Rachel Rogovin, MSW, LICSW, Director of Clinical Services at Team IMPACT and Josh Walker, Regional Executive Director, Mid-Atlantic at Team IMPACT reflect on their presentation ‘Why This Matters’ at Press Ganey’s 2023 Pediatrics Summit
Last month, we had the opportunity to attend and present at the Press Ganey 2023 Pediatrics Summit, an annual gathering dedicated to improving the patient care experience for children and their families at every point in the healthcare journey. Speakers from some of the nation’s leading children’s hospitals shared their expertise and experience.
Attending any professional conference can be transformative, offering a unique opportunity to connect with experts in the field, expand your knowledge, and network with like-minded professionals. The Press Ganey 2023 Pediatrics Summit was no different! We enjoyed three days of learning, collaboration and networking, leaving inspired to continue our work in supporting children with serious illness and disability in the communities in which they live, work, and receive their healthcare. The conference agenda focused on a wide variety of topics related to delivering high-quality and high-reliability healthcare to children and their families.
As we listened to presentation after presentation from experts around the country, several key themes emerged. Our takeaway was clear – never before had Team IMPACT been better positioned to assist our children’s hospital partners around the country.
We were honored to present the Summit’s closing keynote, “Why This Matters: Providing Outcomes that Change Lives.” In addition to sharing our mission, providing an overview of our innovative program model, and presenting recent outcomes data, we were fortunate to be joined on stage by one of Team IMPACT families. Thirteen-year-old Max White and his mom, Brooke, shared their story with attendees. Max lives with a rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and was matched with University of Vermont Men’s Soccer in February 2020 at the age of 10. Max and his family have built a relationship with UVM Men’s Soccer that will last a lifetime. “His life is about so much more than his illness, which has always been my goal as his parent. But the truth is that Team IMPACT helped me achieve that goal way more than I could ever do on my own,” said Brooke.
Finally, we would like to take the opportunity to specifically give a shout-out to the following presenters for inspiring us during our time at the Summit:
- Amy Knight, MHA, President of the Children’s Hospital Association, encouraged attendees to seek collaboration outside the walls of their institutions and build bridges with unlikely partners who may offer unique perspectives and talents in supporting the work of children’s hospitals to provide holistic care beyond medical treatment alone.
- Kathy Gorman, MSN, RN, FAAN, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Children’s National Medical Center, inspired us with a deeply personal recounting of her own health journey, highlighting the importance of the patient experience.
- Carolyn Quinn, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, Executive Director of Northwell Health- Cohen Children’s Medical Center challenged us to look at where families need their medical care by asking, where do patients live? And what does true access to care look like?
- Chrissy Daniels, MS, Chief Experience Officer at Press Ganey talked about how building authentic teams – they know each other, trust each other, and would not want to let each other down – influences patient and employee experience across the board.
- From Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, David Rubin, MD, MSCE, Director and Betsy Brooks, MPH, Program Director of Population Health Innovation, and Kim Smith-Whitley, MD, Attending Physician, talked about improving care for patients in the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program through a unique data analytics tool and team-based approach.
- Jennifer Simonetti DNP, RN, NPD-BC, CPN, Director of Nursing, and Sharon Goodman, MA, RN-BC, CPNP, Nurse Educator, from Northwell Health- Cohen Children’s Medical Centershared BEE MINDFUL™, a novel program for children with special needs in healthcare that individualizes care and provides a safe place for healing and wellness.