Patient and Family Advisory Council

Patients and their families play an important role in helping improve our hospitals in Humboldt County – Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka and Providence Redwood Memorial Hospital. We’re excited to announce that we’re recruiting advisors for our Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC).

The purpose of a PFAC is to:

  • Bring patient or family needs and concerns to hospital leadership
  • Gain feedback on quality and safety efforts taking place in our hospitals
  • Guide future planning efforts
  • Improve the overall patient experience and satisfaction
  • Strengthen relationships between our hospitals and the community

Our goal is to include the voices of patients and families in the important decisions that we make to provide care. We’re looking for community members who are interested in serving on our council and providing constructive feedback to improve the health care experience for everyone.

Apply to be a patient and family advisor

We hope that you’re interested in this opportunity and look forward to receiving your application.

Applications can be submitted electronically.

Apply to Be an Advisor

Join Us and Help Improve Patient Care

Patients and their families play a vital role in helping shape safer, more compassionate care at our hospital. Learn more about what you’ll do as a patient and family advisor and how you can help drive meaningful changes in our community.

Mother and daughter researching on laptop smiling

A patient and family advisor:

  • Aims to improve quality of care for all
  • May serve for short- or long-term commitments, depending on the project
  • Partners with administrators, doctors and nurses to enhance care planning
  • Represents the voices of patients and families
  • Shares feedback based on their own experiences as a patient or family member
  • Volunteers 1-4 hours per month

At Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka, patient and family advisors provide feedback and ideas to help us improve the quality and safety of care that we provide.

Ask yourself:

  • Are there programs or services that could better support the community if they were available?
  • Do you have ideas about how to make sure other patients and families get the best care possible?
  • When you or your family member were in the hospital, were there things that the hospital could have done better?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, we encourage you to apply and join our PFAC.

You can be an advisor if you or a family member received care at Providence St. Joseph Hospital Eureka within the last five years.

No special qualifications are needed to become an advisor.

What’s most important is your experience as a patient or family member of a patient that received care from us. We’ll provide you with any additional training.

Advisors may be asked to:

  • Participate in discussion groups. Advisors tell us what it’s like to be a patient at our hospital and what we can improve.
  • Review or help create educational or informational materials. Advisors assist with materials like forms, health information handouts and discharge instructions. Advisors help make these materials easier for all patients and family members to understand and use.
  • Serve on a council. Share insights with other advisors, patients, family members and hospital staff.
  • Share your story. Advisors help by talking about their health care experiences with clinicians, staff and other patients.
  • Work on short-term projects. We sometimes ask advisors to partner with us in making improvements – for example, helping to plan and design a family resource room.