Remaking American Medicine | Becoming an Empowered Patient or Caregiver

Becoming an Empowered Patient or Caregiver

Condition H (Condition Help)

What is Patient- and Family- Centered Care?

Are you receiving patient- and family-centered centered care?

Creating partnerships for quality and safety in care (available at our PBS.org companion site):

Listening to Sorrel King tell her tragic story left a lasting impression with me — "If I would have been able to call a Rapid Response Team, I can’t help but think Josie would be here today." —
Providing the highest quality care for patients and their families is UPMC Shadyside's history. I knew that we had to bring a family life line (Condition H) to our patients.

Tami Merryman, Vice President
Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation

UPMC Shadyside's "Condition H" brochure

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Shadyside is dedicated to making the hospital a safe place for patient care to happen. After meeting Sorrel King and learning about the tragedy with her daughter Josie, Vice President of the Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation, Tami Merryman (formally VP Patient Care Services, Shadyside), knew that empowering patients and families to call for help when they are unable to get the attention of a healthcare provider during a critical event was the right thing to do. The "Josie King Call Line – Condition H" was created. Now, simply dialing #3-3131 brings immediate help via a trained "Rapid Response Team."

Patients are educated about the program by admitting nurses on admission. In the program's first year, 35 Condition H calls were made... 75% by actual patients. During the follow-up meeting the day after their call, patients have shared that the nurses responding to Condition H calls meet their needs 100% of the time.

The majority of calls fall into one of the following categories: medical management concerns, dietary issues, psychosocial issues, discharge related issues, physician order clarification needs, pain control concerns, or an issue with the healthcare team. It is believed that 69% of Condition H calls made prevented patient harm from happening. Data collection and analysis will continue.

To date Shadyside Hospital is one of the very few hospitals in the country to have responded to Sorrell King's tragedy in this way. As a result, UPMC's Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation receives phone calls everyday from other hospitals across the country trying to learn how they too can implement such a program in their hospital.

Download UPMC Shadyside's "Condition H" brochure (1300KB PDF)

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