Patient Experience Symposium

Tuesday, October 7

Monday, September 28

• 8:30 am - 11:30 am

  Pre-Conference Workshops

  Jumpstart your experience with high-impact pre-conference workshops built to deliver actionable insights and set the stage for the days ahead.

  Learn More

• 12:15 pm - 12:30 pm

  Welcoming Remarks

  Huntington Ballroom
• 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

  PANEL

  The New Patient Experience is Happening Without You. Now What?

  How patients are shaping care on their own terms with AI and what health systems must do to keep up

  Millions of patients and caregivers are no longer waiting for the clinical encounter. With access challenges, shorter visits, rising costs and quality and safety concerns shaping every encounter, patients now have AI-powered tools at their fingertips. Patients are interpreting lab results, researching conditions, seeking second opinions, and preparing for visits before ever stepping into the system. The result is a new kind of patient, informed, proactive, and increasingly confident in their own role in care.

  This provocative session brings patient leaders forward to share what this AI-enabled reality feels like on the ground and why it is fundamentally reshaping trust, roles, and expectations between patients, clinicians, health care leaders and payers. As intelligence becomes more accessible, the balance of knowledge is shifting, and with it, the dynamics of the care relationship across the eco-system.

  Explore how this transformation challenges traditional care models while creating a rare opportunity to recognize patient agency, strengthen relationships, improve outcomes, and redesign incentives around a more informed and engaged patient. From AI-assisted decision making to new expectations around transparency and communication, this session will surface the tensions, and the practical strategies leaders must embrace now.

  Join us to prepare for the AI-enabled patient, the necessary culture shift and actions leaders must take to ensure safe, quality, equitable care for everyone.

  • Examine how AI-enabled patients and caregivers are navigating the care journey independently and the resulting outcomes, expectations, trust, and decision making
  • Identify practical strategies for clinicians and leaders to partner with patients using AI-informed insights
  • Evaluate implications for care delivery, experience measurement, and policy incentives as AI reshapes the care model to achieve the outcomes that matter to patients

  Huntington Ballroom
• 1:30 pm - 1:45 pm

  Facilitated Roundtable Discussions

  As a unique element of the symposium, delegates will engage in interactive roundtable discussions. A “PX Host” will guide each roundtable group to enable meaningful exchanges. Attendees will form connections, exchange ideas, and share goals for attending the symposium.

  Huntington Ballroom
• 1:50 pm - 2:30 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 1:50 pm - 2:30 pm

    TRACK A

    From Benefits to Behavior

    Redesigning Employer Health for Better Patient Experience and Outcomes

    Employer-sponsored healthcare isn’t short on data, programs, or point solutions, yet costs keep rising and outcomes remain uneven. The issue is not access to tools. It is misaligned incentives and a lack of execution where it matters most: at the point of care and in patient behavior.

    This session tackles a more practical question: how can employer-sponsored plans design models that actually change provider and patient behavior while improving the employee experience? Because experience is not a byproduct, it is a lever. When done right, it drives better outcomes, reduces avoidable utilization, and improves return on healthcare spend.

    Panelists will share how leading employers are moving beyond static benefits toward dynamic, outcome-aligned models. These approaches embed incentives directly into care delivery and patient engagement, turning data into action within real workflows. The discussion will also explore how conversational AI and AI-enabled engagement are enabling continuous, context-aware interactions that improve access, build trust, and drive adherence at scale.

    You will hear how organizations are shifting from episodic touchpoints to ongoing, personalized relationships, supported by intelligent outreach and real-time guidance. The session will also examine how provider incentives can be restructured to reward sustained outcomes, not just activity.

    Grounded in real-world examples, this session will highlight what it takes to align financial incentives, clinical decision-making, and patient engagement into a coordinated, execution-focused model that delivers measurable impact on cost, quality, and experience. Panelists will also share candid lessons on what has and has not worked in employer settings.

    • Design Incentives That Drive Behavior Change
      Understand how employer-sponsored plans can structure incentives that influence both provider decision-making and patient behavior, shifting from episodic care to longitudinal outcome accountability.
    • Elevate Patient Experience Through Intelligent Engagement
      Explore how conversational AI and context-driven, continuous engagement models can improve access, navigation, and adherence, creating a more seamless and personalized patient experience.
    • Operationalize Data at the Point of Care and Engagement
      Understand how data, predictive analytics, and AI-enabled outreach must be integrated into real-time workflows to translate insight into action for employees and care teams, enabling scalable impact without increasing operating cost.
  • 1:50 pm - 2:30 pm

    TRACK B

    Rapid-Fire Sessions

    Bold Ideas. Real Impact.

    

    In this fast-paced Rapid-Fire Session, six forward-thinking presenters will each deliver a focused 6-minute talk, sharing practical ideas, fresh perspectives, and innovative strategies shaping the future of healthcare experience.

    Designed to surface bold thinking and real-world solutions, this session will explore key issues across patient experience, workforce engagement, access, innovation, and care delivery transformation. Each speaker will offer a concise, high-impact perspective, giving attendees a broad view of what is working now and what is next.

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    Making Patient Experience Real for Every Role: Volunteer Shadowing as a Workforce Engagement Strategy

    Maritza Boudrow

    Post-COVID, many healthcare staff work far from the bedside, making it harder to connect their roles to the patient experience. This session highlights how Volunteer Services turned that challenge into a powerful onboarding and training solution. By pairing call center and other non-patient-facing staff with volunteers in frontline roles, the program builds empathy, strengthens communication, and deepens mission connection. In just two years, more than 120 employees have participated, and over 90% reported the experience was highly valuable to their daily work. Now embedded in orientation across multiple departments, this model offers a practical, scalable approach to workforce engagement.

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    Engineering the Last Mile of Patient Experience
    Talia Drayton

    Patient experience does not end when the visit ends. For many patients, the hardest part begins afterward: translating clinical guidance into meals, medications, routines, family realities, energy levels, culture, preferences, and daily constraints. This rapid-fire session introduces the “patient implementation gap” as a hidden driver of confusion, disengagement, and inconsistent follow-through. Using a systems-design and lived-context lens, the session will show how healthcare teams can move beyond information delivery and design clearer, more flexible, human-centered supports that help patients turn recommendations into real life.

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    From Service Recovery to Safety Recovery: Reframing Experience as Risk Intelligence
    Adrian White

    Imagine a world where patient experience, service recovery, clinical risk, and safety sit under one organizational umbrella. At Yale Health, that world is becoming reality our new reality. We are uncovering how often complaints, grievances, service failures, and safety events overlap, and using that insight to accelerate change. By adapting the rigor of Root Cause Analysis into an “Apparent Cause Analysis” model, we bring clinical discipline, empathy, and operational expertise to experience failures. The result: faster learning, better collaboration, identification of psychological harm, and more TLC where patients need it most.

    Trust at the Intersection of Quality, Safety, and Experience
    Katie Owens

    Trust lives at the intersection of quality, safety, and experience. Our analysis comparing discharge rounding and post-discharge call data revealed an important reality: patients often leave the hospital feeling informed, yet encounter challenges once they return home. Discharge rounding captured positive perceptions of communication, compassion, and care coordination. Follow-up calls, however, uncovered missed appointments, medication confusion, unresolved questions, and uncertainty about recovery. The gap is not simply a discharge planning issue—it is a trust issue. When patients experience breakdowns between what was promised and what actually happens, trust erodes. Measuring both perspectives helps organizations identify hidden risks and build more reliable transitions.
  • 1:50 pm - 2:30 pm

    TRACK C

    When Empathy Needs to Scale

    Can AI Help Clinicians Practice the Conversations That Matter Most?

    High-stakes conversations such as sharing difficult news, disclosing errors, and supporting colleagues require more than communication theory. They require practice, feedback, and psychological safety. In this case study, leaders from Nemours Children’s Health and Ripple Health AI will share how they expanded their introductory in-person communication training into a five-week digital learning initiative embedded in Nemours University. The session will explore how AI-powered conversational simulations give clinicians a secure, low-risk environment to practice challenging patient and peer conversations, receive immediate personalized feedback, and build confidence before moments of real clinical consequence.

    • Describe how traditional clinical communication training can be transformed into interactive, simulation-based learning that supports real-world behavior change.
    • Explain how AI-powered conversational simulations can help clinicians practice empathy, error disclosure, and difficult conversations in a safe and scalable way.
    • Identify key operational considerations for launching an enterprise-wide digital communication program, including LMS integration, clinician adoption, feedback loops, and pilot-to-scale planning
• 2:30 pm - 3:00 pm

  Networking Break in Sponsor Showcase

• 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

    TRACK A

    Reimagining Primary Care

    A Hybrid, Direct-Contracted Model for Health Systems and Employers

    High-performing health systems are built on primary care. In the U.S., however, less than 5% of healthcare dollars are allocated to primary care, far below what peer nations spend. Leading institutions have warned that primary care in the US is in crisis, even as decades of research confirm it drives better health outcomes, lower costs, and overall improved community health and wellness.

    This session introduces Rezilient Health’s novel, hybrid primary care model, delivered through direct contracting and built to partner with health systems, not compete with them. Attendees will learn how this scalable, tech-enabled approach creates a seamless, integrated, primary-care-first solution that improves access, clinical outcomes and patient experience, while lowering costs.  This model, as participants will discover, strengthens local care infrastructure, and creates a sustainable path forward for employers, hospitals, and the communities they serve.

    • Understand how a hybrid, provider-led, medic-enabled, concierge-like primary care model improves access, patient experience, and clinical outcomes through technology and operational design.
    • Examine how a primary-care-first strategy delivered through direct contracting benefits hospitals, employers, and patients without fragmenting care.
    • Explore the direct care contracting movement, including its economic advantages, implementation considerations, and why employers and municipalities are increasingly adopting this approach.
  • 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

    TRACK B

    Pursuing 100,000 Extraordinary Experiences through a Human Centered and Partnered Strategy

    Extraordinary healthcare requires a shift from viewing patients as data points to treating them as essential members of the care team. In this session, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital reveals a strategic plan designed to achieve 100,000 more “Extraordinary Experiences” by FY28. Dr. Samuel Hanke will demonstrate how a human-centered framework, built on being Playful, Personal, Partnered, and Profound, traditional clinical interactions into defining moments.

    • Apply a human-centered framework (Playful, Personal, Partnered, Profound) to elevate everyday clinical interactions
    • Identify practical strategies to engage patients and families as active partners in care delivery
    • Translate experience goals into measurable actions that drive “extraordinary” outcomes across the organization
  • 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm

    TRACK C

    Centering Lived Experience to Advance Equity

    Insights from Black Women with Endometriosis

    Black women with endometriosis face significant inequities in care, including delayed diagnosis, dismissal of symptoms, and gaps in provider knowledge. They also report disparities experiences of care, including not being listened to, lack of respect and empathy, poor communication about treatment options and side effects, and limited opportunities to participate in decision-making about their care. Funded by PCORI, MHQP in partnership with the Endometriosis Association, convened Black women, clinicians, researchers, and other stakeholders to co-develop a patient-centered research roadmap to advance research and improve care. This session will highlight both the engagement approach and the lived experiences that shaped the findings. Participants will gain insight into structural and interpersonal barriers, including medical gaslighting, access challenges, and lack of shared decision-making, as well as the ways care experiences directly impact quality of life and engagement with the healthcare system. Participants will also learn about community-driven priorities to advance more equitable, patient-centered endometriosis care.

    • Explain MHQP’s patient-centered engagement approach, including multi-stakeholder convenings with Black women, clinicians, and other partners to inform research priorities
    • Describe key barriers Black women with endometriosis face in care, including delays in diagnosis, dismissal of symptoms, and gaps in provider knowledge and training, as well as inequities in experiences of care such as poor patient-provider communication, lack of respect, and limited shared decision-making
    • Share community-prioritized strategies to improve care, including enhanced provider education, standardized protocols, and multidisciplinary, individualized care models
• 3:35 pm - 4:05 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 3:35 pm - 4:05 pm

    TRACK A

    The New Front Door

    Rethinking Patient and Member Communication at Scale

    What if accessing health care felt as easy as sending a text?

    Billions of people use messaging every day, from your teenage niece to your grandmother. Yet many health care experiences still start with friction: long hold times, clunky portals, forgotten passwords. It’s no surprise patients drop off before they ever get the care they need.

    Your front door matters more than ever. The question is, are you opening it or putting obstacles in the way?

    In this can’t-miss session, Josh Weiner shares how leading organizations are rethinking the front door with next-generation messaging like Rich Communication Services (RCS). By meeting patients where they already are, health systems and payers can turn everyday interactions into seamless, trusted experiences that drive real engagement.

    If you’re responsible for Patient, Member, or Consumer Experience (PX, MX, CX), this session will challenge your assumptions and show what’s possible when communication finally catches up to consumer expectations.

    • Turn your “front door” into a competitive advantage
    • Engage patients in the channels they already trust and use daily
    • Translate better experiences into stronger relationships and ROI
    • See how messaging-first strategies can improve access, increase satisfaction, and deliver measurable business impact at scale
  • 3:35 pm - 4:05 pm

    TRACK B

    Beyond the Test Result

    Turning Respiratory Diagnostics into Better Conversations and Shared Decisions

    Advances in molecular diagnostics are transforming how respiratory infections are detected and treated, but test results alone do not improve care. How clinicians communicate those results and involve patients in decisions plays a critical role in trust, satisfaction, and appropriate antibiotic use.

    In this session, Dr. Steven Goldberg will explore how molecular diagnostic insights, including PCR and multiplex testing, can be integrated into shared decision-making to support more collaborative, patient-centered respiratory care. Drawing on peer-reviewed research and real-world clinical experience, he will share practical communication strategies that help patients understand test results, participate in treatment decisions, and align care with their preferences and values.  Delegates will leave with actionable approaches to strengthen shared decision-making and enhance the patient experience in everyday respiratory care, particularly in ambulatory and urgent care settings.

    • Explain how molecular diagnostics (e.g., PCR testing) inform clinical decisions and support patient-centered respiratory care.
    • Apply shared decision-making principles to incorporate diagnostic results into collaborative treatment planning.
    • Use communication strategies that translate complex diagnostic information into clear guidance while promoting responsible antibiotic use and patient safety.
  • 3:35 pm - 4:05 pm

    TRACK C

    The Patient Trust Balance Sheet

    Managing Experience as a Strategic Enterprise Asset

    Patient and community trust may be one of a healthcare organization’s most valuable assets and one of its greatest sources of risk, yet few health systems manage it with the same rigor applied to financial performance, quality, safety, or operations.

    This session examines trust as a measurable organizational outcome shaped by the experiences of patients, families, clinicians, and staff. Using healthcare safety and culture data, along with lessons from failures in other industries, participants will explore a practical framework for evaluating an organization’s “trust balance sheet.” The discussion will highlight leading indicators of trust risk and examine how system design, psychological safety, Just Culture accountability, communication, and operational reliability influence whether trust is strengthened, sustained, or quietly eroded.

    • Evaluate your organization’s trust strengths and vulnerabilities using a practical framework that supports more informed leadership decisions.
    • Recognize early warning signs that patient trust may be weakening, allowing leaders to address risks before they affect safety, experience, reputation, or loyalty.
    • Apply lessons from healthcare and other industries to identify hidden organizational vulnerabilities and strengthen strategies for building and sustaining trust.
• 4:10 pm - 4:40 pm

  Patient Experience-Lessons from the Flight Deck

  Taxi, Take-Off, Flight Plans & Landing

  Every survey of the top concerns of “C-Suite” members in healthcare lists patient experience at the top.  Everyone knows that it is important, but everyone is struggling with why and how to get there.  One of the most appropriate and powerful metaphors comes from the speaker’s experience of having served on naval aircraft carriers and the lessons which can be learned from how naval and Marine aviation serves important lessons for patient experience.  Thom Mayer details how patient experience follows a “Taxi, Take-Off, Flight Plans, and Landings” sequence, just as aviators do.  Concrete examples of applying this are provided.

  • Articulate a clear, operational definition of patient experience that leaders can act on immediately
  • Establish the strategic “why” behind patient experience as a prerequisite for sustainable execution
  • Apply the “Taxi, Take-Off, Flight Plans, and Landings” framework to diagnose and improve the patient journey
  • Translate aviation-based principles into practical, real-world actions that measurably improve patient care

  Huntington Ballroom
• 4:40 pm - 5:20 pm

  The Invisible Patient in the Room

  Over 40% of Adults Are Unpaid Caregivers. In Your Waiting Room, the Number's Probably Higher.

  Here’s the plot twist hiding in your waiting room: your patients are likely caregivers too. Sicker adults tend to be older. Older adults are more likely to be caring for someone. But you know what?  The honor (and impact) of being a caregiver doesn’t discriminate – it hits every age, every demographic, every stereotype we tend to ignore.  The math isn’t complicated, but the implications are.

  The patient in Bed 4 managing her own diabetes is also managing her mother’s dementia. The guy prepping for knee surgery is the sole support for a spouse with MS. And when 1 in 3 Archangels is in the red (the highest level of intensity), the ripple effects hit adherence, recovery, and readmissions in ways your current data isn’t capturing. It’s the vital sign you’re not measuring. Yet.

  Alexandra Drane, co-founder and CEO of ARCHANGELS, will share what happens to outcomes when we are enabled to not just SEE the full human, but support them (in data driven ways).

  • Examine ARCHANGELS data on what it means to be “in the red”: the mental health impacts of caregiver intensity, its connection to readmission rates, and what gets caregivers back to being ‘in the clear’ (spoiler alert: 70% of health system employees are typically also serving as unpaid caregivers, making them ‘double-duties’)
  • Apply a practical framework for integrating caregiver identification and support into existing patient experience, care navigation, and discharge workflows
  • Recognize the business case for caregiver-inclusive care: what the data shows about cost, readmissions, and workforce strain when Archangels are supported, and when they’re not
  • Recognize the intensity in your OWN life… think of this session as respite for you, as well

  Huntington Ballroom
• 5:20 pm - 6:30 pm

  Opening Night Reception in Sponsor Showcase

  

  Huntington Ballroom Foyer, Kenmore and Braemore Rooms

Tuesday, September 29

• 8:30 am - 8:40 am

  Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

  Huntington Ballroom
• 8:40 am - 9:10 am

  Building a Workforce to Address the Health Needs of Those Who Carry an Unequal Burden of Disease

  Communities carrying an unequal burden of disease often face barriers shaped by access, trust, bias, geography, social drivers, and historic underinvestment. This session will explore how healthcare organizations can build, support, and sustain a workforce prepared to meet these needs with cultural humility, clinical excellence, and community partnership. Dean Carmen Green will discuss strategies for developing talent pipelines, strengthening workforce readiness, and aligning care delivery with the lived realities of patients and families most impacted by health inequities.

  • Identify workforce strategies that improve care for communities experiencing disproportionate disease burden.
  • Explore how education, training, and leadership development can advance equity-centered care.
  • Discuss ways to strengthen trust, access, and community partnership through workforce design.

  Huntington Ballroom
• 9:10 am - 9:55 am

  PANEL

  Keep Calm & Care On

  Patient Experience in the Real World

  Healthcare has always been complex, but today it can feel like the industry is balancing compassion, compliance, and chaos all at once. This candid and energizing panel brings together Patient Experience Leaders from diverse care environments, including urban academic systems, community hospitals, and rural health organizations, to discuss what it really takes to deliver exceptional patient experiences when pressures on healthcare have never been greater.

  Together, these leaders will tackle the realities many teams face today: maintaining a culture of hospitality and respect amid rising workplace violence; supporting caregivers as global events and societal tensions impact morale; navigating the presence of outside authorities in care environments; preparing for ongoing regulatory scrutiny; responding to shifting community expectations and evolving public trust; and sustaining empathy and human connection while many organizations operate under significant financial strain.

  While the challenges are real, the tone of this conversation will be anything but heavy. Through honesty, humor, and practical wisdom from leaders living this work every day, the panel will foster authentic dialogue and shared learning.

  This open, no-script conversation will invite audience participation and explore how leaders protect compassion, support caregivers, and keep the heart of healthcare beating during turbulent times.

  • Identify key external and internal pressures impacting patient experience, including workforce challenges, safety concerns, regulatory scrutiny, and evolving community expectations.
  • Explore leadership strategies for supporting caregivers and sustaining a culture of empathy, hospitality, and respect during times of organizational and societal stress.
  • Examine practical approaches used by healthcare organizations to maintain trust, strengthen patient engagement, and deliver meaningful experiences despite financial and operational constraints.
• 9:55 am - 10:10 am

  Facilitated Roundtable Discussions

  As a unique element of the symposium, delegates will engage in interactive roundtable discussions. A “PX Host” will guide each roundtable group to enable meaningful exchanges. Attendees will form connections, exchange ideas, and share goals for attending the symposium.

  Huntington Ballroom
• 10:10 am - 10:45 am

  Redefining Access

  How Virtual Care, AI, and New Delivery Models Are Transforming the Patient Experience

  Healthcare access is being redefined in real time. From virtual primary care and remote patient monitoring to hospital-at-home and AI-enabled care navigation, health systems are rapidly moving beyond traditional models to meet patients where they are. But improving access is not just about convenience. It is increasingly tied to patient trust, engagement, outcomes, and long-term experience.

  In this forward-looking session, Robert Fields will explore how technology-enabled care delivery models are reshaping the future of healthcare experience. Drawing from his leadership across one of the nation’s leading integrated health systems, Dr. Fields will discuss how organizations can leverage virtual care, digital engagement, AI, and home-based models to improve access while maintaining quality, safety, and human connection.

  Attendees will gain insight into emerging models including virtual primary care, remote patient monitoring, virtual cardiac rehabilitation, hospital at home, and the growing role of AI in care delivery and patient engagement.

  • Examine how technology-enabled care models can improve access, engagement, and the overall patient experience
  • Explore the evolving role of virtual primary care, remote patient monitoring, and home-based care delivery across the continuum
  • Discuss how AI-driven tools and digital innovation may reshape patient navigation, communication, and care delivery in the years ahead
  • Identify strategies health systems can use to balance innovation, quality, safety, and human connection while expanding access to care
• 10:45 am - 11:05 am

  Networking Break in Sponsor Showcase

  Huntington Ballroom Foyer, Kenmore and Braemore Rooms
• 11:05 am - 11:40 am

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 11:05 am - 11:40 am

    TRACK A

    High-Yield Patient Experience Solutions: The Top 10!

    Delivering an excellent patient experience is directly tied to improving care quality, safety, outcomes, and the well-being of the healthcare workforce. Yet many organizations still struggle to turn this understanding into meaningful, lasting change.

    This practical and engaging session will explore the connection between patient experience, clinical excellence, and caregiver burnout, and how progress in one area can positively impact the others. Drawing from real-world examples and proven research, we will highlight the factors that shape the patient experience across the care journey.

    The focus will be on action. Using an interactive Top 10 format, attendees will leave with clear, evidence-based strategies that can be applied immediately to improve both patient and staff experience.  Whether you are leading system-wide initiatives or working on the front lines, this session will provide practical tools to create a more connected, supportive, and effective care environment.

    • Appreciate the inexorable links between high quality patient care, excellent patient experience, and improved staff satisfaction.
    • Understand the most important causative factors contributing to patient and staff experience.
    • Identify high-yield, systems-based interventions aimed at improving patient and staff experience in their own EDs.
  • 11:05 am - 11:40 am

    TRACK B

    Rethinking Healthcare Experience Through a Consumer Lens

    What Leaders Can Learn from Netflix, Nordstrom, and Nike

    Healthcare keeps looking inward for answers. Meanwhile, the industries that have mastered loyalty, personalization, and trust are operating on an entirely different playbook.  In this session, Kathleen Ellmore pulls that playbook into healthcare and makes it usable. Drawing on insights from more than a billion consumer interactions, along with experience at some of the largest consumer companies in the world, she breaks down what actually drives behavior and why most healthcare “experience strategies” fall short. Because experience is not a score. It is behavior.

    It is how patients and members respond to outreach, navigate friction, recover from confusion, and decide whether to trust you again.  This session introduces a practical model for redesigning those moments using consumer-grade behavioral science, evidence-based communication, and real-time data. Not theory. Execution.

    If healthcare wants loyalty, it must earn it the way other industries already do.

    • Design interactions that guide behavior, not just measure it
    • Reduce friction across the patient and member journey without adding complexity
    • Apply consumer-tested strategies to clinical, payer, and care delivery environments
• 11:50 am - 12:35 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 11:50 am - 12:35 pm

    TRACK B

    Empathic Leadership and Culture Change

    The New Drivers of Patient Experience Excellence

    Healthcare organizations are under growing pressure from workforce burnout, staffing shortages, rising patient expectations, technology overload, and increasing complexity across care delivery. In this timely panel discussion, leaders from across Mass General Brigham will explore why empathic leadership and culture transformation have become critical drivers of both workforce well-being and patient experience.

    Moderated by empathy researcher Helen Riess, this panel brings together senior clinical, quality, patient experience, and operational leaders from Mass General Brigham to share practical lessons and measurable strategies for leading through today’s healthcare challenges. Attendees will leave with actionable insights to strengthen leadership communication, supporting clinical teams, and creating more sustainable cultures that improve both the workforce and patient experience.

    • Strengthen organizational resilience, trust, retention, and patient outcomes through empathic leadership
    • Address burnout, communication breakdowns, workforce fatigue, and technology burden across care environments
    • Implement culture change strategies drawn from real-world frontline experience and operational leadership
    • Connect patient experience, quality, safety, and workforce well-being as part of a unified organizational strategy
    • Build accountable, compassionate, and engaged cultures during periods of ongoing stress and transformation

     

• 12:35 pm - 2:00 pm

  Lunch in Sponsor Showcase

• 2:00 pm - 2:35 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 2:00 pm - 2:35 pm

    TRACK A

    Reimagining Prevention

    A Scalable Model Powered by Opioid Settlement Funding

    Hospitals are under growing pressure to improve patient outcomes while addressing workforce strain and opioid risk. This session introduces the Life Care Specialist (LCS) model, a scalable, patient-centered solution funded through opioid settlement dollars. By integrating patient education, whole-person support, and post-discharge connection to care, the LCS closes high-risk care gaps, reduces unnecessary opioid exposure, and strengthens clinical team capacity. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for deploying settlement funds into measurable, sustainable impact.

    • Learn how the LCS model fits into existing clinical workflows to reduce strain on staff and improve pain support for patients.
    • Target critical transition points where patients fall through the cracks and activate the LCS to improve continuity and outcomes.
    • Maximize LCS impact in both urban and rural settings with tailored strategies that address distinct operational realities.
  • 2:00 pm - 2:35 pm

    TRACK B

    The Urgent Care Effect

    What Healthcare Must Learn from the New Consumer Standard

    Urgent Care did more than improve patient experience, it fundamentally reshaped consumer expectations around convenience, speed, transparency, digital access, and service responsiveness. In many ways, Urgent Care became healthcare’s first scalable consumer-access model built around modern patient behavior. As healthcare organizations face growing pressure to improve access, loyalty, workforce engagement, and operational performance, many are confronting the same reality: today’s consumers expect healthcare to function more like Urgent Care.

    This session explores how Urgent Care operators transformed access into a competitive advantage and what healthcare leaders can learn from that evolution. Attendees will discover how hospitality-driven operational models, communication standards, digital engagement strategies, and service recovery practices can be translated into measurable improvements in patient loyalty, workforce culture, organizational reputation, and business performance.

    • Examine how Urgent Care reshaped consumer expectations around healthcare access, convenience, and responsiveness
    • Identify the operational and leadership practices required to implement hospitality-driven healthcare experiences
    • Understand how digital access, frontline service behaviors, and patient engagement influence loyalty, reputation, and organizational growth
    • Apply practical strategies to improve access, communication, patient trust, and operational performance across healthcare settings
• 2:45 pm - 3:20 pm

  Choose From Two Concurrent Tracks:
  • 2:45 pm - 3:20 pm

    TRACK A

    From Uncertainty to Confidence

    Immersive Patient Education That Improves Outcomes

    Anticipating an upcoming healthcare encounter induces concern, anxiety, and questions for patients and their families. Provision of patient education lays the groundwork for a positive experience ahead of the actual encounter. While there are many established methods to deliver patient education (written, video, in-person teaching), the learner is detached from the material. This session explores a novel immersive method of patient education that has proven to improve patient experience and outcomes.

    • Recall current patient education delivery modalities.
    • Demonstrate and apply a novel proven method of immersive patient education to improve patient/family experience and outcomes.
    • Assess the impact of immersive patient education on patient experience and outcome metrics.
  • 2:45 pm - 3:20 pm

    TRACK B

    Joy, Learning, and Trust

    Building Trust One Patient Story at a Time

    Patients often say what matters most in a single sentence. Those moments can carry more weight than any dashboard. This session explores a simple but powerful practice: selecting one meaningful patient comment each month for every department and pairing it with a clear teachable moment that reinforces the behavior or process behind an exceptional experience. What started as a way to share encouragement has become a practical approach to strengthening high reliability, reinforcing just culture, and supporting clinician wellbeing.

    You will also hear how a Provider Council Physician Assistant brought this to life by hand delivering patient comments directly to providers, creating authentic connection in a way that feels personal and meaningful.  At its core, this session focuses on building trust. Trust with patients. Trust with clinicians. Trust within teams working to deliver excellent care in a complex and imperfect system.

    • Turn patient comments into practical, repeatable “micro-lessons” that improve care experiences in real time
    • Implement a simple monthly process to share meaningful feedback with clinical leaders and frontline teams
    • Strengthen high reliability by reinforcing consistent, person-centered behaviors across teams
    • Enhance clinician engagement and wellbeing by making patient gratitude visible, personal, and actionable
• 3:20 pm - 3:40 pm

  Networking Break in Sponsor Showcase

  Huntington Ballroom Foyer, Braemore and Kenmore Rooms
• 3:40 pm - 4:15 pm

  Beyond Access

  Rebuilding Trust, Experience, and Human Connection in Behavioral Health

  Behavioral health has become one of the defining patient experience challenges in healthcare. Demand for mental health and substance use services continues to rise, while patients and families still face fragmented systems, long wait times, workforce shortages, inconsistent access, and care models that often fail to create trust and continuity.

  This fireside chat will explore how behavioral health organizations are redefining patient experience beyond traditional satisfaction metrics and toward longitudinal relationships grounded in trust, compassion, access, and human connection. The conversation will examine how leading organizations are designing systems that recognize the lived experience of patients, integrate trauma-informed approaches, and create environments where individuals feel seen, heard, safe, and supported throughout their care journey.

  Dr. Harsh Trivedi will share perspectives from leading one of the nation’s largest behavioral health systems, including lessons on scaling access while maintaining humanity, integrating behavioral health more effectively into broader healthcare delivery, addressing the growing youth mental health crisis, and building organizational cultures centered on empathy, resilience, and community impact. 

  The discussion will also explore the evolving role of technology, predictive analytics, and AI-enabled engagement in behavioral health, while reinforcing the importance of preserving the therapeutic alliance and human connection that remain foundational to mental healthcare. Topics will include stigma reduction, workforce sustainability, suicide prevention, early intervention, and the growing importance of continuous engagement models that extend beyond episodic encounters. 

  Grounded in practical leadership experience, the session will provide attendees with a candid discussion on what it takes to build behavioral health systems that are clinically effective, operationally sustainable, and deeply centered on patient and family experience.

  • Define how patient experience in behavioral health extends beyond access and satisfaction to include trust, safety, dignity, and continuity.
  • Examine how trauma-informed, integrated, and community-based care models can improve engagement and outcomes.
  • Explore how technology and AI-enabled tools can expand access while preserving empathy, human connection, and clinician trust.

  Huntington Ballroom
• 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm

  Project Pivot

  Measuring What Matters Most to Patients

  As healthcare organizations face growing pressure to improve safety, trust, equity, and patient-centered care, many leaders are asking an important question: Are we measuring the experiences and outcomes that truly matter to patients?  Project PIVOT, a national patient-led initiative connected to broader conversations around CMS patient safety and quality measurement, seeks to reframe how healthcare systems capture and act on the patient voice. The initiative focuses on integrating patient-reported experiences and outcomes into efforts focused on safety, diagnostic accuracy, transparency, and equity across healthcare.

  In this candid fireside chat, patient safety advocate Sue Sheridan joins healthcare leaders Michelle Schreiber and Laura Adams for a conversation about the future of patient reported measures. Moderated by Josh Berlin, the conversation will explore how elevating the patient voice can strengthen trust, improve transparency, and more meaningfully inform quality and safety strategies. Attendees will gain insight into how initiatives like Project PIVOT could influence future healthcare safety measures, patient experience strategy, reimbursement models, and organizational accountability.

  • Understand the goals and emerging impact of Project PIVOT on patient-centered quality measurement
  • Explore how patient-reported experiences can improve safety, trust, and diagnostic accuracy
  • Discuss current CMS and industry efforts to advance more patient-centered measurement frameworks
  • Identify practical ways to better integrate the patient voice into organizational quality, safety, and patient experience initiatives
  • Examine how transparency, feedback, and lived experience data are reshaping accountability and quality improvement
  • Explore how AI could facilitate and analyze patient reported measures and reduce burden

  Huntington Ballroom

Wednesday, September 30

• 8:00 am - 8:45 am

  Truth or Consequences

  What Happens When Healthcare Doesn’t Tell the Truth

  After a routine hip replacement leaves his mother in a coma with permanent brain damage, filmmaker Steve Burrows begins documenting a decade-long journey through the hidden realities of the American healthcare system.

  What starts as a son’s video diary becomes a powerful investigation into medical harm, institutional silence, and the urgent need for transparency when things go wrong in healthcare.

  In this compelling presentation, Burrows, writer and director of the award-winning HBO documentary Bleed Out, shares the deeply personal story behind the film and the systemic failures it exposes. Through raw footage, firsthand experience, and hard-won insights, he challenges healthcare leaders to confront uncomfortable truths about accountability, communication, and the role patients and families must play in safeguarding care.

  This session is both a cautionary tale and a call to action for healthcare leaders committed to building a culture where honesty, transparency, and patient partnership are non-negotiable.

  • Recognize the essential role of patients and families as partners in the patient experience.
  • Examine the core pillars of patient safety culture including transparency, accountability, and open communication when harm occurs.
  • Understand the real-world consequences of institutional silence and the impact that lack of transparency can have on patients, families, and public trust in healthcare.
• 8:45 am - 9:30 am

  PANEL

  Engagement and Measurement to Confidence and Outcomes

  Rebuilding Trust Across the Care Continuum

  Health plan member trust is eroding, reflected in declining CAHPS scores. Rising administrative complexity, fragmented communication, surprise bills, and inconsistent follow-through across the care continuum have created an experience gap that patients feel at every touchpoint. Improving trust requires more than lifting a single survey metric; it demands coordinated, cross-sector action that aligns hospital systems, health plans, and community partners around a seamless experience.

  This panel brings together hospital leaders and payer executives to explore how trust is built (or broken) across the care journey, from access and discharge to billing and follow-up. Panelists will share practical strategies for improving CAHPS performance while strengthening long-term trust, particularly in high-risk and vulnerable populations.

  • Identify the key drivers of trust reflected in CAHPS and related experience measures
  • Understand how payer and provider interactions influence patient perceptions
  • Implement cross-organizational approaches to reduce friction in transitions of care
  • Align operational, communication, and experience strategies to drive measurable improvement
• 9:30 am - 9:45 am

  Networking Break in Sponsor Showcase

• 9:45 am - 10:20 am

  Focus on Diagnosis!

  It’s our Biggest Opportunity (by Far!) to Improve Patient Safety!

  Missed, delayed, inaccurate, or ineffectively communicated diagnoses contribute to serious harm or death of up to a million U.S. patients annually. That’s more than all other preventable patient harm events combined!  Diagnostic failures elude incident reporting systems, delaying detection and hampering timely continuous learning. In this session, we will explore the ways in which patient reported experiences/outcomes as well as AI can close the detection gap and significantly improve diagnostic accuracy and timeliness.  We will also examine new federal legislation as well as developing Administration efforts to drive research, measurement and solutions.

  • Grasp the scope of diagnostic harm in the United States and its cost,
  • Explore the potential role that innovation in AI and patient reported measures play in diagnostic harm detection and prevention, and
  • Be able to describe Congressional and Executive Branch efforts designed to drive detection of diagnostic harm events, research and improvement in diagnostic accuracy and timeliness.
• 10:20 am - 10:55 am

  CMS Priorities for Transparency, Digital Health, and Patient-Centered Care

  Join Amy Gleason for an executive-level briefing on the latest advancements shaping CMS’s Health Tech Ecosystem and the future of digital healthcare delivery. This session will provide strategic updates on CMS priorities, implementation milestones, and progress advancing FHIR-based APIs, modern digital infrastructure, and scalable interoperability across the healthcare landscape.

  Attendees will gain insight into how CMS is working to reduce administrative burden, improve data accessibility and exchange, and strengthen digital connectivity among patients, providers, payers, and technology developers.  The session will also showcase real-world examples of ecosystem capabilities in action, highlighting practical use cases and the opportunities ahead for creating a more connected, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare experience, including:

  • Network-enabled interoperability to streamline data exchange across care settings
  • Kill the Clipboard workflows that reduce manual intake documentation
  • Diabetes and obesity-focused digital health solutions leveraging interoperable data and care coordination
  • Conversational AI applications that improve patient engagement, navigation, and clinician efficiency

  This session offers a clear view into CMS’s strategic direction while demonstrating how the Health Tech Ecosystem is driving practical, patient-centered innovation and accelerating collaboration across federal agencies and industry partners.

  • Describe the updated strategic objectives of the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem and identify key deliverables and milestones.
  • Understand how CMS is advancing FHIR-based APIs and ecosystem-enabled networks.
  • Recognize how Kill the Clipboard workflows reduce administrative burden and empower patients to be in control of their health information.
  • Evaluate practical use cases in diabetes, obesity, and conversational AI powered by interoperable data.
  • Identify opportunities for collaboration with CMS and ecosystem partners.
• 10:55 am - 11:45 am

  Patients First: Leadership, Empathy, and Transforming Healthcare Culture

  Fireside Chat with Dr. Toby Cosgrove

  Join internationally recognized healthcare leader and renowned cardiac surgeon Dr. Toby Cosgrove for an exclusive fireside chat exploring the future of healthcare leadership, innovation, patient-centered care, and system transformation.

  As former CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic from 2004 to 2017, Dr. Cosgrove helped lead one of the world’s most respected healthcare organizations through a period of extraordinary growth, innovation, and global recognition for quality and patient experience. A decorated Vietnam veteran awarded the Bronze Star, Dr. Cosgrove has also built a distinguished career as a pioneering cardiac surgeon and medical innovator, holding more than 30 patents.

  In this candid conversation, Dr. Cosgrove will share leadership lessons from transforming culture at scale, advancing innovation in healthcare delivery, and navigating the challenges facing healthcare organizations today. Attendees will gain valuable insights from one of the industry’s most influential voices on what it takes to lead meaningful change while keeping patients at the center of care.

• 11:45 am - 12:00 pm

  Conference Wrap-Up

Monday, September 28

• 8:30 am - 10:00 am

  Choose From Two Concurrent Workshops
  • 8:30 am - 10:00 am

    WORKSHOP A

    Building Loving Systems

    Practical Leadership Tools to Transform Patient Experience

    Patient experience challenges are rarely the result of individual failure. More often, they are symptoms of system design. Communication breakdowns, inconsistent feedback, and unclear accountability structures create friction for staff and can erode patient trust.

    This interactive workshop introduces three systems-based leadership approaches that leading organizations are using to strengthen culture and improve patient experience: Loving Communication, Loving Feedback, and Loving Accountability. Rather than asking people to simply try harder, the session focuses on how organizations can embed dignity, clarity, and accountability into workflows, governance, and daily operations.

    Participants will leave with practical tools, useful language, and clear next steps they can implement within their teams and organizations. The workshop is designed to move beyond inspiration and into implementation, equipping leaders with actionable strategies to improve workforce stability, strengthen execution, and advance patient experience outcomes.

    • Explain why patient experience outcomes are driven by system design, not individual effort alone
    • Identify key elements of Loving Communication, Loving Feedback, and Loving Accountability systems
    • Apply a structured framework to redesign one communication, feedback, or accountability process in their organization; and commit to a measurable 30-day implementation step
  • 8:30 am - 10:00 am

    WORKSHOP B

    Deep Dive into the Leapfrog Hospital Survey

    Using Public Reporting to Strengthen Patient Experience, Safety, and Performance

    More than 2,400 hospitals participate each year in Leapfrog’s free, annual Hospital Survey, a nationally recognized tool for measuring and publicly reporting hospital performance across safety, quality, efficiency, patient experience, and culture of safety.

    This interactive pre-conference workshop will give hospital leaders a practical, behind-the-scenes look at how the Leapfrog Hospital Survey works, what is measured, how results are publicly reported, and how hospitals can use the data to support benchmarking, quality improvement, national recognition, value-based purchasing, and performance strategy.

    With a focused lens on patient experience and safety culture, participants will explore key Survey measures, national standards, documentation expectations, scoring resources, and opportunities to strengthen internal alignment around performance improvement. The session will also review how select Survey Results are used in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade for general acute-care hospitals.

    Designed for hospital leaders responsible for patient experience, quality, safety, performance improvement, compliance, and reporting, this workshop will help attendees better understand how to leverage the Survey not just as a reporting requirement, but as a roadmap for measurable improvement.

    • Explain how Leapfrog Hospital Survey data is collected, publicly reported, and used for benchmarking, quality improvement, recognition, value-based purchasing, and pay-for-performance.
    • Identify key Survey measures tied to patient experience and culture of safety, including the role of OAS CAHPS and Child Hospital CAHPS.
    • Use Leapfrog resources, including scoring tools, workbooks, measure specifications, the Survey Binder, and Help Desk support.
    • Apply documentation and verification requirements to improve Survey accuracy, reporting processes, and submission readiness.
• 10:00 am - 11:30 am

  Choose From Two Concurrent Workshops
  • 10:00 am - 11:30 am

    WORKSHOP C

    The Invisible Co-Author

    Preserving Trust, Safety, and Human Connection in the Age of AI

    Artificial intelligence is already shaping the patient experience, embedded in triage, documentation, discharge, and communication tools. While AI may inform care, clinicians and leaders remain accountable for how that care is delivered and experienced.

    This interactive workshop examines how AI is influencing patient interactions, where risks to empathy, accuracy, and equity can emerge, and how to respond in real time. Through interdisciplinary case scenarios, participants will identify where AI is at work and how it impacts trust and communication.

    Conference participants will apply the AI Safety Pause™, a practical framework to evaluate AI-informed outputs, strengthen clinical judgment, and ensure care remains patient-centered and ethically grounded.  Designed for clinical and operational leaders, this session delivers actionable strategies to preserve the human experience of care in an AI-enabled environment.

    • Recognize where and how artificial intelligence influences the patient experience across clinical and operational settings
    • Examine the impact of AI on trust, communication, and perceived quality of care
    • Apply the AI Safety Pause™ to evaluate AI-informed outputs in real-time decision-making
    • Identify risks such as bias, miscommunication, and overreliance that may negatively affect patient experience
    • Implement strategies to maintain human connection, accountability, and patient-centered care in AI-supported environments
  • 10:00 am - 11:30 am

    Workshop D

    Building the Workforce Behind Better Patient Experience

    Rural Resilience

    In rural healthcare, workforce challenges directly impact patient experience, trust, safety, and access to care. Staffing shortages, leadership gaps, and provider burnout continue to strain rural hospitals and health systems, making it increasingly difficult to meet the expectations of patients and communities.

    This interactive pre-conference workshop, presented by the New England Rural Health Association (NERHA) and partners, explores innovative strategies to strengthen and sustain the rural healthcare workforce. Through practical case studies and collaborative discussion, attendees will examine how regional partnerships, leadership development programs, community health workers, and rural-focused training initiatives are helping organizations improve workforce stability while enhancing patient experience outcomes.

    Workshop participants will leave with actionable ideas to build more resilient, community-centered care teams capable of improving trust, engagement, and care delivery across underserved populations.

    Analyze the Correlation between Leadership and Experience: Identify how leadership gaps in rural health systems contribute to provider burnout and subsequent declines in patient satisfaction and safety.

    • Examine how workforce shortages, burnout, and leadership gaps impact patient experience, trust, and safety in rural healthcare settings
    • Explore collaborative workforce development models that strengthen recruitment, retention, and leadership pipelines across rural communities
    • Identify strategies to improve patient trust and engagement through community-based care teams and lived-experience workforce models
    • Develop practical approaches to building resilient, rural-ready healthcare teams that support both workforce well-being and patient-centered care