In this episode of Humanizing Healthcare, we sit down with Michelle Brady, Director of Patient Experience and Relationship-Based Care at MyMichigan Health, to explore why strong relationships are at the heart of great healthcare experiences.
A registered nurse with more than three decades of healthcare experience, Michelle brings a clinician’s perspective to patient experience leadership. She explains MyMichigan Health’s relationship-based care model, which starts with caring for yourself, extends to relationships with colleagues, and ultimately strengthens relationships with patients, families, and the communities healthcare organizations serve.
In this conversation, Michelle shares practical ways caregivers can create meaningful human connections without adding more work or requiring more time. She explains why “words matter,” how eye contact and simply sitting beside a patient can build trust in seconds, and why healthcare should reconsider language such as “frontline workers” and “boots on the ground.” She also discusses how patient stories and Patient and Family Advisory Councils can uncover insights that survey scores alone may miss.
Michelle also offers a thoughtful perspective on artificial intelligence and healthcare technology. Rather than allowing technology to further separate caregivers from patients, she believes organizations should use it to reduce administrative burdens and give caregivers more time for human connection. At MyMichigan Health, ambient listening technology is already helping clinicians spend less time documenting and more time looking at and talking with their patients.
If you lead patient experience, care for patients directly, or are working to build a more human-centered healthcare culture, this conversation offers practical ideas for making relationships part of how care is delivered every day.
Key Takeaways
02:21 How Michelle Brady Found Her Calling in Nursing
04:16 How 37 Years in Healthcare Shaped Her Approach to Patient Experience
05:23 The Four Relationships at the Heart of Relationship-Based Care
08:58 Why Better Patient Experience Doesn't Always Require More Time
12:47 Why Words Matter—and Language Healthcare Should Reconsider
15:23 Listening Beyond Patient Experience Survey Scores
18:50 What Patient and Family Advisory Councils Can Teach Healthcare Leaders
20:28 Why Patient Experience Shouldn't Feel Like “One More Thing”
22:10 Connecting Caregivers With Their Purpose—and Recognizing What They Do Right
23:57 Using AI to Create More Time for Human Connection
26:29 Why Human Connection Can't Be Treated as an Extra
28:20 Making Human Connection Part of Daily Healthcare Operations
29:54 Connecting Employee Engagement With Patient Experience
31:54 Where AI Helps—and Where Patients Still Need a Human Being
32:47 Why Healthcare Is Never Routine for the Patient and Family
Additional Resources
Michelle Brady on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-brady-mshal-bsn-rn-cpxp-2aaa32a9/
Learn more about Fidelum Health: https://fidelumhealth.com/
PRC on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/prcexcellence/
