Planetree International Recognizes Episcopal Health Services – St. John’s Episcopal Hospital for Excellence In Person-centered Care

Far Rockaway, New York, January 16, 2026 — Episcopal Health Services – St. John’s Episcopal Hospital (EHS) has once again been awarded Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care by Planetree. This Silver level Person-Centered Care Certification® recognizes the organization’s achievement and innovation in the delivery of person-centered care. 

EHS is one of only 40 organizations worldwide to be Certified for Excellence in Person-Centered Care at the Silver level!

What distinguishes Planetree Certification among other health care quality awards is its distinctive focus on person-centered care, defined as a model of care delivery in which health care professionals partner with patients and families to identify and satisfy the full range of patient needs and preferences. The award is conferred based on a variety of factors, including performance improvement on traditional quality indicators, review of policy documents and, most importantly, how patients and staff assess the organization’s person-centered culture. Silver Certification was awarded to EHS following a series of focus groups with patients and their loved ones, as well as staff from a multitude of disciplines and divisions within the organization. Considered collectively, these discussions with patients and staff attested to a genuine culture of person-centered care.

“The experience of EHS shows what can be accomplished when a team of deeply committed, supremely innovative and highly-driven caregivers take the courageous leap to re-define priorities and re-organize systems to put patients first,” Michael Giuliano, President of Planetree International, a not-for-profit organization that has been at the forefront of the movement to transform healthcare from the perspective of patients for over 45 years.

“Planetree Silver redesignation confirms that person-centered care has remained a foundational operating principle at EHS,” said Donald T. Morrish, MD, MMM, Chief Executive Officer of Episcopal Health Services. “Through periods of transformation, investment and growth, our physicians, nurses and team members have sustained care that is clinically strong, operationally sound, and defined by dignity, respect and partnership with every patient.”

“This redesignation demonstrates that the patient and family voices continue to be systematically integrated into how care is delivered at EHS,” said Edison Bond Jr., MPH, MDiv, DMin, EdD, CPXP, ACTCP, Chief Patient Experience Officer of EHS. “From how feedback is collected and analyzed to how teams communicate and make care decisions, we have built processes that keep the experience aligned with what matters most to patients and families.”

The achievement of Silver Certification by EHS is a significant milestone in the organization’s culture change journey, evidencing that effective policies, practices, tools, and systems are in place to meet a broad range of patient, family, and professional health caregiver needs and preferences.  

“Planetree awards Silver Certification in Person-Centered Care to celebrate organizations’ progress along the culture change journey,” said Giuliano. “In this spirit, we look forward to witnessing how the team at EHS builds on this achievement to take its commitment to delivering person-centered care to even greater heights.”

The criteria that EHS satisfied to achieve Planetree Silver Certification reflect what patients, residents, family members and healthcare professionals in hundreds of focus groups say matters most to them during a healthcare experience. This qualitative data aligns with the growing evidence-base for person-centered care, and establishes the Person-Centered Care Certification Program as a concrete framework for defining and measuring excellence in person-centeredness.

The criteria address components of a person-centered healthcare experience, including the quality of patient-provider interactions, access to information, family involvement and the physical environment of care. Importantly, the criteria also focus on how the organization supports staff, opportunities for staff, patients, and families to have a voice in the way care is delivered, and the ways that EHS is reaching beyond its walls to care for its community.

As part of the Certification process — which included a site visit assessment by representatives from Planetree — discussion with EHS patients, families and current staff validated that specific person-centered policies are in place. The process also included a review of the organization’s performance on patient experience and quality of care measures, and how measurement of these indicators improves organizational outcomes.

For more information on Planetree’s Person-Centered Care Certification® Program, including the criteria, the application process and more, visit planetree.org/certification.