Sr Director - Patient Experience & Advocacy

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare

9d • Onsite

About The Position

Responsible for the development, execution, and continuous advancement of a system-wide patient experience and advocacy strategy across the continuum of care. Leads efforts to create one consistent, high-reliability experience standard that supports the patient's physical comfort, emotional well-being, education, spiritual needs, and responsiveness of care. Drives measurable improvements in patient experience outcomes by integrating experience into clinical operations, clinical governance, and frontline care delivery. Partners closely with physicians, nursing, and operational leaders to embed experience as a core quality domain, aligning with system priorities and values. Model appropriate behavior as exemplified in MLH Mission, Vision and Values. Working at MLH means carrying the mission forward of caring for our community and impacting the lives of patients in every way through compassion, a deliberate focus on service expectations and a consistent thriving for excellence.

Requirements

• Master's Degree
• Minimum 5–7 years of progressive leadership experience in patient experience, service excellence, or healthcare operations
• Demonstrated success leading system-level experience transformation initiatives
• Experience working with patient feedback systems (e.g., HCAHPS, Press Ganey, real-time feedback tools)
• Deep expertise in patient safety science, human factors, and high reliability principles
• Demonstrated ability to lead enterprise-wide change and culture transformation
• Strong analytical capability in safety data interpretation and performance improvement
• Ability to influence physician, nursing, and executive leadership without direct authority
• Excellent communication and presentation skills (Board, ELT, and frontline engagement)
• Strong program management, facilitation, and team leadership capabilities
• Knowledge of regulatory and accreditation requirements (DNV, CMS, or equivalents)
• Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP) Patient Experience Institute (PXI)

Nice To Haves

• Master's Degree Business Administration
• Master's Degree Healthcare Administration
• Master's Degree Public Health
• Clinical degree (RN, MD, or equivalent)
• Experience in high reliability organizations and culture transformation
• Six Sigma Black Belt - Authorized Six Sigma Certification Issuer

Responsibilities

• Leads development and execution of the system-wide patient experience strategy
• Establishes a standardized experience model across all care settings
• Defines “what good looks like” for patient-centered care at every touchpoint
• Designs and operationalizes a system approach addressing: Physical comfort (pain, environment, cleanliness, quietness), Emotional support (empathy, respect, compassion), Patient and family education (clear communication, shared decision-making), Spiritual and cultural needs (integration with chaplaincy and support services)
• Establishes clear, observable service behaviors and interaction standards
• Embeds experience expectations into bedside care, rounding structures, tiered huddles and leader standard work
• Drives consistency and accountability across all sites
• Oversee system-wide patient feedback strategy, including: HCAHPS and CG-CAHPS performance, Real-time patient feedback and escalation, Patient complaints, grievances, and compliments
• Develop closed-loop feedback processes to ensure patients are heard and issues resolved
• Leads targeted initiatives to improve experience metrics and key drivers
• Translate feedback into actionable improvement plans
• Standardizes dashboards for facility, system, and board-level reporting
• Overseas patient advocacy programs, ensuring timely and effective response to concerns
• Designs system approach to service recovery and trust rebuilding
• Partners with Risk Management on patient communication and transparency
• Drives a culture of compassion, accountability, and ownership of experience
• Partners with HR and leadership to integrate experience into performance evaluations, leadership expectations and recognition programs
• Promotes psychological safety and respectful care environments
• Serves as a key leader within the system clinical governance structure
• Aligns patient experience with quality, safety, and access priorities
• Partners with physician leaders to embed experience into clinical workflows
• Develops system-wide training for experience excellence
• Ensures onboarding and continuous education includes: Communication skills, Empathy and compassion training, Service recovery techniques
• Supports leadership development in experience improvement
• Identifies and addresses disparities in patient experience outcomes
• Ensures culturally competent, inclusive care across all populations
• Partners with equity leaders to improve experience for underserved groups
• Brings best practices from leading systems and industries
• Establishes partnerships and benchmarking opportunities
• Introduces innovative approaches to enhance patient experience

Benefits

• The Associate is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity, such as preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; or extensive reading.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director