News Release

Medical professionals embrace patient-focused care revolution

ACCP introduces new patient-focused care strategy and pledge during CHEST 2003

Business Announcement

American College of Chest Physicians

(Orlando, Florida, October 26, 2003) -- Hundreds of physicians and health-care providers today formally adopted the concept of practicing patient-focused care by taking the inaugural Patient-Focused Care Pledge instituted by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), signifying the first time a specialty medical society has announced an initiative of this kind. The Patient-Focused Care Pledge was introduced as part of the Convocation Ceremony at CHEST 2003, the international scientific assembly of the ACCP, held October 25-30, in Orlando, Florida. With support from other health-care organizations, the ACCP will utilize the Pledge as the foundation for an initiative specifically designed to develop interdisciplinary models of patient-focused care for use in hospitals, health-care systems, and health-care education programs around the country.

"As medical professionals, we have been listening to the concerns of our patients, patient advocacy organizations, and government institutions regarding the deficiencies of modern American medicine. And in this time, we have seen our patients lose faith in their physicians, insurance companies, and the health-care industry as a whole," said Richard S. Irwin, MD, FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians. "We are in the midst of a health-care revolution, and it is time for all who provide health care to practice patient-focused care and recapture the respect and goodwill of the American public. Although our Pledge will not change the attitudes of health-care providers, patients, and the American public overnight, it is just the beginning of a larger objective to ensure that every patient, every family, and every human being receive the best possible medical care."

Recent reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, patient advocacy groups, and medical institutions, suggest that the health-care industry is in a rapid decline, citing rising health-care costs, medical mistakes, the growing uninsured population, racial inequalities in patient care, reimbursement challenges, and the critical care work force shortage as just a few of the industry's deficiencies. The ACCP recognized these disparities and created the Patient-Focused Care Pledge that emphasizes the health-care provider's role as a patient advocate and underscores the provider's responsibility to provide patient-focused care whenever and wherever he or she cares for patients. The Pledge also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary patient care and the elements of lifelong learning and continuous quality improvement for all health-care providers.

Unanimously approved by the ACCP Board of Regents in June 2003, the Pledge will serve as the cornerstone of a much larger initiative to apply the patient-focused care concept to all medical specialties, practice types, and health-care domains. To realize the idea of interdisciplinary care, the ACCP will use the Pledge as a guide in creating a series of interdisciplinary models that hospitals, health-care systems, education programs, and individual medical professionals can use to implement the Pledge in their areas of patient care. To broaden the scope of the project, the ACCP will invite other health-care organizations to develop and formalize the models and work on a strategy for integrating the models into practice eventually on a worldwide basis through its global membership.

"This important initiative driven by our partners and colleagues at the ACCP is a call to all physicians, nurses, and other critical care professionals that our practice must continue to be centered around patient and family needs, even in these turbulent times for health care," said Dorrie Fontaine, RN, DNSc, FAAN, President of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN). "Escalating financial pressures and alarming workforce shortages make it imperative that physicians and nurses actively work together to establish new patient-focused practice models. The combined efforts of the AACN and the ACCP will establish a strong leadership force in effecting meaningful change in our hospitals and heath systems on behalf of the critically ill patients we serve."

In addition to ACCP and AACN leaders, health-care professionals from seven leading medical societies recited the Pledge, symbolizing their commitment to providing patient-focused care in their areas of practice. The ACCP will invite its membership to take the Pledge each year to remind them of their responsibility to patients and will encourage other medical societies and health-care institutions to adopt the Pledge.

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CHEST 2003 is the 69th annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians, being held in Orlando, October 25-30. ACCP represents more than 15,700 members who provide clinical respiratory, critical care, and cardiothoracic patient care in the United States and throughout the world. ACCP's mission is to promote the prevention and treatment of diseases of the chest through leadership, education, research, and communication.


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