Patient And Family Advisor

Special Projects

Apply to volunteer as a Patient and Family Advisor »

How we do the work:

Virginia Mason Memorial provides the opportunity for Patient and Family Advisors to provide direct input on what is most important to them about their care. In this way, they can help implement meaningful and effective quality and safety improvements.

Advisors can contribute by:

• Participating in discussion groups. Virginia Mason Memorial can gather patient and family advisors together for a meeting to get feedback on a specific process or resource for patients and families.
• Revising or helping create educational or informational materials for patients and families. Patient and family advisors can work with Virginia Mason Memorial to help create or revise forms, letters, handouts, instructions, and other materials.
• Serving on a committee or workgroup. Hospital or unit committees and workgroups can invite patient and family advisors to participate for a short time period to get feedback and ideas on a specific topic.

Why should you become involved?

When you or your family member was in the hospital, did you think there were things we could have done better or do you have ideas about how to make sure other patients and families get the best care possible?

Who can participate?

You can be an advisor if you or a family member received care at Virginia Mason Memorial, in the last 5 years.

What’s most important is your experience as a patient or family member. We will provide you with any other training you need.

What can you expect during your time on a special project?

• Brainstorming and creativity activities with the staff that do the work
• Sharing the patient perspective
• Reviewing and learning about current processes

What is the commitment?

There are different levels of time commitment, from a onetime meeting to several key meetings in a row. 

We look forward to working with you as we transform healthcare

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Process Improvement

Apply to volunteer as a Patient and Family Advisor

How we do the work:

The Virginia Mason Production System, better known as VMPS, is a management methodology that has propelled Virginia Mason Health System to achieve high-quality, patient-centered care. The principles of VMPS are based on the Toyota Production System Model. And while the concepts can be difficult to understand at first, the end result is a proven practice of thinking and acting in a way that always benefits patients and families while removing waste along the way (waste is any task or item that does not add value from the perspective of the customer).  We make these improvements through focused Kaizen Events or continuous process improvement events.

Why should you become involved?

When you or your family member was in the hospital, did you think there were things we could have done better?

Do you have ideas about how to make sure other patients and families get the best care possible?

At Virginia Mason Memorial, patient and family advisors give us feedback and ideas to help us improve the quality and safety of care we provide.

Who can participate?

You can be an advisor if you or a family member received healthcare services in the last 5 years.

You do not need any special qualifications to be an advisor.

What’s most important is your experience as a patient or family member. We will provide you with any other training you need.

What can you expect during the event?

• Brainstorming and creativity activities with staff that do the work
• Direct observations where the work is being done
• Actively testing ideas with a team
• Sharing the patient perspective
• Reviewing and learning of current processes

What is the commitment?

There are different levels of time commitment you can choose:

• Personal interview (1-2 hours)
• Panel participation (1-3 hours)
• Visioning Day (1 day event)
• Kaizen Event (2 Day event)
• Rapid Process Improvement Workshop (RPIW 5 day event)

We look forward to working with you as we transform healthcare

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Advisory Council

Apply to volunteer as a Patient and Family Advisor

How we do the work:

The Virginia Mason Memorial Patient and Family Advisory Council is a formal group of patient and family representatives, clinicians, administrators and organizational leaders that meet once a month to discuss issues that matter.  It's an opportunity to offer feedback about how we're doing and to share ideas for improvement. Virginia Mason Memorial leaders and clinicians use the information and recommendations generated from these discussions to continually improve patient and family care throughout the organization.

Why should you become involved?

When you or your family member was in the hospital, did you think there were things we could have done better or do you have ideas about how to make sure other patients and families get the best care possible?

Who can participate?

You can be an advisor if you or a family member received care at Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital, in the last 5 years.

You do not need any special qualifications to be an advisor.

Council members are encouraged to communicate and cooperate in productive ways, respecting diversity and differing opinions, in order to collaborate on solutions. Members must adhere to confidentiality requirements and other responsibilities of the program. All members must be 18 years of age or older.

What can you expect during your time on the Council?

• Ensure the community has a voice in how health care is administered in the Yakima Valley
• Collaborate to improve the quality of service we provide
• Help evaluate policies, programs and practices to identify opportunities to improve patient and family satisfaction
• Generate and discuss new ideas to drive initiatives

What is the commitment?

The Patient and Family Advisory Council meets one time each month for 1.5 hours. 

We look forward to working with you as we transform healthcare.