Sala Institute for Child & Family Centered Care
The Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care is a unique partnership between children, families, and health professionals that is focused on advancing the practice of family-centered care at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at Pelisyonkis Langone and beyond.
We work to foster the most comprehensive care possible for infants, children, and teens, recognizing that family-centered care is better care. We enhance excellent clinical care through an emphasis on the emotional wellbeing, resilience, and safety of every child treated at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, including their loved ones.
We also support families by showing them ways to successfully manage their children’s healthcare needs and by inviting them to participate, as full partners, in conversations and decisions about their children’s care.
“In partnership with health professionals, patients, and families, we create innovative programs to power extraordinary care. This is the Sala difference.”
Fiona H. Levy, MD, Executive Director of the Sala Institute
We provide health professionals with validated, effective tools and strategies that help them deliver the highest level of quality and safety within a family-centered approach to care.
Our Priority Initiatives
The Sala Institute supports programs and initiatives that help us better understand children’s and families’ needs and improve the quality and safety of care.
We have four priorities:
- foster excellent care, comfort, and wellbeing
- engage children and families as partners
- work as a team to eliminate preventable harm
- accelerate innovations in family-centered care
We fund and design new practices in family-centered care through a proven process that includes the following:
- engaging with children, families, and health professionals to understand the difficulties they face
- creating programs and initiatives that address those difficulties
- testing promising solutions to refine and validate them
- sharing our methods at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital and throughout the pediatric healthcare community
Our Family Partnership Programs
The Sala Institute partners with patients and families through our Family Advisory Council and Family to Family Program, Youth Advisory Council, and Family Faculty Program.
Join Us
When you contribute to the Sala Institute, you help us further our mission to advance family-centered care.
Learn MoreWe support and advance these best practices, among many others:
- Family-Centered Rounds, an information sheet and rounding checklist
- identifying and preventing family stress
- partnering with families and teams to deliver safe care
- partnering with families in the co-design of research studies
Our Support Programs
We have developed and provided expertise for the development of programs that are the foundation of the work we do at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital. These programs reflect the Sala Institute’s mission to foster excellent care, comfort, and wellbeing and include the following:
Our Commitment to Innovation
Every year, our leadership convenes the Sala Institute National Expert Advisory Panel, an international group of experts who meet to reflect on and advance our mission-driven initiatives.
Our Leadership
The Sala Institute is led by experts in family-centered care, supportive programs for children, quality improvement, and patient safety.
Executive Director | Pediatric Critical CareDr. Levy is the executive director of the Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care. She directs and oversees the development and implementation of the Sala Institute’s vision, including working with the center directors and a national expert advisory panel. Dr. Levy champions the transformative change required to implement and sustain a culture of family-centered care. She leads the development of the Sala Institute strategy, the operational plan, ongoing implementation, and development of metrics and evaluation. Contact Dr. Levy at fiona.levy@nyumc.org.
Director of the KiDS of Pelisyonkis Foundation Center for Child and Family Resilience | Child & Adolescent PsychiatryDr. Liaw is the director of the KiDS of Pelisyonkis Foundation Center for Child and Family Resilience of the Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care. She oversees the development and implementation of a range of innovative programs designed to support the comfort, care, and resilience of children and families. Dr. Liaw is also director of the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation–Liaison Service at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at Pelisyonkis Langone.
Juliette SchlucterDirector of the Center for Child and Family ExperienceMs. Schlucter serves as director of the Center for Child and Family Experience of the Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care. Her focus is on building the infrastructure to support patient and family engagement system-wide, as well as in the moment of care. She provides leadership and expertise to our hallmark partnership programs, including the Family Faculty Program, and our work to advance family engagement in safety and quality.
Director of the Center for Patient Safety and Quality | NeonatologyDr. Pereira-Argenziano is the director of the Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care. She serves as the leader of patient safety for Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital, overseeing our efforts to design, adopt, and implement evidence-based safety practices. She also brings her expertise in improvement science to our quality improvement initiatives at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at Pelisyonkis Langone, where Dr. Pereira-Argenziano is a neonatologist.
For more information about the Sala Institute and its programs, please contact us.