Director for Patient Experience

About the Role

The Director for Patient Experience serves as the architect of an Iredell Memorial patient experience that supports and creates a masterfully orchestrated, personally meaningful, highly customized, patient- and family-directed experience in a healing environment. You will be the catalyst for a Patient and Family Centered culture at Iredell Health System, supporting and modeling the organization’s values: Compassion, Collaboration, Respect, and Integrity.

This role utilizes healthcare industry evidence-based practices and world-class service benchmarks to achieve improved patient and family perception of care while striving to lead quality scores. You will analyze and interpret patient survey feedback, create reports using patient feedback data, and develop evidence-based strategies aligned with strategic goals.

Responsibilities

• Build relationships and communicate effectively across a wide continuum of healthcare professionals, including nursing, physicians, middle managers, executives, and front-line staff.
• Accountable for successful patient perception of care results and strong relationships with operational leaders.
• Facilitate execution of initiatives such as creating a top-decile patient experience and building accountability systems.
• Operationalize service behaviors alongside Organizational Development and Staff Education.
• Equip senior leadership with information, tools, and evidence-based practices to build a sustainable culture focused on patient- and family-centered care.
• Ensure operational implementation of evidence-based practices by setting clear expectations for success.
• Lead, facilitate, and navigate project plans by collaborating with operational leaders and teams to initiate improvement efforts around the patient experience.
• Build strong relationships with operational leaders through professional and high-quality communication and support.
• Lead cross-functional teams and influence peers and staff who do not formally report to the position.
• Drive change effectively across the continuum of care.
• Contribute intellectual capital and build best practices to enhance the Iredell Memorial Experience.
• Identify opportunities to improve the patient experience and bring innovative, evidence-based practices from other healthcare organizations or industries.
• Challenge the status quo and traditional approaches in a collaborative, effective manner while balancing working relationships with a "patient and family-first" philosophy.
• Support the connection between Employee Engagement and the Patient Experience.
• Maintain efficient and effective communication between the Office of Patient Experience, Patient Advocate, Pastoral Care, and Human Resources.
• Collaborate with Education to design and implement training related to the patient experience, including developing professional presentations and conducting training sessions.
• Oversee the volunteer program, including recruitment, retention, and onboarding of volunteers, and work with volunteer leadership to manage fundraising and donations.
• Manage the system Patient Family Advisory Council.
• Facilitate effective listening and learning methodologies through approaches such as Patient Advisory Boards and serve as the liaison between Patient Advisors, Physicians, and Senior Leadership.
• Demonstrate proficiency with a high skill level in Microsoft Office programs (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred).
• Minimum of 5-7 years of healthcare, hospitality, or customer service background, preferably with operational leadership and supervisory experience.
• Consulting experience (either internal or as an independent consultant) is preferred.
• Strong written and oral communication skills with the ability to facilitate groups.
• Ability to analyze work processes for possible performance improvements.
• Ability to structure a patient experience approach strategically for a campus or health system.
• Ability to work independently, manage workload, and provide reliable follow-through to meet timelines and deadlines.
• Ability to build strong relationships at all levels in an organization.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Ability to develop a full understanding of best practices and tools and communicate them effectively to drive results.
• Moderate to advanced skills in Microsoft Office, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Passionate about Customer Relations and Patient/Family-Centered Care.
• Ability to analyze and perform statistical functions.
• One year of experience preferred in leading cross-functional teams or training in process improvement tools.

Reports to the Vice President of Medical Affairs.