Bellevue Medical Center has once again been awarded Gold Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care by Planetree International. This Person-Centered Care Certification recognizes the organization’s achievement and innovation in the delivery of person-centered care. Bellevue Medical Center is one of only 97 healthcare organizations worldwide, and the only organization in Lebanon, to earn this prestigious award!
Gold Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care represents the highest level of achievement in person-centered care, based on evidence and standards. Person-centered healthcare prioritizes the active participation of patients and their families throughout the healthcare process with an emphasis on partnership, compassion, transparency, inclusion, and quality.
“The Planetree Certification is the only award that recognizes excellence in person-centeredness across the continuum of care,” said Susan Frampton, President of Planetree International, a not-for-profit organization that has been at the forefront of the movement to transform healthcare from the perspective of patients for more than 40 years. “This Gold Certification signals to its patients, and community that Bellevue Medical Center is an organization where staff partner with patients and families, and where patient and family comfort, dignity, empowerment and well-being are prioritized as key elements of providing top-quality clinical care.”
The criteria that Bellevue Medical Center satisfied to achieve Planetree Gold Certification reflect what patients, residents, family members and healthcare professionals in hundreds of focus groups say matters most to them during a healthcare experience. This qualitative data aligns with the growing evidence-base for person-centered care, and establishes the Person-Centered Care Certification Program as a concrete framework for defining and measuring excellence in person-centeredness.
The criteria address components of a person-centered healthcare experience, including the quality of patient-provider interactions, access to information, family involvement and the physical environment of care. Importantly, the criteria also focus on how the organization supports staff, opportunities for staff, patients, and families to have a voice in the way care is delivered, and the ways that Bellevue Medical Center is reaching beyond its walls to care for its community.
As part of the Certification process — which included a validation assessment by representatives from Planetree — discussion with Bellevue Medical Center patients, families and current staff validated that specific person-centered policies are in place, including non-restrictive visiting hours and a shared medical record policy; that staff members at all levels are involved in the implementation of person-centered care; and that the organization’s physical environment supports patient and family engagement in their care. The process also included a review of the organization’s performance on patient experience and quality of care measures, and how the measurement of these indicators improves organizational outcomes.