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 provide valuable 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, gather 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 Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) at the Medical Center and across the UMass Memorial Health system that gather feedback from patients and families. These include:

UMass Memorial Medical Center PFAC

• Medical Center PFAC
• Cancer Center PFAC
• Children's Medical Center (CMC) PFAC
• Cystic Fibrosis PFAC
• LGBTQIA+ PFAC
• Maternity PFAC
• MassHealth ACO PFAC
• NICU PFAC
• Psychiatry PFAC
• Barre Health Center PFAC
• Tri-River Health Center PFAC

To learn more about joining a PFAC at the Medical Center, please fill the PFAC Inquiry Form. We look forward to hearing from you! 

Marlborough Hospital PFAC

• To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at Marlborough Hospital, send us an email.

Milford Regional PFAC

• To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at Milford Regional visit the PFAC page, or contact Kellie Karpouzis at 508-422-2648.

HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital PFAC

• To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at HealthAlliance-Clinton:
  • Fill out the HealthAlliance-Clinton PFAC application form or
  • Contact Melissa Tuomi, PFAC Co-Chair at mtuomi@healthalliance.com or 978-466-2441.

Harrington PFAC

• To learn more about becoming a PFAC member at Harrington, fill out this form.

PFAC Annual Reports

HealthAlliance-Clinton 2023 PFAC Annual Report