Patient and Family Advisory Councils
What Is a Patient and Family Advisory Council?
Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) at UMass Memorial Medical Center and across the UMass Memorial Health System are made up of current and former patients, and caregivers, who dedicate their time to working on hospital and outpatient Patient/Family Experience projects and initiatives.
Our volunteer Patient and Family Advisors play a vital role in helping us promote safe and comprehensive patient- and family-centered care by sharing their feedback, suggestions, and ideas for improvement. Learning about our PFAC members' care experiences and listening to their perspectives and stories allows for a dynamic exchange of information that static patient experience measurement tools such as surveys lack.
Over the years our PFACs have provided feedback for countless projects within the organization including better nurse-to-patient communication, improving wayfinding, reviewing renovation plans for patient rooms, evaluating menu options, and helping design/edit written materials to ensure they are easy to understand and patient/family friendly.
How to Work With a PFAC
Patient and Family Advisory Councils are qualified to give feedback in many ways. Each PFAC typically meets monthly to discuss ongoing projects or hear from subject matter experts. Health care providers and staff attend meetings to give updates, solicit feedback from our patients and families for process improvement projects, and/or recruit PFAC members for quality and safety improvement initiatives.
PFACs Across UMass Memorial Health
There are several PFACs at the Medical Center and within the UMass Memorial Health system established to facilitate feedback from patients and family members. They include:
UMass Memorial Medical Center
- Medical Center PFAC
- Cancer Center PFAC
- Children's Medical Center (CMC) PFAC
- Cystic Fibrosis PFAC
- LGBTQIA+ PFAC
- Maternity PFAC
- NICU PFAC
- Psych PFAC
- Barre Health Center PFAC
- Tri-River Health Center PFAC
Marlborough Hospital PFAC
- To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at Marlborough Hospital, send us an email.
Milford Regional
- To learn more about become a PFAC member at Milford Regional, contact Kellie Karpouzis at 508-422-2648.
HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital PFAC
- To learn more about becoming a FPAC member at HealthAlliance-Clinton, Contact Melissa Tuomi, PFAC Co-Chair at mtuomi@healthalliance.com or 978-466-2441.
Harrington
- To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at Harrington, fill out this form.
PFAC Annual Reports
HealthAlliance-Clinton 2023 PFAC Annual Report