Executive Director, Patient Experience Performance Optimization

Join a world-class academic healthcare system, UChicago Medicine, as the Executive Director, Patient Experience Performance Optimization responsible for leading the execution of experience improvement strategy and driving measurable improvement in patient experience performance across UChicago Medicine acute sites.  This role will lead implementation and standardization of best practices that improve publicly reported outcomes, patient perception of care, and frontline service behaviors. This is a flexible role based at the Hyde Park campus with some travel to Northwest Indiana and sites across the greater Chicagoland area as needed.

The Executive Director, Patient Experience Performance Optimization will operationalize system patient experience strategy into unit- and department-level execution plans with clear monthly performance targets and accountability interpret data that leads to improvement for patient experience outcomes, including HCAHPS, OAS-CAHPS, emergency department and ambulatory metrics. This leader will be responsible for translating patient experience data into action at department and clinic levels, ensuring that insights from surveys, real-time feedback, and external benchmarks are operationalized into sustained performance improvement. The Executive Director will also be responsible for best practice standardization, data analytics & insight translation, education & training, and stakeholder engagement & governance for patient experience across the system. In addition to overseeing the execution of patient experience strategies across the UChicago Medicine system, this leader will also be personally responsible for patient experience efforts for adult, inpatient departments at our Hyde Park campus and the entire Northwest Indiana campus.

Who you are:

A hands-on patient experience leader with strong change management and analytical skills and:

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s (MHA, MPH, MBA, or related) strongly preferred.
• Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent improvement certification preferred.
• 8 or more years of healthcare leadership experience in patient experience, healthcare operations, change management, or performance improvement.
• Proven success driving patient experience performance improvement initiatives across multiple sites.
• Strong expertise in HCAHPS / CAHPS performance improvement, survey vendor management & instrument design, and data analysis, dashboards, & performance management.
• Experience in an academic medical center preferred.
• Working knowledge of CMS Star Ratings and Leapfrog methodologies.
• Ability to design and deliver education and drive frontline behavior change.
• Demonstrated experience with enterprise customer experience survey platforms (e.g., Press Ganey, Qualtrics) preferred.

What you’ll do as the Executive Director, Patient Experience Performance Optimization:

• Identify and implement evidence-based best practices across inpatient and emergency department settings.
• Develop and implement standardized workflows and behavioral expectations aligned to key drivers of experience and patient loyalty (willingness to recommend).
• Ensure consistent implementation and performance validation across all units and departments.
• Monitor consistency in application through real-time observations, rounding tools, and performance data.
• Leads patient experience and service excellence training for frontline staff and providers, inclusive of skills development, competency assessment, and real-time coaching. 
• Analyze patient experience data (HCAHPS, real-time rounding, complaints, qualitative feedback) to identify actionable insights.
• Develop unit and departmental dashboards and reporting tools that drive leader accountability and frontline action.
• Evaluate effectiveness of interventions and continuously refine patient experience improvement plans.
• Design and deploy role-based education on patient experience best practices and promotes a culture of empathy, responsiveness, and patient-centered care.
• Partner with clinical and operational leaders to embed behaviors into daily workflows.
• Develop tools, scripting, and coaching interventions to support consistency and reduce variation.
• Build frontline leadership capability in using data to drive daily improvement and accountability at unit and department levels.
• Partner with nursing, physician leaders, and operational teams across sites to operationalize patient experience standard work and behaviors.
• Support governance committees and workgroups with performance reporting, insights, and recommendations.
• Communicate progress, risks, and outcomes to senior leadership.
• Collaborate with Nursing, Operations, Quality/Safety, and Engagement teams to ensure alignment.

E4 Leadership (Equity, Engage, Evolve, Excel) is a patient centered management system that empowers teams to improve on a daily basis. This is done through daily readiness huddles, real time process monitoring, performance review huddles and structured problem solving. E4 Leadership is an evolving system where leaders work together to cultivate a culture of equity and continuous improvement that enables:

• Each person to realize their full potential for contribution
• The organization to achieve high performance outcomes
• System-wide integration, coordination, and seamless execution
• Clear focus on exceptional, equitable patient care and experiences.

As part of the leadership team, this position will be instrumental in reinforcing and sustaining UCM’s E4 Leadership Culture.