2024 Patient Experience Summit

7:15am – 8:00am
Conference Registration & Networking Breakfast 

8:00am – 8:15am
Chairperson’s Opening Remarks 

8:15am – 9:00am
Strengthening Culture to Drive the Patient Experience
The success of any organization is dependent upon it’s culture. Organizations with weak cultures will have difficulty executing their strategy. This session will examine how a strong foundational culture can enable an organization to successfully execute it’s patient experience strategy. Focusing on essential aspects of a healthcare organization’s culture, integrating values for the patient experience into the culture, and educating your staff on specific culture related topics will drive exceptional patient experiences. A cultural growth cycle will be introduced to explain the impact of a strong culture on performance, organizational pride, reputation, higher volumes, physician retention, and resulting revenue growth.

James Castellone, MD, MBA
Chief Medical Officer
Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs
Eastern CT Health Network 

9:00am – 9:45am
Patient Experience: A Leadership Strategy
If you really want to provide a great patient experience, we must move from individual initiative to collective initiative. And who better than the people in charge, the leaders, to be able to get all the medical staff on board in the culture of service to patients. This session will explore how leaders can transform the patient experience. Topics to be discussed will include:

– How leaders should combine their efforts with the frontline staff to achieve exceptional experience

– The best way to improve care by involving frontline staff

– Why providers should consider the patient experience beyond their time in the hospital

– What is most important to healthcare workers to keep in mind to sustain high patient satisfaction

– What motivates care givers to create exceptional patient experiences

– Important characteristics for leaders who want to lead exceptional experience organizations

– Integrating quality, safety and patient experience

9:45am – 10:15am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:15am – 11:00am

Darryl Hollar, MS, MBA, MPH
Director, Digital Health           
Mount Sinai Health System 

11:00am – 11:45am
Stress Is Not Sustainable – Dealing With Today’s Burnout Reality
Employees are an organization’s greatest asset. Investing in their health and wellness is integral to employee engagement and is imperative to a successful customer experience. The organization’s ability to mitigate employee stress and prevent burnout is instrumental in achieving this. Hear how creating an organizational culture of wellness will positively impact the organization, improve the employee experience, and ultimately increase customer satisfaction.

Key Take-Aways:
– Insights on engagement, wellness and emotional support for employees
– Framework to optimize wellness through effective communication, empathy and compassion
– An understanding of stress indicators and burnout
– Best practices to manage stress and minimize its negative impact
– Fresh perspective on understanding the impacts of stress from multiple levels (the organization, leadership and colleagues and the individual)

David Weisman, Ph.D., CPXP, FPCC
Chief Experience Officer
NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens

11:45am – 12:30pm
Leveraging Technology to Improve Patient Experience
Patient engagement has been defined as a concept that combines a patient’s knowledge, skills, ability and willingness to manage his/her own health and care with interventions designed to increase activation and promote positive patient behavior. Engagement with patients and their families has become a key strategy to improve care delivery and drive business in many healthcare providers. With today’s electronic environment, developing and leveraging appropriate tools, technologies and informatics methods can enhance patient communication and facilitate patient satisfaction. This session will explore ways to engage patients and families to provide for a more personal interaction and improve patient experience.

Aliya Aaron, MSHS, BSN, RN
Director, Enterprise Business Systems Operations, Corporate Finance
Memorial Healthcare System

12:30pm – 1:30pm
Luncheon 

1:30pm – 2:15pm
Leveraging Technology to Improve Patient Experience
Patient engagement has been defined as a concept that combines a patient’s knowledge, skills, ability and willingness to manage his/her own health and care with interventions designed to increase activation and promote positive patient behavior. Engagement with patients and their families has become a key strategy to improve care delivery and drive business in many healthcare providers. With today’s electronic environment, developing and leveraging appropriate tools, technologies and informatics methods can enhance patient communication and facilitate patient satisfaction. This session will explore ways to engage patients and families to provide for a more personal interaction and improve patient experience. 

2:15pm – 3:15pm
Panel: Improving the Patient Access Experience

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever altered the demand on health systems; the healthcare industry has learned many lessons  and has evolved to find a “new normal.” While this environment looks different, the patient experience whether — positive or negative — begins with their access to care, and it defines their relationship with the organization going forward. A patient’s experience is not only how employees interact with a patient; it’s also about the patient’s process of getting the care they want and need. This session will explore steps to consider when looking to improve patient outcomes, including:

– Making empathy a priority for all interactions

– Working toward patient-centered communication and access to care

– How centralized or coordinated scheduling can benefit both staff and patients

– Enabling employees with resources and tools

– How data-driven platforms inform decision making

Panelists:
David Weisman, Ph.D., CPXP, FPCC
Chief Experience Officer
NYC Health + Hospitals 

3:15pm – 3:45pm
Networking & Refreshments Break 

3:45pm – 4:30pm
Designing for Partnership
Taking a human-centered design approach to healthcare: moving from a reactive service recovery model to a proactive partnership. This session will explore the benefits of intentionally and empathetically using insights gleaned from patient, family, and team member feedback for designing healthcare experiences.

Mandy Riemer, MSW
Manager, Patient Experience
The Office of Patient Experience                                                    
Children’s Mercy Kansas City 

4:30pm – 5:15pm
Patient Experience: A Leadership Strategy
If you really want to provide a great patient experience, we must move from individual initiative to collective initiative. And who better than the people in charge, the leaders, to be able to get all the medical staff on board in the culture of service to patients. This session will explore how leaders can transform the patient experience. Topics to be discussed will include:

– How leaders should combine their efforts with the frontline staff to achieve exceptional experience

– The best way to improve care by involving frontline staff

– Why providers should consider the patient experience beyond their time in the hospital

– What is most important to healthcare workers to keep in mind to sustain high patient satisfaction

– What motivates care givers to create exceptional patient experiences

– Important characteristics for leaders who want to lead exceptional experience organizations

– Integrating quality, safety and patient experience

Tifanie Sbriscia, MSN, RN, CWON
Director, Wound and Ostomy Care
Visiting Nurse Association Health Group 

Andrew Wheeler, PT, DPT, CWS
Director of Therapy Specialty Services
Visiting Nurse Association Health Group 

5:15pm
End of Day One

7:15am – 8:00am
Networking Breakfast 

8:00am – 8:15am
Chairperson’s Recap

8:15am – 9:00am
Empowering Frontline Caregivers: Transforming Patient Care by Decentralizing Control
In the complex and ever-evolving world of healthcare, patient experience and outcomes are intrinsically linked to the quality of care provided by frontline caregivers. Nurses, physicians, and other professionals ensure patients receive the most reliable and highest-quality treatment and support. However, these professionals can only deliver high-quality care when health system leaders empower them to use their knowledge, skill, experience, and judgment at the point of patient care delivery.   This is especially true when considering the changing landscape where the complexity of care is increasing: hospital length of stay continues to be reduced, increasingly complicated patients are managed in the outpatient setting, and home-based care and remote patient monitoring are becoming more sophisticated and accepted. How can health system leaders empower frontline caregivers to provide better patient care?  By giving them the tools they need to succeed.   Leaders should focus on ensuring frontline caregivers have meaningful continuing education and training, analytics that provide actionable information (as opposed to retrospective data), and the availability of resources that align with individual patient needs.   In addition, by breaking down silos and shifting the focus from blame to support and accountability, we can create an environment where patient-centered care thrives. Leaders must change the conversation from “What went wrong and who did not follow protocol?” to “How can I help you and your team achieve the highest quality patient care?”

Douglas P. Slakey, MD, MPH, FACS
President
DPSURGICAL, LLC 

9:00am – 9:45am
Improving Staff Turnover to Improve the Patient Experience
It’s common business knowledge that it’s more costly to replace an existing customer with a new one. Building a customer relationship is a common theme in the business world. This same adage holds true in the healthcare industry, where patient turnover can have a negative impact on a practice, whether it’s a large, dispersed health system or a small independent practice. This session will explore how is high staff turnover can impact your clinical practice and what can you do to improve the patient experience and retain more of your existing patients.

9:45am – 10:15am
Networking & Refreshments Break 

10:15am – 11:00am
How to Effectively Communicate with Patients for Improved Trust and Outcomes
Effective communication is a crucial component of building trust between clinicians and their patients. It not only improves the patient’s experience but also leads to better outcomes. With the increasing emphasis on patient-centered care, physicians, advanced practice providers, and other clinicians must possess excellent communication skills to ensure that patients are well-informed and engaged in their care. This session will provide insights into how clinicians can effectively communicate with their patients to build trust and improve outcomes.

Liza Di Leo Thomas, MD, CPXP, FACEP
Medical Director, Patient and Provider Advocacy
Senior Physician, Emergency Medicine
Ochsner Health

11:00am – 11:45am
Ways RNs Can Improve Patient Experience
Nurses have a unique role in patient care. They focus on helping patients meet their physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. As frontline bedside staff, nurses spend more time than any other healthcare professional providing direct, hands-on patient care. Nurses must understand the impact of patient caring and how to achieve the highest levels of patient care and satisfaction. This session will explore ways nurses can improve patient experience. 

11:45am – 12:30pm
Marketing’s Important Role in Patient Experience
Designing and delivering a unique and authentic patient experience should not just develop by happenstance. Marketers have the important role of making sure patient experience aligns with the organization’s brand and value proposition. This session will explore essential elements for achieving exceptional patient experience, including:

– Elevating the patient’s online experience

– Focusing on content

– Reputation management

– Ongoing communication

– Anticipating patient needs

– Investing in technology

12:30pm
Conference Concludes

Workshop: Strategies to Improve Behavioral Health Patient Care and Experience

Across the nation, healthcare systems increasingly identify behavioral health as a pressing healthcare need in their communities. In nearly every setting, from emergency departments and acute inpatient units to specialized care, almost 25% of patients admitted also have a behavioral health diagnosis. Yet, despite these statistics, comprehensive models to improve behavioral health patient care are challenging to find and implement. Behavioral health disorders encompass both mental illness and substance use disorders. This session will explore strategies to improve behavioral health patient care and experience, including:

– Integrating behavioral health and primary care

– Community partnerships

– Coordination of care through technology

– Removing the barrier of stigma

– Leveraging telehealth solutions for improved behavioral health patient care