For Patients & Families | Accomplishments

Since its founding in the early 1980s, the Family Advisory Council has had many successes. Here are some of our notable recent accomplishments.

Under Massachusetts law, all Patient and Family Advisory Councils are required to write annual reports each year and to make them available to members of the public. Health Care for All, a Massachusetts-based organization dedicated to making adequate and affordable health care accessible to everyone, designs the template that Boston Children's Hospital must use to populate its annual report.

We invite you to read Boston Children's Hospital's most recent Family Advisory Council Annual Report.

The FAC played an integral role in rolling out the practice of family-centered rounding for inpatients at Boston Children’s in 2011. Since then, focus on the inclusion of patients and families in care decisions has continued to grow both within Boston Children’s and across the nation.

Launched in 2017, this is the Family Advisory Council’s recognition program. The FAC awards the Seal of Approval on a semi-annual basis, to work that is happening across Boston Children’s that embodies the principles of patient and family-centered care. Recipients of the Seal incorporate patient and family voices into the work process and the outcomes clearly benefit patients and families.

In January 2020, the FAC began work to create its own equity, diversity, and inclusion (ED&I) plan. In order to align its plan with that of the hospital, FAC members met with Boston Children’s ED&I leaders and also reviewed the goals laid out by the organization. The completed plan, which is considered a working document, serves as a guide for both individual and group FAC efforts. Portions of the FAC-specific ED&I efforts have been presented at the Beryl Institute’s Annual Elevate PX international conference in both 2021 and 2022, and presenters included both volunteer FAC members and FAC leadership/staff.

In February 2020 the Office of Experience launched the Boston Children’s Suggestion Box tool, which was an idea from our hospitalwide Family Advisory Council. This tool is available from the main page of our external website and gathers anonymous submissions regarding facilities, comfort/hospitality, the patient portal, billing, etc.

Launched in 2017, this 100 percent patient and family nomination driven recognition program was inspired by our Family Advisory Council, which wanted to be able to say “thank you” to members of the Boston Children’s community who went above and beyond to make a difference in a patient’s and/or a family’s experience. Patients and families vote to determine annual recipients of the Best in Care Award.

During the pandemic, in response to the increased volume of patients and families seeking care and shelter at Boston Children’s, the Family Advisory Council came together in partnership with Social Work to launch the Care Bundles Program.

The Care Bundles Program is supported by Social Work and managed by the Boston Children’s Hospital Family Advisory Council. Together, we work to provide patients and families receiving care at Boston Children’s with care and comfort items that let them know their needs are important to us.

For more information about the Family Advisory Council, please see its Family Advisory Council Annual Report.