Hope Collins has been named senior director of Patient and Family Engagement for Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
In her new role, Collins will oversee patient and family councils that advise individual Vanderbilt hospital entities from the patient/family perspective. Vanderbilt was among the first group of academic medical centers to create such councils to emphasize patient and family engagement and partnership in improving quality and service. Collins succeeds Terrell Smith, MSN, RN, who pioneered the role for Vanderbilt and recently retired.
Collins joined Vanderbilt in 2012 as manager of Interpreter Services, the enterprise-wide service that helps patients who are deaf, hard of hearing, visually impaired or who speak limited English. As senior director of Patient and Family Engagement, she will continue to oversee Interpreter Services and will now oversee Patient Education and Health Literacy, Volunteer Services, Pastoral Care and Project SEARCH, which offers job opportunities to people with developmental disabilities.
“We are very excited for Hope to take on the role of senior director of Patient and Family Engagement at Vanderbilt University Medical Center,” said David Haynes, MD, MMHC, Chief Patient Experience Officer. “Her innovative work as director of Interpreter Services was legendary. Her work helped to not only provide equitable access to care for all patients at VUMC, but also facilitated this care for clinicians in both inpatient and ambulatory settings across the enterprise.”
Like Smith, who volunteered in the Peace Corps in Brazil, Collins served in the Peace Corps in Cabo Verde, a country comprising a group of islands off the west coast of Africa. There, she learned the Portuguese-based creole local language, Kabuverdianu. Prior to joining Vanderbilt, she was director of Interpretation and Translation Services with the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (now Tennessee Language Center) for 10 years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Public Administration degree from Tennessee State University.
“I am honored to be stepping into this role,” Collins said. “Patient and family engagement has been an important part of my work here for more than 10 years, and I am excited about continuing this work with our patient and family advisors, providers and staff across Vanderbilt Health. Working together, we improve the patient experience and increase staff engagement.”
In her new role, Collins oversees patient-family advisory councils for multiple entities, including Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt (the Medical Center’s first council, which started in 1995), Vanderbilt University Hospital, Vanderbilt Behavioral Health, Vanderbilt Wilson County Hospital, Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital and Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital.
The work is familiar to Collins. For the last three years, she worked with Smith to create and develop a Spanish-speaking patient and family advisory group, gleaning insights about how to improve wayfinding and patient records. In her new role, Collins will also oversee other advisory groups, such as Adult Lung Transplant and Metro Nashville Public Schools clinics, which are operated by Vanderbilt.
“I am excited to welcome Hope to this important role on the forefront of patient- and family-centered care,” said Karen Keady, PhD, RN, System Chief Nursing Officer. “She is deeply invested in our Vanderbilt culture and is passionate about elevating our patient experience. I know this work is in good hands with Hope.”
Another effort Collins oversees is Advise Vanderbilt, an online advisor community. The program is open to anyone interested in improving the patient experience at Vanderbilt — including patients, faculty and staff — at advisevanderbilt.com. Participants respond to regular surveys that gauge patient experiences.
Collins said she would like to expand the use of patient advisors throughout the enterprise to glean new insights.
“I am also excited about the staff-facing part of this role, including building on relationships already established with colleagues in the departments that are part of Patient and Family Engagement, as well as building trust and rapport with colleagues throughout Vanderbilt Health,” she said.
