and patient satisfaction.”

MCG began practicing patient- and family-centered care in 1993 when it involved patients and family members in the planning and architectural design of its Children’s Medical Center. “We consider ourselves pioneers in patient- and family-centered care and see this as an emerging national trend,” Mrs. Sodomka said. “Much has been made lately about a recent commentary published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and a subsequent Wall Street Journal article calling for open visiting hours in the intensive-care units. Because of our patient-and family-centered philosophy, we’ve had liberal visiting hours in our intensive care units for years,” she said.

The Medical College of Georgia is the state's health sciences university and includes the Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing, the MCG Medical Center and the Children's Medical Center. Please visit our Web site at http://www.mcg.edu.

MCG Health System is composed of three separate organizations -- MCG Health, Inc. and the clinical services offered by the faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the members of the Physicians Practice Group. The physicians of MCG Health System are community physicians and faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the Physicians Practice Group, not employees of MCG Health Inc. MCG Health, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation operating the MCG Medical Center, MCG Children’s Medical Center, the MCG Sports Medicine Center, MCG Ambulatory Care Center, the Georgia Radiation Therapy Center and related clinical facilities and services. MCG Health, Inc. was formed to support the research and education mission of the Medical College of Georgia and to build the economic growth of the CSRA, the state of Georgia and the Southeast by providing an environment for faculty employees of the Medical College of Georgia and the Physicians Practice Group and community physicians to deliver the highest level of primary and specialty health care. For more information, please visit www.MCGHealth.org.