The Beryl Institute Patient Experience Conference: To Care is Human

Crowd of people gathered for presentation at a conference

Each spring The Beryl Institute holds the Patient Experience Conference to support leaders improving the patient experience across various roles. This year, the event took place April 3-5 in Dallas, Texas and celebrated the incredibly accurate theme “To Care is Human.” This conference is an entire body of work dedicated to improving the healthcare experience for patients, uniting leaders in patient experience roles who strive to make their facilities and teams better. It’s a wonderful experience to end up in a room full of dedicated professionals all working towards the same goal, thirsting for knowledge and the support from others to be successful.

Jason Wolf, President & CEO of The Beryl Institute, announced their new Experience Ecosystem tool which allows team members to take an assessment to identify the strategic areas from the Experience Framework in which their hospital has opportunity to improve. The Ecosystem then provides leaders with the resources and solutions to work towards those goals. The first step is to answer questions on the online assessment, which can be completed by one individual or a group from your organization. Once your opportunities have been identified, you can navigate to the desired strategic area which will provide resources, organizations, and solution providers tailored to your needs.

The Beryl Institute felt compelled to create this tool after hearing that both new and seasoned leaders felt bombarded by and confused about the abundance of resources available to healthcare organizations. Hospitals are hungry for a framework, and the Beryl Institute is eager to help members find the tools they need to be successful.

PRC supports The Beryl Institute’s effort to aid hospitals & health systems in navigating the ever-expanding patient experience landscape. Professionals continue to earn the CPXP (Certified Patient Experience Professional) certification, new technologies are being developed and integrated into existing processes, and there are continually new innovations to explore as the importance of the patient experience grows. PRC and our Excellence Accelerator® will continue to align with these efforts, working with our client partners and industry experts to bring the most effective, and highest quality, solutions to the table.

As an attendee I feel grateful to participate in this work and so glad there is a movement to better both the patient experience, and humanity overall. Dr. Wolf made the comment that patient experience is “…humans beings caring for human beings,” which wholly resonated with me. Healthcare is absolutely about the medicine and science to treat patients, this is of course, expected; but there’s also a very real compassionate, human component we would be remiss to overlook in the healing process as well.

We applaud the work of the Beryl Institute and their members as they continue advancing the message of patient experience and reminding us all that #ToCareIsHuman.


About the Authors

Jan Gnida CPXP
Senior Vice President, Research Operations
Jan joined PRC in 1994 as a Project Manager and has vast experience managing multiple types of patient experience research. She is recognized as an expert in government surveys, where she helps clients navigate accountability requirements associated with healthcare reform. Her outstanding organizational skills, expertise in managing workflow, encyclopedic knowledge of legislative requirements, and superior ability to translate client needs into PRC processes led to her selection as PRC’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Director in 2005, then to Director of Patient Experience & Government Surveys, and on to her current role as PRC’s Senior Vice President, Research Operations. Jan earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Sociology from the University of Iowa, graduating summa cum laude. In addition, she has earned Lean certification from the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering.

Erin Godden
CAHPS Communication Manager
Erin joined PRC in May 2017. Upon graduation, she worked in product development, collaborating directly with vendors and internal stakeholders to develop unique products relevant to customers’ needs, company assortment, and pricing strategies. She then advanced to a new role where she optimized analytical strategy tracking industry trends to maximize business and minimize risk in both short and long term. At PRC, Erin primarily focuses on understanding and communicating current developments with the CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) and VBP (Value-Based Purchasing) programs. She has tremendous experience managing data and providing actionable plans to support client and business development. Erin earned a Bachelor degree from the University of Northern Iowa.