Bill Klaproth (Host): This is the SHSMD Podcast, Rapid Insights for Healthcare Strategy Professionals and Planning, Business Development, Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations. I'm your host, Bill Klaproth.

On this edition of the SHSMD Podcast, we are talking about the human experience and sustainable growth and why being more human may be one of the most important strategies for healthcare organizations who are facing disruption, margin pressure, and rising consumer expectations.

And we're going to discuss how to turn human connection into a strategic advantage. I'm so happy to welcome Jason Wolf. He is the President and CEO of the Beryl Institute and a globally recognized expert on patient and human experience. Jason will not only be doing a pre-conference workshop at SHSMD Connections in Baltimore, he will be one of our keynote speakers as well. Jason, welcome.

Jason Wolf: Thank you, Bill. And I guess be careful what you ask for, right? So, appreciate your invitation.

Host: You're doing double duty, baby. So, let's do it.

Jason Wolf: Exactly.

Host: Well, I love it. So, Jason, you have helped move the conversation from patient experience to the broader idea of human experience. Can you explain that to us? What does that mean in healthcare today, and why is that shift so important?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I appreciate the question, Bill. And it's such an essential one. You know, we've been talking about this idea of human experience probably for over a decade now. I think I first wrote about it 2014, 2015. I think the reality before and even as we think now after the pandemic, which still kind of sits on the horizon of healthcare, right, was that we realized there was not just the needs for those we care for and serve each and every day; that when we underline that, it's important that we focus on a patient-centric and person-centered effort, but we can't deliver on those promises. We can't deliver on what's important unless we actually care for those who show up to serve each and every day as well.

So, our need to care for the healthcare workforce to ensure we underline what's important to them and recognize that our institutions of care live in communities that we have the honor and the opportunity to care for and serve means that we need to think about this in a very different way, how we link the care for people we serve, how we care for those who show up to serve each and every day, and how we really show up in the communities we serve as healthcare centers and institutions of care. And in linking those three things together, we can actually ensure we derive the best in outcomes. And they're so integrally connected that, if we don't think about them in that way, we have the chance of never quite getting it fully right.

Host: So, you're linking three together. So when you talk about the human experience, you're not just talking about patient human experience, you're talking about the employee human experience and the community experience as well. Is that right?

Jason Wolf: Yes, 100%. I mean, I think it's essential that we realize how all of those are integrated and integral.

Host: Yeah. So, your keynote is called Reframing Growth Through Human Experience. How can being more human then actually drive growth, trust, and loyalty among the three communities that you just talked about?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I mean, I think the reality is we hear again and again, and we've been really fortunate, you know, in our global community at the Beryl Institute. You know, we have 60-plus thousand people in 85 countries. We touch consumers of care in almost every place you can get Google Analytics to ask the questions of what really matters to those who show up in healthcare institutions each and every day.

And we find actually a lot of proximity between what patients and families tell us and what the healthcare workforce tells us, and it's really these things, that I want to be listened to, I want to be communicated to ways that I can understand, I want to be treated with dignity and respect, and I want to have confidence in your ability to care for me.

Our ability to do that really leads to some really critical outcomes, quality outcomes in our way to ensure that we avoid safety errors and other things. It drives financial outcomes from our ability to be more efficient and effective in our delivery of care in a system that understand what operates. It ensures that we listen to patients and family members with intention. So now, to your point, it builds brand loyalty, it builds trust, it builds the stories that people tell. And it builds workforce engagement and commitment. It builds cultures that matter. And when you have a place where people want to show up to work that delivers the care promise that's essential to drive quality outcomes, your ultimate impact is on the bottom line of our institutions, on the fact that people choose us, they trust us, they tell others to come to us.

And it's a really critical decision point that when we focus on a human experience mindset first, you can actually impact all of those things at once versus distinguishing, "Oh, we have a safety strategy over here, or a quality strategy over here, or a human resource strategy here." A commitment to human experience actually enables you to touch on all of those things in an integrated and essential way.

Host: So, I like how you said that you talked about it impacts critical outcomes. And then, you also mentioned a return on human experience. So for a healthcare leader under pressure to show results, we always talk about ROI, of course. What does that return look like?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. And we can get to rote numbers, right? I mean, if we think about first workforce experience, our ability to create environments where people want to work enables us to attract the best providers to ensure that we ensure retention, that we don't deal with the cost or impact of turnover, a critical piece in healthcare today where we know we have a shortage.

When we focus on patient and family experience as part of that human experience, we are driving loyalty and trust through the way we communicate, through the quality care we provide, through the outcomes that we deliver. And so, we've created ambassadors of brand in our own communities with the patients and families we care for.

And when we ultimately operate from an experience lens, like I said, we are beginning to find process efficiencies through effective communication. We're finding improved financial strength that are driven by our capacity to link all of those things together.

So, this is integral because these are all real operational bottom line things that we face every day in healthcare. Myself as in part of operations many, many years ago, where all the struggles that we tried to squeeze out of an operating system that's already really burdened. And so, our ability to bring that humanity to the conversation isn't about niceness, it isn't about satisfaction. It's about really fundamentally creating connections that drive the outcomes that are essential to a healthy, vibrant healthcare system.

Host: So, your keynote connects experience with brand, culture, and performance. For SHSMD's marketing strategy and communication leaders, where can they have the greatest influence then?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I think it's really interesting, and I won't give away all the secrets. But we purposely conducted a consumer study across the United States for this keynote as part of our biannual PX poll study of the US Healthcare consumer. And we asked them what drives their choice in a healthcare organization, hospital, or system.

And I don't think that we would be surprised to find out it's very tied to reputation management in general, that it is what they are referred to by their physicians that they trust, and it's the reputation of those institutions. Now, we know reputation is kind of a broad amorphous idea. But when you get under the research on reputation, it's around trust, it's around outcomes, it's around the things that matter. And what we're finding again and again, as of this just few weeks ago in asking the US healthcare consumer, "When you provide me these things, I will be your customer. I will choose you as a place to receive care. I believe that you deliver on your quality promises. I believe that people believe in who you are. And so, your physicians are telling us this is the place to go. I trust those people to guide me well."

And so, we create a very positive feedback loop. And I believe it's really important for strategists to get involved in helping not only support the cultures that enable that, but then how do you convey those messages with intentionality and purpose? So, I do think we have a huge opportunity in how we communicate and implement strategy in putting our messages out into our communities as to why we want people to choose us.

I think the human experience lens, whether explicitly stated or just the means by which you achieve those outcomes for reputation and recommendation, are a path to great success overall

Host: So, you're going to go into this in detail in your session then?

Jason Wolf: Yeah, we're going to get into that a little bit more.

Host: Okay. Teaser.

Jason Wolf: Yeah

Host: This is going to be great. So, right, if you want to know what Jason's talking about on this after all of his research, you're talking about trust outcomes and things that really matter to the consumer, make sure that you attend that keynote. This is going to be great. So, how does a hospital do this or a healthcare system do this at scale, take these meaningful human connections? How do you do that across the whole organization in practical terms?

Jason Wolf: Yeah, I love that question because I think sometimes we overcomplicate it, right? I ask a very basic question in probably every talk that I've ever given from teaching to keynotes to classes. And I ask this question, "Everybody please raise your hand in this room if you're a human being." I'll do it when we're there in Baltimore, right?

And it's the one question I can ask as a researcher no matter where I stand in the world, no matter what language I ask it in, where 100% of the respondents respond yes to that question, right? And so, I share that only because fundamentally we know. So the practicalities of actually delivering on a human-focused practice in response in healthcare is around ensuring we do the fundamental things well. How do we create environments where people can listen effectively and convey messages with clarity? How do we ensure that we are communicating what our care plans are in a way that people understand? How are we showing dignity and respect and exemplifying that not just only to the people we care for, but to each other in our care teams?

So, much of this is not around clinical checklists or protocols insomuch as building the fundamentals of what a good, healthy, vibrant organization needs to be each and every day. How do we deliver on that promise to ensure that people feel heard, communicated to in ways that they can understand, and engaged in a way that's meaningful so that they can be partners in their own care journey?

Host: So if we all embody those traits, we effectively move the whole organization up.

Jason Wolf: Yeah. Let's counter that—I know many places like to have behavioral standards, for instance, in healthcare. We've all been good at it. But some of these lists can be 30, 40, 50 behavioral expectations. We overwhelm people by making experience focus a thing to do. And I think this is the critical key here, right?

Is that if we make this a thing to do, we're busy in healthcare, we all show up every day to try to do our best, but it's easy when we have things to do to not do all of them, or just to say no to the things we don't want to. And what I think is the fundamental secret, if you want to say in this whole thing, is understanding that this is the way we want to be as an organization.

Not only be in how we show up, but the way we want to be perceived by others, and why strategists are so important, and the way we market our efforts are so critical in how we support people in showing up in the way we want to be every day is much different. Because it's not a choice to do or not do something, but it's who we choose to be as a healthcare organization each and every day that we're helping build together.

Host: That's much different than a checklist.

Jason Wolf: Yeah, 100%. Yes.

Host: Basically.

Jason Wolf: Yeah.

Host: So for your keynote, Jason, what do you hope people walk away with? If they come in thinking one thing, what are you hoping to give them to maybe change their perception when they go back to work the following week?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I mean, I would say a couple things, and it builds off the last comment we were just having, is that experience first is not something we do, but it is the way we build who we want to be as an organization. And so, how do we create an environment that ensures that our people can be their best selves? How do we ensure that we create the right means to have the best positive and most positive interactions with our patients and family and lead to the outcomes that matter? So if we can just change the mindset that when we speak about human experience, we're not talking about survey results or like a score on a report card. We're talking about the kind of organizations we want to be. And then, it leads us right to the very things that we say have people choose us as healthcare institutions. The word of mouth that our patients and families talk about, the recommendations that come from physicians that say, "This is the place I believe enables me to practice the highest quality care." The reputation that we have in the marketplace that is not driven by billboards or radio ads, but by the conversations that people have on the soccer fields and at Walmart.

And that's, I think, what we're changing. That this can be such a significant decision strategically for organizations if we focus on it in that way versus, "Oh, yes, we got a 90 percentile of X or this or that."

Surveys are important, but they don't tell us the truth always about what's really important to people. They give us data that is true. So, it's a distinction there. But what's really true about us is when you go and listen to what people say about you in your community, what your coworkers or, you know, employees say about you when they're together at the bowling alley, right? And if we can create those messages that matter, that's the biggest thing I would hope we could take away. I believe this group in particular, strategic leaders, the SHSMD audience, can have a significant influence with their executive teams, with their people and their organizations to begin to shift the thinking around experience as just another thing we have to show as a metric or a percentage we put, like I said, on an advertisement to the way that people actually perceive us each and every day in our communities.

Host: So important. This is going to be such a meaningful keynote. And as you're talking about that, I'm just thinking it's back to that human connection again, people talking to people. And that is really what matters.

Jason Wolf: Yeah.

Host: And listening and communicating.

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I mean, I always say, you know, the fundamental at the heart of healthcare is this one idea, and you kind of alluded to it, is we are human beings, back to everyone raising their hands, caring for human beings. That's it. And if we can get that right, I know it's intricate and we're difficult and challenging beings. Human beings are not easy always, but the opportunity for us to do the right thing can be easy if we create the right structures and processes to do it.

Host: Very well said. So, let's talk about the pre-conference workshop a little bit. You are leading the pre-conference workshop. It's called Guiding Principles for Experience Excellence. So what will attendees actually do during those two hours, Jason?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. We break down a book we recently released with my colleague, Stacy Palmer, that unpacks the eight guiding principles, really begins to walk through the foundational pieces that will enable you to think about building the kind of organizations that deliver on the very promise we were just talking about.

So, what are the elements that we have seen over now our almost two-decade journey at the institute around what enables high-performing organizations to sustain and grow their efforts to deliver on their care promises? And so, we're going to work through each of those eight elements, guiding principles that have been central to the Beryl Institute's community for many years that are really spelled out in our book, Return on Human Experience.

And we're going to have a chance to dig into each one around what we would do, what we've learned about them in our own organizations, and what practices we would want to take back to apply in a way that's meaningful. So, the hope is that everyone comes out with a bit of a roadmap or some foundational building blocks to go back and create the very kind of organizations we were talking about earlier to deliver on that care promise, that experience promise that we hope everybody can each and every day.

Host: If there's one practical tool or framework or idea that attendees can take back and start using the very next week, maybe we can give one tip out for someone listening right now that maybe can't make the conference, what would that be?

Jason Wolf: Yeah. I'll start with the first one, because it's very specific but intentional and takes a little bit of lift. I believe every organization needs to define what the experience is that they want to provide. Most places I walk in, I'm like, "What is experience to you or your organization?" And I can get a different answer going from one unit to the next.

Having a true north around an experience effort is fundamental. What does experience mean to your organization when you say you're delivering on it? In most places, like I said, I'll say it's the survey score, it's the response to this item, but what does it really mean for your organization? And the organizations I will say, the healthcare systems and hospitals that focus on what they want that experience to be and define it in a way, maybe not perfectly in words, but in a way that everyone can describe what they're working towards, changes the game. Because then, after that, you can align everyone's role to delivering on that specific true north promise. People can see why, well, my role as a housekeeper contributes to that, or how me as someone at the front desk contributes to that, or how I as someone sending the bill even six weeks after someone's care and follow-up contribute to that.

And so, setting what that true north is for each and every organization is a fundamental first step. I don't think it's a secret, but it's one we often overlook in the interest of getting to the results. And because of that, we end up shooting 40 ways versus the one way we all want to move our organization. So, I think it's a critical first step for everybody.

Host: That seems like time well spent, really sitting down and defining what experience means to our organization and what's that experience we want to deliver to the three different areas you talked about earlier: our patients, our employees, and our community.

Jason Wolf: Yeah, 100%.

Host: Good stuff. Jason, thank you so much for your time today. This has really been great, and we're looking forward to your pre-conference workshop and your keynote at SHSMD Connections. Thank you again.

Jason Wolf: Thank you so much, Bill. Hopefully we just teased that enough to make it interesting enough to want more.

Host: We sure did. Absolutely. Once again, that is Jason Wolf, President and CEO of the Beryl Institute. And Jason, again, is going to be presenting at SHSMD Connections 2026 in Baltimore. If you haven't registered yet, make sure you do that. Go to shshmd.org/education/annualconference. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you get every episode. This has been a production of Doctor Podcasting. I'm Bill Klaproth. See ya!