Humanizing Healthcare

What if some of the most important drivers of patient experience are missing from traditional healthcare surveys?In this episode of Humanizing Healthcare, host Chris Malone welcomes Laurie Wilshusen and Heidi Stehr of Mayo Clinic to discuss how Mayo Clinic and Fidelum Health collaborated to apply the social science of warmth and competence to better understand patient emotions, perceptions and relationships.Drawing on research involving more than 21,000 Mayo Clinic patients, Laurie explains why high patient satisfaction and recommendation scores do not necessarily translate into strong patient relationships. Heidi then shares how Mayo Clinic used these findings to introduce Warmth & Competence rounds, helping multidisciplinary teams identify practical opportunities to improve hospital environments, patient comfort, communication and collaboration.The conversation highlights findings from their co-authored NEJM Catalyst article and offers actionable lessons for healthcare organizations seeking to strengthen patient experiences and relationships.🎧 Listen to discover how a deeper understanding of human perceptions can lead to meaningful improvements in healthcare.Key Takeaways04:50 Why Traditional Patient Experience Measures Are Incomplete06:39 The Science Behind Warmth and Competence09:30 Key Findings from Mayo Clinic's Patient Research10:30 Understanding Patient Relationships, Hope and Belonging12:40 Translating Research into Operational Improvements15:30 How Warmth & Competence Rounds Work18:00 Why Small Environmental Details Matter20:30 Engaging Multidisciplinary Teams in Improvement21:50 Lessons for Other Healthcare Organizations23:49 Where to Start Applying These Insights26:20 Questions From Listeners32:10 Closing ReflectionsAdditional ResourcesRead the NEJM Catalyst article: https://catalyst.nejm.org/stoken/default+domain/IDK67NSNWFMMZ7QAKQP9/full?Fidelum Health: https://fidelumhealth.com/Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/PRC: https://www.prcexcellence.com/#HumanizingHealthcare #MayoClinic #PatientExperience #HealthcareLeadership #PatientRelationships

In this episode of Humanizing Healthcare, Chris Malone talks with Steve Meth, Vice President and Chief Patient Experience Officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, about how healthcare organizations can listen more effectively to patients and families and turn those insights into meaningful improvements in care.Steve’s path to patient experience began with seeing firsthand what can happen when communication, coordination and trust break down. Those experiences ultimately led him from law into healthcare, where he has spent his career working to prevent harm and strengthen connections among patients, families and clinicians.Steve shares how Johns Hopkins Medicine is taking a long-term approach to patient experience, including simulation-based learning that helps clinicians practice difficult patient encounters, virtual patient and family advisors who broaden the voices represented in improvement efforts, and post-discharge calls that help identify potential care issues while bringing patients’ actual voices into the organization.The conversation also explores how patient experience, patient safety and employee engagement reinforce one another; how technology can support stronger relationships; and why sustainable improvement requires patience, data, listening and a willingness to keep learning.Key Takeaways02:49 How Steve Meth Found His Path Into Patient Experience 06:43 Why Sustainable Change Requires Long-Term Thinking 10:52 Building a Long-Term Patient Experience Strategy at Johns Hopkins 13:25 Why Clinicians Need Coaches, Too 18:18 Expanding Who Gets Heard Through Patient and Family Advisors 20:26 Using AI to Turn Patient Feedback Into Action 20:52 The Power of Calling Patients After Discharge 21:25 Why Hearing the Patient’s Actual Voice Matters 22:28 How Post-Discharge Calls Are Improving Care and Preventing Harm 24:26 Finding New Ways to Listen and Respond to Patients 26:01 How Peer-to-Peer Support Helps Patients and Families 27:10 Building Relationships Beyond the Hospital Stay 31:05 Balancing Technology With Human Connection 34:17 Building Leadership Support for Long-Term Change 39:35 Creating a Consistent Experience Across a Health System 42:23 Why Yesterday’s Success May Not Be Enough for TomorrowAdditional ResourcesAdditional Resources Steve Meth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/empathy-forward/ Johns Hopkins Medicine: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ PRC: https://www.prcexcellence.com/ Fidelum Health: https://fidelumhealth.com/Unlock the power of The HUMAN Remedy™ insights model: https://fidelumhealth.com/services/

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 Takeaways02:21 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 FamilyAdditional ResourcesMichelle 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/

In this episode of Humanizing Healthcare, we sit down with Dr. Todd Otten—board-certified family physician, co-author of Ripple of Change, and Executive Producer of the new documentary Suck It Up, Buttercup: Trust & Betrayal – Healthcare in America—to explore why so many clinicians have become disillusioned with modern medicine and what it will take to restore trust across the healthcare system.Key Takeaways03:22 How Dr. Todd Otten Found His Path Into Medicine04:40 How Physician Burnout Changed His Career and Mission06:47 The Personal “Ripple” That Led Him Into Healthcare Advocacy09:48 The Story Behind the Title Suck It Up, Buttercup13:19 How Learned Helplessness Takes Hold in Healthcare14:57 Why Burnout Reflects a Dysfunctional Healthcare System17:12 How Ambient AI Scribes Could Help—or Add More Pressure18:37 Why Time and Trust Are Essential to the Clinician-Patient Relationship20:46 How Direct Primary Care Rebuilds Access, Relationships, and Joy in Practice23:12 The Physician Mental Health and Suicide Crisis26:35 Healthcare Organizations That Are Putting People and Well-Being First28:16 How to Watch and Support Suck It Up, Buttercup30:19 How Impact Networks Can Break Down Healthcare Silos31:28 The One Ripple of Change Everyone Can Start Tomorrow32:31 Maya Angelou, Authenticity, and How Patients Remember Their CareAdditional ResourcesButtercup: Trust & Betrayal – Healthcare in America (Documentary):https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-suck-it-up-buttercup-documentaryMake a donation in any amount to the GoFundMe campaign and you'll receive an access code to view the full documentary online.

In this episode, we talk with Jennifer Carron, Patient Experience Officer at BJC HealthCare about reveals how one of the Midwest's largest health systems is rethinking care from the ground up.Jennifer Carron didn't plan a career in healthcare — she fought her way into it as a mother sitting beside her critically ill son's hospital bed, watching what real relationship-centered care looked like for the first time. Today she leads patient experience across BJC Healthcare's 24-hospital, $11-billion system, and she joins Chris Malone to share the frameworks that are actually moving the needle. Episode DescriptionThis conversation covers the full spectrum of modern patient experience strategy. Jen explains why healthcare's biggest gap isn't clinical quality — it's communication, visibility, and friction reduction. She walks through BJC's Disney-inspired Emergency Department wait experience design, where EMR-automated text updates guide patients through every step of their visit without adding a single task to clinical staff. She makes a sharp distinction between real-time in-visit feedback and post-discharge surveys, describes an EMR-driven risk model that predicts poor patient experiences before they happen, and explains why transition of care remains the single greatest source of patient leakage. On AI, she urges both optimism and caution: generative AI can act as a digital concierge for complex care navigation, but it cannot yet reliably detect fear, hesitation, or confusion the way an experienced caregiver can. She closes with the business case every PX leader needs: experience strategy drives retention, activation, and growth — and AI is already synthesizing publicly reported data to tell patients which health system to choose. Key Takeaways02:42 Jen's personal story: critically ill son and the physician who changed everything07:07 BJC Healthcare: scale, markets, and mission08:07 Why healthcare still lags behind other service industries09:30 Designing the Emergency Department wait experience — lessons from Disney11:35 EMR automation and real-time patient text updates in the ED12:41 Real-time in-visit feedback vs. post-discharge surveys14:50 Consistency across 44,000 staff and 60 caregiver touchpoints17:02 Friction vs. effort and why transition of care drives patient leakage19:43 Healthcare as relationship, not transaction — the cost of patients who go nowhere20:06 Generative AI as digital concierge — promise and caution23:00 How AI is reshaping how patients shop for healthcare organizations24:45 Making the business case for patient experience to finance and operations27:54 Patient Family Advisory Councils and co-design at BJC30:50 Implementing real-time feedback: EMR risk prediction and staff buy-in33:47 What patients would notice first in a truly patient-centered system34:34 Jen's favorite quote: every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets Additional ResourcesJennifer Carron LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-carron/BJC Healthcare: https://www.bjc.orgFidelum Health: https://fidelumhealth.com/Fidelum Health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/fidelum-health/