Welcome to the CMS Person and Family Engagement Network

We’re Putting Patients First

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Person and Family Engagement Network (PFEN) is a collection of patients, families, advocates and caregivers who are interested in participating in groups or technical expert panels that help develop quality measures. PFEN is CMS’ primary way to recruit persons and families of all backgrounds and experiences to bring their perceptions into CMS’ quality measurement goals for Medicare and Medicaid. The experiences and insights of our members contribute to the development of measures that are impactful to better health and quality of care.

What Are CMS Quality Measures?

Quality measures are tools that help measure or quantify healthcare processes, outcomes, patient perscpetives and organizational structures and systems. These tools have the ability to support high quality healthcare and quality healthcare goals. These goals include effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable and timely care with the patients’ needs as the focus.

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PFEN Members

PFEN members are a diverse group of individuals from all backgrounds that contribute their insight to CMS’ goal of quality measurement through various tasks and projects. Members participate on technical expert panels, work groups or interviews based on their interests.

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PFEN News and Opportunities

PFEN offers exclusive opportunities for participation on quality measures projects and continued education for its members. Measure developers work closely with PFEN to recruit and train PFEN members for various measure development projects that span a wide variety of topics and objectives.

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What Our Members Say

"I was involved in a Technical Expert Panel that studied hospital outcome measurement for patients with social risk factors. This was a very rewarding experience since the materials were easy to understand, the conversations between experts, patients, advocates, and other members of the group were always respectful, insightful, and inspiring, and the effect of these conversations were easy to see in the outcomes of the TEP."

Advocate, PFE Network

"I was very excited to join a technical expert panel to discuss the hospital rating systems. I appreciated the measure developers valuing my experiences and opinions to drive change in this area. Patients have choices where they can receive care. This system can work as a guide to help them navigate where the best choices are available to them."

Family Caregiver, PFE Network Member

"I was a consumer on a CMS Technical Expert Panel that focused on several Hospital Harm Performance Measures. During our discussions, the other members of the panel listened to and valued my contributions to the discussions. I learned so much from the other TEP members about possible ramifications of the measure that I hadn't considered, just as they learned about aspects of the measure from a patient's perspective."

Patient, PFE Network Member

What Our Measure Developers Say

"Patients and their families and other caregivers are the primary consumers of inpatient psychiatric services. Their view on what is important for high-quality inpatient psychiatric care may differ from what professionals identify as most important, but both views are equally vital and thus it is important for our team to have their perspective and input on the technical expert panel. It is vital to engage health care consumers when working to improve the care provided in inpatient settings."

Research Analyst, Mathematica Policy Research

"Working with persons and families has been invaluable. Patients and caregivers manage health conditions, undergo medical procedures, and communicate with medical professionals to make healthcare decisions. These experiences develop in them a unique expertise critical for developing quality measures that advance patient-centered care. Their expertise complements our other technical and content experts. They impact methodology decisions for Hospital Star Ratings, healthcare disparities, and new measures such as hospital-wide mortality, harm, and patient-reported outcome performance measures."

Person & Family Engagement Team, Yale/YNHH Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation