TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare

Melissa Gilkes-Smith
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TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare explores the critical moments in the patient journey where leadership, operations, and experience intersect. Hosted by Melissa Gilkes-Smith, patient experience consultant and Founder of Healthcare Management Consulting Group, the podcast features practical insights and conversations with healthcare leaders about improving patient experience, strengthening healthcare operations, and building cultures of care. Each episode examines real healthcare touchpoints, from scheduling and patient access to communication, leadership, and service recovery, offering strategies that healthcare executives, practice administrators, and clinicians can apply immediately. If you are passionate about improving healthcare delivery and creating better patient experiences, this podcast is for you.

Episodes

  1. Aug 10

    Stop Holding It Together: Leadership, Coaching, and the Architecture of a High-Performing Healthcare Practice

    Send us Fan Mail Healthcare leaders are often praised for holding everything together. But what happens when the organization only works because one exhausted leader keeps pushing, solving, absorbing, and carrying what the system itself should be designed to hold? In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare, Melissa Gilkes-Smith sits down with Markes Rembert Jr., MBA, MS, ACC, to explore what 18 years inside healthcare and dental operations can teach us about leadership, operational architecture, and the hidden cost of running an organization on willpower. Markes brings experience across community health centers, academic dental institutions, multi-site practice environments, and his current work at Callen-Lorde Community Health Center. Together, Melissa and Markes discuss how mission-driven healthcare settings shape leadership, why identity-conscious leadership matters, and how operational problems often reveal something deeper: the leader’s own patterns, pressure points, and blind spots. The conversation introduces the idea of the “willpower organization” — a workplace where high-performing leaders compensate for weak systems through personal effort, urgency, and over-functioning. While this may look like dedication from the outside, it eventually costs the leader, the team, and the patient experience. At the center of the episode is Markes’ CPRCAR framework, a six-step operational leadership model designed to help healthcare leaders move from reactive management to a structure that can actually sustain performance. Melissa and Markes walk through how the framework works, where leaders often get stuck, and how stronger operational architecture supports culture, accountability, team dynamics, and patient care. They also discuss executive coaching in healthcare: what it is, why leaders resist it, and how tools like the Hogan Assessment can help identify derailment risk — the moment when a leader’s greatest strength becomes a liability under pressure. This episode is for healthcare executives, practice managers, operations leaders, dental leaders, and anyone who has ever wondered whether they are leading a high-performing organization or simply holding a fragile one together. Because strong leadership is not about carrying everything yourself. It is about building something that can hold. Connect with Markes on LinkedIn or visit his website at coachmarkes.com

    Stop Holding It Together: Leadership, Coaching, and the Architecture of a High-Performing Healthcare Practice

  2. Aug 5

    Stop Sending Reminders. Start Preparing Patients.

    Send us Fan Mail A Step-by-Step Guide to Pre-Visit Communication That Actually Works Most healthcare practices send appointment reminders. What they are not sending is preparation. In this solo how-to episode, Melissa Gilkes-Smith walks through all twelve steps of building a pre-visit communication system that actually reduces patient anxiety, improves check-in flow, and demonstrates a Culture of Care before the patient ever walks through the door. This is an interactive working session; download the Pre-Visit Communication Workbook from the show notes and work through each step in real time. RESOURCES Pre-Visit Communication Workbook   PX360 Assessment

    Stop Sending Reminders. Start Preparing Patients.

  3. Jul 28

    Lost Before They Walk In: How Wayfinding and Arrival Design Shape the Patient Experience

    Send us Fan Mail The patient experience does not begin at the front desk. It begins the moment a patient enters the parking lot. A patient may arrive worried about a diagnosis, experiencing pain, running late, or visiting an unfamiliar facility for the first time. If the entrance is difficult to identify, parking instructions are unclear, or signs fail to provide direction at critical decision points, that patient can become anxious and frustrated before speaking with anyone on the care team. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare, Melissa Gilkes-Smith speaks with Lauren Nitschke, an architectural graphics, signage, and wayfinding expert whose career spanned 40 years. Together, they explore how parking, entrances, signage, landmarks, facility layout, and other environmental cues shape the arrival experience and influence how patients feel as they enter the clinical encounter. Lauren explains why wayfinding is not simply a collection of signs. It is a coordinated system designed to help people understand where they are, where they need to go, and what decision they must make next. Adding more signs without evaluating the entire navigation system can create information overload, contradictory directions, and even greater confusion. The conversation examines why healthcare wayfinding must be designed for the stressed, first-time user rather than the employees who already know the facility. Melissa and Lauren discuss common problems such as unclear patient entrances, exterior signs that cannot be read from a vehicle, inconsistent terminology, outdated signage following renovations, poorly planned color-coding, and missing information at essential decision points. They also explore the operational consequences of poor wayfinding. When employees must repeatedly stop their work to redirect lost patients, staff members become the facility’s unofficial navigation system. The organization absorbs the cost through interruptions, delayed appointments, frustrated patients, and added pressure on frontline teams. Listeners will learn: Why a patient’s arrival experience can influence the clinical encounter that followsHow stress, pain, and anxiety affect a person’s ability to process navigational informationThe difference between signage and a comprehensive wayfinding systemWhy entrances, parking areas, landmarks, lighting, contrast, placement, and terminology must work togetherHow to identify and evaluate critical decision points throughout the patient’s journeyWhat organizations should consider when conducting a patient-centered wayfinding auditWhich improvements may offer meaningful results without requiring a major capital projectWhen a facility should consider engaging a professional wayfinding specialistHow the built environment communicates accountability, compassion, empathy, and preparation before anyone says helloThe episode also addresses accessibility as an essential part of effective signage. Organizations can review the U.S. Access Board’s Guide to the ADA Accessibility Standards, Chapter 7: Signs for information about visual and tactile signage requirements, raised characters, Grade 2 braille, non-glare finishes, contrast, character size, mounting height and location, directional and informational signs, and required accessibility symbols. ADA compliance is an essential baseline, but a truly effective wayfinding system must also help patients navigate the entire arrival journey clearly, confidently, and with dignity. Lauren began her career in architecture before making a life-changing move into environmental design. Her background in architectural planning, graphic design, and three-dimensional visualization became the foundation for a career devoted to architectural graphics, signage, and wayfinding. She found hospital projects particularly meaningful because they serve so many first-time visitors who are often navigating unfamiliar spaces under unusually stressful conditions. Now retired after selling her business, Lauren and her husband raise grassfed and finished cattle on their ranch in Southern Oklahoma, an endeavor they began alongside their design work approximately 20 years ago. This episode is part of Pillar Four, Arrival and Check-In, within the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework. It challenges healthcare leaders to walk through their facilities as first-time patients, identify every moment of uncertainty, and recognize a simple truth: a patient who arrives lost and anxious carries that experience into the exam room. Wayfinding is not cosmetic. It is part of the care infrastructure. Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn or checkout her grass-fed cattle products here: https://www.nnbeef.com/

    Lost Before They Walk In: How Wayfinding and Arrival Design Shape the Patient Experience

  4. Jul 20

    Hello, Is Anyone There? Reimagining Healthcare Scheduling with AI

    Send us Fan Mail The phone call is still one of the most important touchpoints in the patient journey. It is also one of the most broken. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare, Melissa Gilkes-Smith sits down with Mathieu Rihet, founder of Novoflow, to explore how AI voice agents are changing the way healthcare practices manage inquiry and scheduling. This conversation focuses on Pillar 2 of the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework: Inquiry and Scheduling. For many patients, the first real interaction with a practice happens when they call to ask a question, schedule an appointment, or figure out what to do next. When that experience includes long hold times, transfers, repeated explanations, or unclear next steps, trust erodes before care even begins. Melissa and Mathieu discuss what AI voice agents actually do, how they differ from traditional phone trees or chatbots, and why 24/7 scheduling support may be more than just a convenience. It may be an access and equity issue for patients who cannot call during normal business hours. They also have an honest conversation about the risks. AI is not automatically an improvement in patient experience. Poorly implemented technology can make care feel colder, faster, and less human. The episode explores what healthcare leaders need to consider before adopting AI, including workflow readiness, HIPAA compliance, staff communication, patient escalation pathways, EHR integration, and accountability when something goes wrong. At the center of the conversation is one key question: does this technology help patients feel better served, or does it simply help the organization move faster? This episode is for healthcare leaders, practice managers, patient experience professionals, call center teams, and anyone thinking seriously about how technology can support access without sacrificing empathy. Connect with Mathieu on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mathieurihet/  Visit the Novaflow website: https://www.novoflow.io/ **A quick production note: I recorded this conversation using a backup microphone, so my audio may sound a little different than usual. The conversation was far too valuable not to share, so let’s get into it.

    Hello, Is Anyone There? Reimagining Healthcare Scheduling with AI

  5. Jul 13

    The 8-Second Decision: How Patients Find You Online Before They Ever Call

    Send us Fan Mail The patient experience does not begin at check-in. It begins the moment someone hears your name. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare, Melissa Gilkes-Smith sits down with Ancil Lea, founder of Ancil Lea Consulting Co., to explore Initial Exposure, the first pillar of the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework. Before a patient ever calls your office, schedules an appointment, or walks through your door, they are already forming an opinion about your practice. They search your name, scan your reviews, visit your website, check your Google Business Profile, look at your social media, and decide whether your organization feels credible, accessible, and trustworthy. Melissa and Ancil discuss why this early decision point matters so much in healthcare, where trust is fragile, and first impressions carry real weight. They explore what patients are actually looking for online, how to evaluate your website through the eyes of a first-time patient, why online reviews should be treated as operational data, and how inaccurate digital information can create friction before the patient journey even begins. This conversation also examines the connection between branding and patient experience. Your brand is not just what you say about your practice. It is what patients consistently experience. When your digital presence promises compassion, convenience, or access, your operations have to deliver on that promise. This episode is for healthcare leaders, practice managers, marketers, physicians, and anyone responsible for creating a patient experience that earns trust before the first phone call. You can connect with Ancil Lea on LinkedIn, or visit his website, ancillea.com.

    The 8-Second Decision: How Patients Find You Online Before They Ever Call

  6. Jul 6

    The Referral Relationship: How Physician Liaison Work Shapes the Patient Journey Before It Begins

    Send us Fan Mail A physician referral is more than a name passed from one office to another. It is an act of trust. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare, Melissa Gilkes-Smith sits down with Shayda Amaya, a healthcare business development leader with more than 20 years of experience across the healthcare continuum, to explore how physician liaison work shapes the patient journey before the patient ever schedules an appointment. Together, they discuss why referral relationships are not simply a sales strategy, but a critical part of patient experience design. Shayda shares what strong physician liaison work actually looks like, how trust is built with referring providers, and why the referred patient’s experience becomes a direct reflection of the organization receiving the referral. This conversation connects physician referral strategy to the first pillar of the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework: Initial Exposure. For many specialty practices, surgical centers, and healthcare organizations, the patient’s first impression does not come from Google or social media. It comes from the confidence their physician has in making the referral. Melissa and Shayda also discuss how organizations can reduce the burden on patients and caregivers by creating clearer, more reliable referral pathways, closing communication gaps, and treating the first referral as the beginning of a long-term relationship. This episode is for healthcare leaders, physician liaisons, practice managers, marketers, and anyone responsible for building referral networks that are rooted in trust, access, communication, and patient-centered follow-through.

    The Referral Relationship: How Physician Liaison Work Shapes the Patient Journey Before It Begins

  7. Jun 22

    Leadership by Walking Around:How Being Seen and Available Changes Everything

    Send us Fan Mail Culture is not what you post on the wall. It is what leadership does when no one is watching, and everything changes when they start walking the floor. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter, host Melissa Gilkes-Smith explores one of the most powerful and most underutilized tools in healthcare leadership: Management by Walking Around. Not as a management trend from a business textbook, but as a daily leadership practice that builds trust, surfaces operational reality, and makes the Culture of Care visible to every staff member and patient in the building. Melissa’s guest today has led healthcare organizations across three of the most demanding environments imaginable: the United States Navy, for-profit healthcare systems, and nonprofit community-based organizations. Dr. Edward M. Daniel is a retired Navy veteran, healthcare executive, Lean Six Sigma practitioner, and the Founder and CEO of Patient Centered Services, an organization built around exactly what its name says. With more than 25 years of experience leading at every level of healthcare operations, Dr. Daniel brings a perspective forged in military discipline and refined through decades of frontline healthcare leadership. His conviction is clear: you cannot lead what you cannot see. And what you cannot see is almost always what the patient is feeling. You cannot lead what you cannot see. And in healthcare, what you cannot see is almost always what the patient is feeling. Together, Melissa and Dr. Daniel explore what it actually means to be a present leader, the difference between purposeful presence and performative presence, what the gemba walk reveals that no dashboard ever will, and why thirty minutes in your own waiting room as an observer might be the most valuable investment a healthcare leader can make this week. IN THIS EPISODE: What leadership presence meant in the United States Navy, and what Dr. Daniel found when he brought that standard into healthcareThe real definition of Management by Walking Around: purposeful presence vs. performative presence, and why staff know the difference immediatelyThe gemba walk, what it is, where it comes from, and why going to where the work actually happens changes everything a leader sees and knowsWhat a leader observes on the floor that never appears in a report, a dashboard, or a satisfaction surveyHow leadership visibility changes the psychological safety, accountability, and morale of the team doing the workThe difference between accountability that builds and accountability that breaks, and how presence enables the formerWhat patients experience differently in organizations where leadership is genuinely visible and engagedWhy the waiting room is a data source, and what thirty minutes of observation there reveals about the patient experienceHow MBWA translates across military, for-profit, and nonprofit healthcare settingsWhere to start if you’ve been mostly behind a desk, and how to rebuild trust in a culture that has learned to fear leadership presence The waiting room is a data source. The patient sitting in that chair is telling you everything about your organization, if anyone in leadership is willing to go listen. ABOUT DR. EDWARD M. DANIEL, PHD Dr. Edward M. Daniel is a retired United States Navy Veteran and healthcare executive with more than 25 years of leadership experience across military, for-profit, and nonprofit healthcare organizations. He is the Founder & CEO of Patient Centered Services (PCS), PCS Homecare, and PCS-HOPE, leading initiatives focused on healthcare staffing, in-home senior care, workforce development, and community impact. Dr. Daniel specializes in healthcare operations, strategic planning, performance improvement, accreditation readiness, and organizational development using evidence-based and Lean Six Sigma methodologies. He currently serves as an Executive Board Member for the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) National Capital Region. CONNECT WITH DR. DANIEL Patient Centered Services: https://pcs17.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-m-daniel-phd-fache/

    Leadership by Walking Around:How Being Seen and Available Changes Everything

  8. Jun 15

    The Irreplaceable Provider:How Clinician Communication Defines the Patient Experience

    Send us Fan Mail The patient is in the room. The provider walks in. And what happens next will define more of the patient’s felt experience than almost anything else in the entire care journey. In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter, host Melissa Gilkes-Smith arrives at Pillar Five of the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework: the Clinical Encounter. Everything that came before, how a patient found you, scheduled with you, was communicated with before their visit, and experienced their arrival, has been building toward this single moment. And what a patient takes away from it depends far less on clinical technique than most providers realize. Patients are rarely equipped to evaluate the technical quality of their care. What they evaluate is the communication. Whether they felt heard. Whether they understood what was happening and why. Whether the provider in front of them made them feel like a person or a problem. Melissa’s guest today has spent 15 years at one of the most unusual intersections in healthcare: practicing medicine, building companies, and training some of the world’s top doctors and executives on the one skill that determines every outcome — trust. Shawn Gibbs is a serial entrepreneur, medical provider, Co-Founder and CEO of GIV Gowns, and the creator of the Irreplaceable Provider Method — a system built on one foundational belief: trust in healthcare has been underdesigned. And it can be fixed. Together, Melissa and Shawn unpack what the clinical encounter actually is when it’s working, why it so often isn’t, and what it takes, practically, behaviorally, and culturally, to become the provider patients choose, return to, and recommend. IN THIS EPISODE: Why trust in healthcare has been “underdesigned," and what that costs in patient adherence, loyalty, and outcomesWhat the Irreplaceable Provider Method is and the specific communication behaviors it buildsWhy listening is a clinical skill, and how it is fundamentally different from information gatheringThe highest-stakes Moments that Matter inside the clinical encounter: the opening, the delivery of information, and the closeHow to design a well-structured clinical opening when the provider is behind schedule and the patient is already anxiousHow the close of an encounter determines whether a patient leaves with clarity or confusion, and what happens when it’s left to chanceWhy communication quality is a leadership responsibility, not a provider personality traitHow Accountability and Collaboration, two of the four values of the Culture of Care, live inside the exam room ABOUT SHAWN GIBBS Shawn Gibbs is a serial entrepreneur, medical provider, and Co-Founder and CEO of GIV Gowns — a company redesigning the most overlooked moment in healthcare: the one before the provider ever enters the room. After 15 years on the front lines of clinical medicine, Shawn identified a problem no one was naming: that trust in healthcare has been underdesigned. GIV Gowns serves as a physical trust signal, elevating patient dignity through premium, clinically intelligent attire. The Irreplaceable Provider Method trains providers to become the ones patients choose, return to, and recommend. Together, they form what Shawn calls the Patient and Clinical Experience Architecture, a new standard for how trust is designed in care. CONNECT WITH SHAWN GIBBS GIV Gowns: www.givgowns.com Irreplaceable Provider Method: www.shawngibbs.com  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-gibbs-8ba39a43 LISTENER CHALLENGE In your next clinical encounter, or your next conversation about clinical quality in your organization, ask one question: Does this patient feel heard? Not informed. Not treated. Heard. That’s the starting point for everything discussed in this episode.

    The Irreplaceable Provider:How Clinician Communication Defines the Patient Experience

  9. Jun 9

    Culture Doesn’t Eat Strategy. It Digests It.

    Send us Fan Mail Everyone in healthcare has heard it: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It gets nodded at in boardrooms, printed on culture decks, and repeated until it stops meaning anything. But what if that framing is not just incomplete, it’s actually misleading? In this episode of TouchPoints: Moments that Matter, host Melissa Gilkes-Smith sits down with patient experience expert and coach Andy Clark for an honest, grounded conversation about the relationship between culture, strategy, and the employee experience that makes patient care possible. The real question, as Melissa frames it, is not whether your culture is strong. It’s whether your culture is aligned with what your strategy actually demands. A great culture running the wrong strategy still loses. A strong strategy running through a misaligned culture gets quietly dismantled at every level. What every healthcare leader needs to understand is this: culture doesn’t replace strategy. It compounds it or corrupts it. And underneath all of it is a truth that gets overlooked in almost every patient experience initiative: you cannot build a great patient experience on a broken employee experience. How your team feels as they walk through the door every day is exactly how your patients will feel as they walk through yours. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN: Why “culture eats strategy” has been misapplied in healthcare, and the more useful diagnostic question every leader should be askingThe research-backed connection between employee engagement and patient experience outcomes, and what disengagement actually looks like from a patient’s perspectiveWhat culture-strategy misalignment looks like in practice, including the workaround culture, the initiative graveyard, and the cynicism that builds when change efforts don’t landHow to build a culture of accountability without fear, psychological safety, and genuine recognition that actually moves peopleWhy leadership behavior is the culture, and the real cost of toxic tolerance when leaders fail to actWhat it takes to make culture change stick after the launch energy fades ABOUT ANDY CLARK Andy Clark is a patient experience expert and coach who focuses on helping healthcare leaders shape healthy cultures and get measurable results. His work sits at the intersection of organizational culture, team development, and the practical realities of leading in a healthcare environment where the stakes are high and the margin for cultural dysfunction is low. CONNECT WITH ANDY CLARK Website: https://www.clarkcoachingconsulting.com/ LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-c-6441967

    Culture Doesn’t Eat Strategy. It Digests It.

  10. Season 1, Episode 1 Trailer

    Why I Started Paying Attention to the Touchpoints

    Send us Fan Mail TouchPoints — Episode 1: Why I Started Paying Attention to the Touchpoints What if "great clinical care" and "a great patient experience" aren't the same thing, and almost nobody is running the second one on purpose? In this opening episode of TouchPoints, healthcare operations consultant Melissa Gilkes-Smith introduces the worldview behind the show and walks listeners through her proprietary Nine Pillars of Patient Experience framework — the same map she's used for almost 20 years in healthcare operations to diagnose why good practices quietly lose patients they should have kept. This isn't a podcast about being nicer to patients. It's a podcast about systems. What you'll learn in this episode: → Why "we provide great care, but patients still leave" is never a care problem, it's a pillar failure, and what that actually means → The single belief that changed how Melissa thinks about every practice she's ever worked with: a remarkable patient experience doesn't happen by accident, it happens by design → The full Nine Pillars framework, walked in three movements: Before They Arrive — Pillars 1, 2, and 3: how patients form an opinion of you before they ever call (Initial Exposure), what determines whether they can actually say yes to you (Inquiry & Scheduling), and how the communication between scheduling and arrival quietly creates or prevents no-shows (Pre-Visit Communication). Inside the Visit — Pillars 4, 5, and 6: why the first thirty seconds of a check-in either reinforce a patient's decision or damage it (Arrival & Check-In), why "I felt rushed" is almost never about the doctor (Clinical Encounter), and the most overlooked moment in healthcare, how a visit is closed, and remembered (Checkout & Exit). After They Leave — Pillars 7, 8, and 9: why most practices disappear after the visit ends and lose patients without ever knowing why (Post-Visit Follow-Up), how perfect clinical care can be undone by a single confusing statement (Billing & Financial Experience), and the most important diagnostic principle in the entire framework, why the long-term patient relationship isn't a touchpoint at all, but the output of everything upstream. → The unifying move: the same lens that diagnoses a practice also diagnoses a leader. Every place a manager touches their team is a touchpoint, too, and broken touchpoints upstream cause failures downstream, both in practice and in a person. The core argument: Most practices measure patient experience globally and fix problems reactively. They invest everything in clinical teams, technology, and facilities — and then wonder why patients quietly drift away. This episode argues that experience is not a feeling. It's a system. And once you can name the system, you can fix it. For: Practice owners, healthcare administrators, executives, practice managers, and anyone who has ever said "we give great care — why are patients still leaving?" If you've felt the gap between the care your practice delivers and the experience patients actually have, this episode names what's happening and gives you a map.

  11. May 14

    Welcome to TouchPoints: Where Every Moment in Healthcare Matters

    Send us Fan Mail Welcome to TouchPoints: Moments That Matter in Healthcare, the podcast for leaders, clinicians, and early careerists who believe that how we deliver care matters as much as the care itself. Each episode, we'll explore the people, practices, and principles that shape exceptional patient experiences. You'll hear conversations grounded in the Nine Pillars of Patient Experience Framework, practical insights on practice management, and leadership wisdom drawn from the Focused Leader Program for those building their careers in healthcare. Whether you're at the bedside, in the boardroom, or just starting your journey, this is your invitation to lead with intention and serve with heart. Subscribe now — the first episode drops soon.

Trailer

About

TouchPoints: Moments that Matter in Healthcare explores the critical moments in the patient journey where leadership, operations, and experience intersect. Hosted by Melissa Gilkes-Smith, patient experience consultant and Founder of Healthcare Management Consulting Group, the podcast features practical insights and conversations with healthcare leaders about improving patient experience, strengthening healthcare operations, and building cultures of care. Each episode examines real healthcare touchpoints, from scheduling and patient access to communication, leadership, and service recovery, offering strategies that healthcare executives, practice administrators, and clinicians can apply immediately. If you are passionate about improving healthcare delivery and creating better patient experiences, this podcast is for you.

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