By Candace Zafirellis
Stephanie Pratico, children’s special needs and family care expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), will give a lecture at Mercer County Community College at noon on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in the Communications Building, room 107. The discussion, “Patient and Family-Centered Care,” is part of the college’s Spring Distinguished Lecture Series held at the West Windsor campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. The event is free and open to the public.
In her lecture, Pratico will define the principles of patient and family-centered care, and how increased communication between providers, patients and families facilitates a partnership within the healthcare team. Through personal accounts she will discuss how this model of care improves the quality and safety of healthcare outcomes.
“When I had my children and spent more time at CHOP than at home, I was faced with many challenging, complex and at times life-threatening situations,” said Pratico. “I became immersed in healthcare, and was approached by the hospital administration to become a more formal part of the organization.”
A member of the CHOP family faculty for the last ten years, Pratico has been involved with family care at the hospital through various roles, starting out as family advisor, family faculty, and Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) fellow. She then went on to become the Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) program coordinator. Pratico has served as Healthy Athletes Program Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey since 2009, and has worked in various capacities for Advanced Biomedical Research, Inc., the Arc/Mercer, Inc., and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
An alumna of MCCC with an A.A.S. degree in Business, Pratico serves on the Board of Education for Hamilton Township School District, was a founding member of the Mayor’s Commission for Special Needs in Hamilton Township, and served on the Board of Directors for Arc/Mercer, Inc. In 2008, she was named Young Professional of the Year by Robert Wood Johnson University Foundation-Hamilton.
For more information on MCCC’s Distinguished Lecture Series, call 609-570-3324 or visit www.mccc.edu/events.

