Who We Are

The Association for Patient Experience (AfPE) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization sponsored by Cleveland Clinic that is dedicated to enhancing the clinical, physical and emotional healthcare environment.
AfPE aims to improve the healthcare experience by:

Seeking greater understanding of key drivers contributing to positive patient experiences
Striving to develop and share creative, sound solutions to common patient experience issues
Continually anticipating the future of healthcare delivery and driving innovative change in the patient experience
Always advocating on behalf of patients and families

Our Members

Our members include

Physicians
Nurses
Healthcare Leaders
Customer Service Professionals
Patient and Family Advisors and Advocates
Patients

+OVERVIEW

+BOARD OF DIRECTORS

James Merlino, MD, FACS, FASCRS | President and Chief Medical Officer Strategic Consulting, Press Ganey Associates, Inc.

Dr. James Merlino is president and chief medical officer of the strategic consulting division of Press Ganey. As an accomplished surgeon and industry leader in improving the patient experience, Jim draws from more than two decades of health care experience to oversee Press Ganey’s consultancy division. Under his leadership, the consultancy team helps providers improve the delivery of safe, high-quality care in a patient-centered environment.

Jim served as chief experience officer and associate chief of staff at the Cleveland Clinic health system, as well as a practicing staff colorectal surgeon at the organization’s Digestive Disease Institute. At Cleveland Clinic, Jim was responsible for leading strategic programs to improve the patient experience across the system. He spearheaded numerous groundbreaking initiatives to ensure the highest standards for patient care, improve patient access and referring physician relations. He championed organizational cultural alignment around the patient as a key component of patient-centered care. Full Bio

Adrienne Boissy, MD, MA | Chief Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic Adrienne Boissy, MD, MA, is Chief Experience Officer of Cleveland Clinic Health System, and a staff physician at the Cleveland Clinic Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis with a secondary appointment in the Center for Ethics, Humanities and Spiritual Care. As Chief Experience Officer, Dr. Boissy leads the Office of Patient Experience and its initiatives to improve the patient experience across Cleveland Clinic Health System.

Dr. Boissy previously served as the Medical Director of the Center of Excellence in Healthcare Communication. Her team created a comprehensive program to strengthen physician and provider communication skills throughout Cleveland Clinic and has trained more than 4,000 staff physicians and house staff to date.

Dr. Boissy also guided the development of patient advisory councils across Cleveland Clinic Health System and is active in the Cleveland Clinic Professionalism Council. She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Patient Experience. Full Bio

Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC | Executive Chief Nursing Officer, Cleveland Clinic Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, is executive chief nursing officer for Cleveland Clinic health system, and chief nursing officer for Cleveland Clinic main campus. A Cleveland Clinic veteran of more than 20 years, Hancock brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her esteemed leadership position. She spearheads the organization’s 11,000 nursing team members that comprise the Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence, overseeing nursing practice, development and education in inpatient, outpatient, rehabilitation and home care fields. She also oversees the daily nursing activity and long-term strategy for Cleveland Clinic’s main campus location. Full Bio

Deirdre Mylod, PhD | Executive Director, Institute for Innovation; Senior Vice President, Research and Analytics, Press Ganey Associates, Inc. Dr. Deirdre Mylod joined Press Ganey in 1997 and currently serves as the Executive Director of the organization's Research Institute and Senior Vice President of Research and Analytics. In this joint role, Mylod is responsible for advancing the understanding of the entire patient experience - everything that happens to the patient including patient satisfaction, clinical processes and outcomes. Through the Institute, Mylod partners with leading health care systems to examine and implement transformative concepts to improve the patient experience and reduce patient suffering. As a prominent thought leader in the industry, Mylod regularly lectures on topics including public policy, legislation, and the future of patient experience. Mylod has extensive expertise in survey development, methodology and statistics. Full Bio

Ananth Raman, PhD | Professor, Harvard University Ananth Raman, UPS Foundation Professor of Business Logistics at Harvard Business School, specializes in operations management. He teaches courses in supply chain management, service operations, and the investor's perspective on operations to MBA students and executive participants. He teaches a doctoral course on operations management at Harvard Business School, and serves as primary thesis advisor for multiple doctoral students. Full Bio

Stacie Pallotta, MPH | Partner, Strategic Consulting, Press Ganey Associates, Inc. Stacie Pallotta provides strategic and/or operational guidance and support for evaluation and improvement of the patient/customer experience. Her areas of expertise include culture transformation, creating infrastructure to support experience, leadership buy in, best practice implementation and sustainability measures. She has extensive experience in US health care with international (Canada, UAE and Europe) and cross industry (hospitality, product sales/distribution, education) exposure. With more than 10 years of healthcare experience in research and academic medical centers, most recently as Senior Director in the Office of Patient Experience at Cleveland Clinic, Stacie has experience in clinical and translational research, healthcare administration and patient experience strategy and tactics across the global healthcare environment.

Mary Siwierka | Safety Service Director, City of Elyria Mary Pronesti Siwierka serves as the Safety Service Director for the City of Elyria, OH (pop. 55,000). She is the first female in this office in the city’s history. She oversees the administrative supervision of all divisions, bureaus and other units within the Department of Safety and Service and is responsible to the Mayor (and citizens and City Council) for the enforcement of all regulations and the execution of all work of the municipality. Mary worked in multiple departments for the City of Elyria from 1974 to 1999. In 1999, she began a career in medicine and through 2011 managed multi-specialty outpatient and ambulatory surgery sites in Lorain County. She furthered her career at Cleveland Clinic working in the administration of the Office of Patient Experience and traveled both regionally and nationally for this work. Full Bio

+SPONSORS & PARTNERS

+ORGANIZATIONAL NARRATIVE

ORGANIZATIONAL NARRATIVE Brief Introduction

Founded in 2011, the Association for Patient Experience (APE) was the first non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated exclusively to advancing the field of patient experience. The founding purpose of the organization was to create a place for people to network and share information to facilitate improvements in the patient experience through-out the industry, and advance patient-centered thinking across the world. The purpose was simple, and today the association remains the only non-profit exclusively focused on this topic.

About the Association

Vision: To be a recognized global leader in education and information supporting the patient experience

Mission: To improve the patient experience by providing healthcare providers; patients and their families; and others with information, education, networking opportunities, and related resources focused on best practices.

Values: Evidence-Based Practice: Identifying and promoting best practices that can be replicated to drive successful outcomes

Innovation: Testing and implementing novel, pioneering, and creative solutions to the challenges and opportunities related to the patient experience.

Patient-Centered Care: Clinical care and support services focused on the patient’s needs and wants; creating an environment which puts the patient in charge of his/her experience

Research: Using established methods and data to systematically investigate the impact and effectiveness of proposed solutions to issues relating to the patient experience

Sharing: Healthcare providers, patients and others are willing to share their successes and lessons learned to advance the field of patient experience.

The Association aims to improve the healthcare experience by:

Seeking greater understanding of key drivers contributing to positive patient experiences;
Striving to develop and share creative, sound solutions to common patient experience issues;
Continually anticipating the future of healthcare delivery and driving innovative change in the patient experience;
Always advocating on behalf of patients and families

The association of patient experience has provided educational content through newsletters, webinars, and presentations. Topics include patient experience strategy, physician and nurse engagement, patient engagement, patient stories and other general topics of interest to the healthcare ecosystem. The Association’s provocative CEO interview series has brought insights from leading healthcare CEOs to the front lines of the patient experience movement. The Association has annually sponsored the Patient Experience Summit, and in the past has offered an annual “Caregiver of the year award.”

Everyone is part of the healthcare ecosystem, whether as a healthcare professional, caregiver, patient, or family member and therefore membership is open to all. Today the Association boasts over 4,000 members across the World.

Journal of Patient Experience

In 2012, APE founded the Journal of Patient Experience (JPE), the first peer-reviewed, Medlinelisted journal exclusively dedicated to advancing the art and science of patient experience. Published quarterly in print and digital format, the journal brings perspectives, critical thought leadership, and peer-reviewed primary research to the industry. In the first half of 2018, the journal saw over 50,000 views of its primary content. Lead by its founding editor, Dr. Adrienne Boissy, chief experience officer of Cleveland Clinic, the journal has an editorial board comprised senior and distinguished leaders from across the healthcare industry.

While the journal has been very active and growing since its founding, the association has been relatively quiescent. Many members continue to encourage our efforts and have challenged us to further advance this work and do more. We are taking steps to invest in our organization and expand this work.

Leadership

James Merlino, MD is the founder and current president of the Association. Jim is the current chief transformation officer at Press Ganey; prior to joining Press Ganey in 2015, Jim served as chief experience officer and associate chief of staff at Cleveland Clinic. He is a recognized leader in the field of patient experience and is well published in the field.

Brian Riggs is the executive director of the Association. In January of 2018, the Association hired Riggs Enterprise to officially manage the Association and Journal. Brian and his team’s expertise in managing non-profit organizations will provide valued management expertise to our efforts to maintain and expand the work of the association. Brian and his wife, Jennifer, are passionate about patient experience. A cancer survivor and mother of a pediatric cancer survivor, Jennifer is a principal in Riggs Enterprise and helps to manage the day-to-day operations of the Journal of Patient Experience.

Our Future

Over the next several months you will be seeing new content rolled out on our site exclusively directed to help advance the work of our members. This content will be curated by our content advisory board and will provide the leaders within the patient experience space with the resources and direction they need to continually reshape our industry.

In addition to content, our revamped website will include a number of online and practicespecific forums where our members can engage in meaningful dialogue around specific areas of interest. This will allow our members to connect with peers around specific areas of interest while providing the association with the necessary content and context to continually monitor trends within the patient experience realm.

Over the last several years we have worked to maintain a presence in the market with very minimal support and resources, and yet continue to provide important guidance and bring value to our members.

Current member benefits include our monthly newsletter, quarterly journal, access to blog posts, and announcements of key events impacting our industry. Coming soon, we will have quarterly webinars, enhanced content, and an online community. And as the year progresses, look for other new and exciting programming including regional symposiums and focused round table discussions.

Healthcare is rapidly changing every day, and there has never been a better time to influence the way care and caring is delivered to people. The role we play and the strategies that we drive are becoming more meaningful and impactful every day.

Our Partners

As a relatively young organization we recognize the value our partners play in helping advance our mission. Our goal is to provide a platform for our members and partners to work together to advance thought leadership, science and engagement.

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Who We Are

Our Members

Our members include

+OVERVIEW

+BOARD OF DIRECTORS

+SPONSORS & PARTNERS

+ORGANIZATIONAL NARRATIVE

+AWARDS

2016 Winner: Sarah Reed, MBA/MHA

2016 Winner: Michael Garron Hospital

Our Mission