The Experience Shift | NRC Health

Ever heard of a Patient Experience Warrior? Meet Brandon Jones. When not serving as System Patient Experience Manager at Carillion Clinic or hosting his own podcast Real Nurses Real Talk he’s using his unique takes to make healthcare better for patients and care teams alike. Listen as Brandon tackles the difference between data-driven and data-guided, sounds off on healthcare heroes, and provides real ways to integrate compassion every day. And he’s got a few opinions on the oft-used mantra “Patients First!”  

Bryan Mills, CEO of Community Health Network, doesn’t hide in the executive wing. He walks the halls, meets new employees in person, and understands patients and their families because he too is a patient and supporting family member. He also loves to think completely differently about what “experience” means in healthcare. Listen in as Bryan talks about his unique perspective while also painting a vivid picture of the immense challenges every healthcare leader faces. He touches on PX, workforce, and consumerism – all from the CEO perspective. But Bryan doesn’t sound like a typical CEO and that’s what makes his observations even more powerful. Best of all? He’s an optimist, and it shows. 

Aaron Davis has a knack for understanding healthcare access. As CXO of UMC, he’s been studying and improving all aspects of access - particularly the front door of care. As an industry, we talk a lot about access, or lack thereof, for most patients. Aaron cuts through the noise with fresh, compelling ideas on how to re-orient our services around the patient right off the bat. Blue suits, the 95/5 rule, and the one road patients never want to drive down. Oh, and a lesson from the gold standard of logistics: the Chick-fil-A drive-thru.

Kent Sona is dialed into the minds and hearts of patients, and the larger plight of consumers, which is remarkable given how embedded he is in the world of Healthcare IT. For all the power it wields, technology and its leaders can sometimes settle into an island in healthcare. IT can be seen as its own kingdom of complication. Yet, when tech minds are connected to the patient experience, great things can happen. Listen as Kent talks “extreme ownership,” how tech can boost the patient experience, and why Little House on the Prairie provides a sneaky smart vision for healthcare’s preferred future.

Paul Coyne has traveled to the very ends of the care delivery process – from surviving a stroke to becoming a chief nursing executive. He possesses a fascinating understanding of healthcare’s current state and what its future must become. Oh, and Paul leads an AI-powered healthcare tech company called Inspiren (inspiren.com) that uses in-room technology to improve the lives of patients and caregivers. Listen in as Paul tackles burnout, dissects the fallacies of work/life balance, and makes interesting parallels between AI and nuclear energy. He also shares great advice on life in general and specifically what makes his grandmother mad.

Duct tape works but concrete is better. Sara Vaezy, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer of Providence Health, shares the blueprint for how healthcare can learn from the past, build momentum, and sustain great ideas. Drawing from the flywheel concept, Sara talks about consistently turning the crank on strategy, and shares examples from her digital experience on how small innovations can create massive progress over time. She'll also discuss why healthcare organizations hold a surprising advantage over upstarts. And spoiler alert, she’s a hot sauce expert, which she manages to tie back to healthcare.

Complete, not compete. That is the strategy of UC Davis Health CEO Dr. David Lubarsky, a visionary who finds opportunity and hope where others often see challenge and malaise. While UC Davis Health is celebrated as an anchor institution in the fight against climate change, Dr. Lubarsky has turned their embrace of sustainability into an organizational identity, and a strong connector of providers and communities. He doesn’t mince words as he shares his own experiences with eliminating wasteful practices, elevating environment as a key health indicator, and finding humanity across ideologic differences to literally make the world a better place. Oh, and he has a solid idea for just about anybody who’s looking to get promoted. 

Why do some apple pies taste better than others? It's all about people and process. Jorge Torres is a mechanical and electrical engineer who has studied systems of business across the globe, including airlines where he advised the biggest merger the industry had ever seen. Drawn to healthcare’s potential and complexity, Jorge lays out his vision for the “5th Revolution” of healthcare. Jorge zooms into the details that help great organizations overcome incredible challenges and zooms out to the big ideas that will restore healthcare to its initial purpose: human relationships, not de-humanized transactions. Find Jorge’s full profile at linkedin.com/in/jorgeismaeltorres and contact him at [email protected] for more information. 

Unless you’ve been under a really big rock you’ve noticed things aren’t going so well for US hospitals and health systems. Staffing challenges, disengaged patients, old and new financial constraints. Join us as we ponder the future with Mike Slubowski, CEO of Trinity Health: one of the largest non-profit Catholic health systems in the world. Mike shares the CEO perspective on these challenges and answers the question: what will it take to get out of this? Ideas abound including internal frameworks to engage “colleagues,” focusing new attention on the “patient/member,” staying in the “learning zone,” and more. Beyond any single idea, we explore Mike’s inspiring but realistic view of not where healthcare IS going but where it NEEDS to go.