Patient and Family Advisory Councils at Sutter Health

Patient and Family Advisors (PFAs) are volunteers who work in partnership with leaders, care providers and staff to collaborate on ways of improving the patient and family experience at Sutter Health. Advisors share their experiences and unique perspectives to help us identify areas where we are doing well and pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Specific activities may include:

• Providing input on practices and policies that patients and families find meaningful and useful in helping them be active partners in their care.
• Sharing insight to provide a fuller picture of the care experience than standard patient and family satisfaction surveys provide. Helping identify and implement ways to improve care quality, safety and experience for all patients and families.

• Any patient who has received care in the last five years.
• Family members whose loved one has received care in the last five years are also invited to participate.
• Advisors should be available to volunteer four or more hours per month.
• Advisors should be able to share their perspectives, experiences and suggestions in a variety of settings.
• Advisors need to have the ability to see beyond their personal experiences and respect the diversity of differing opinions.

The Online Patient & Family Advisory (PFA) Community is a group of volunteers who help shape the future of health offerings and the patient experience at Sutter Health in an easy and time effective way by filling out focused topic surveys on a periodic basis.

These online surveys may include asking for specific input or feedback on digital health services such as telehealth, patient safety and disease prevention education, initiatives to help improve the patient and family experience, and many more!

Volunteers simply sign up to receive emails that contain surveys to fill out based on the health topics that they are interested in. The time commitment is up to 10 minutes a month and signing up is as easy as filling out the following form.