Atlantic Health’s patient experience campaign is grounded in a simple but powerful idea: extraordinary caring and action. At its core, the campaign recognizes that excellent care is not only defined by patient outcomes or clinical efficiency, but by how patients, families and colleagues feel about their experiences with the system.
“It means delivering excellence and compassion to our patients, our communities and each other,” Lanie Dixon, executive director of patient experience at Atlantic Health, said during an AMA Insight Network webinar about how better communication improves patient outcomes and physician well-being.
Atlantic Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
Among other benefits, members of the AMA Health System Program have access to the AMA Insight Network’s Quality, Safety and Equity community. This virtual forum provides an opportunity for like-minded leaders from across the country to hear more examples of how leading systems are finding innovative ways to address health care inequities in their communities.
Dixon emphasized that this extends beyond patient-facing interactions: “It’s not just for our patients and families, it’s a way of life in terms of how we show up for each other, connect and build a foundation.”
That foundation is built on communication at Atlantic Health.
At Atlantic Health, communication is not simply considered a soft skill—it is fundamental to providing the best care possible.
“We see communication as the most common clinical skill we do every day. It’s something we need to invest in because it is so important,” Shai Gavi, DO, MPH, a geriatrician and chief medical officer for Atlantic Medical Group, a division of Atlantic Health, said during the webinar.
The way doctors communicate often directly impacts patient experience scores. But Dr. Gavi and Dixon recognize that prioritizing communication can also reduce physician burnout, improve employee engagement and strengthen relationships across the system.
“We are embarking on a journey to focus on how we communicate with each other in a compassionate and empathetic way … by training clinicians to connect with their patients and each other,” said Dixon.
This journey reflects an intentional emphasis on prioritizing communication as part of the overall culture of the system.
Investing in communication
As part of this effort, Atlantic Health has invested in resources and tools that help physicians strengthen empathy, practice reflective listening and navigate conflict. It is framed as professional development aligned with what drives so many clinicians into patient care.
“It is helping physicians connect with the patient and rediscover the joy and purpose of why they came into medicine,” said Dr. Gavi.
The training includes practical techniques physicians can apply to their everyday work. This may include frameworks for setting agendas for meetings with colleagues, teaching back to patients or learning how to say no with empathy.
“We give them the tools and resources, but we tell them this is not a script” said Dr. Gavi. “We tell them to be authentic about it and make it your own.”
By emphasizing authenticity, physicians can incorporate their learnings without sacrificing their autonomy or professional judgement.
As the leader in physician well-being, the AMA is reducing physician burnout by removing administrative burdens and providing real-world solutions to help doctors rediscover the Joy in Medicine®.
Redefining communication
One of the defining features of Atlantic Health’s communication initiatives is recognizing that communication involves more than just talking to people. It’s also about how you show up.
“It’s the atmosphere that you bring into a room when you walk in, whether it’s your smile or body language,” Dixon said. “There are so many aspects that make up the feelings involved when people are communicated with, whether you talk with your hands, where your eyes are focused and how you are listening. All those things affect the communication experience.”
To address all aspects of effective communication, Atlantic Health’s workshops include information about personal awareness and reflection. This involves recognizing how you may communicate with people who have a different level of education or are from a different socioeconomic status.
“We discuss potential implicit biases that may cause us to hear or not hear certain things,” Dr. Gavi explained. “This can have a tremendous impact on our interaction with our patients.”
Nonverbal communication is an area where physicians can make a significant impact in a short amount of time.
“Physicians can walk into a room and build empathy and trust within seconds using nonverbal communication,” said Dr. Gavi. “There are effective ways to use nonverbal interactions to demonstrate empathy, trust, caring really within seconds. So, we share those tools and resources to bring awareness to these options.”
Building engagement
From the outset, leaders made sure these workshops didn’t add additional burden to physicians’ already-packed schedules. They designed workshops to fit into existing workflows, such as virtual and in-person sessions during lunch hour, department meetings, grand rounds or even an evening CME event with a light dinner.
“We’ve made this very flexible for physicians,” said Dr. Gavi. “We really try to cater it to their needs and where it fits into their lives, so it's not disruptive.”
This approach has translated into strong engagement, with workshops becoming increasingly popular. “We did a seminar recently, and we had over 100 people sign up,” Dr. Gavi shared. “It’s all voluntary, but there really is an appetite for it.”
The popularity of the workshops stems from the value they add for physicians. Dr. Gavi noted that these workshops need to provide real-world, attainable solutions while also engaging physicians so that they feel this is time well spent.
“No matter how important this information is, people need to feel engaged and excited. Looking at slides is not the best way to learn,” he said.
For this reason, Atlantic Health refers to these sessions as workshops rather than lectures. This distinction sets the expectations that sessions will be interactive.
The workshops often include group discussions in which participants share stories, reflect upon challenges and learn how to incorporate communication tools into everyday scenarios.
“I tell people the more they talk and the less I talk, the better it is for everyone in terms of learning,” Dr. Gavi said. “We all learn from each other, and everyone walks away with something new from these workshops. We try to make it experiential, and we make sure everybody is participating, contributing and taking away lessons.”
Feedback from participants after the workshops reinforces the value of this approach, Dr. Gavi explained. At the end, “we ask participants, ‘What are you going to do differently after this session?’ It’s remarkable. Everybody takes away something different, but everybody takes away something, which makes it really valuable.”
For instance, Dixon recalled a physician who shared how the workshops helped him improve connection with his patients by making a small yet meaningful change. The doctor described himself as having a “dry personality,” which he felt made it harder for him to connect with patients. After attending a workshop, he decided to try one easy tip.
“He simply started thanking his patients for choosing our health system at the end of each appointment, and he saw his patient experience scores increase,” said Dixon. “I just love the way that he found to connect and make a difference within our organization.”
Expanding beyond physicians
With the success of physician communication initiatives, Atlantic Health expanded the programs beyond physicians to include nurses and other clinicians, environmental services staff, corporate employees, executive leadership and more.
“Just like there are difficult clinical conversations, there are also difficult corporate conversations,” said Dixon. “So, we're equipping our leaders and other employees with the skills that they need to have those conversations effectively.”
One nursing manager specifically requested training for nurses after she learned about the communication workshops for physicians. Dr. Gavi and his team jumped at the opportunity and launched a six-month nursing leadership communication program.
They organized meetings once or twice a month directly on the nurses’ units to make it as accessible as possible for the nurses to participate.
“I shared resources and tools, but what was really amazing was that it created a space for people to share stories about interactions they’ve had in the units with physicians, other nurses, patients and families,” Dr. Gavi explained.
Over time, these meetings centered around the nurses’ personal stories and experiences, while weaving in real-time discussions of how specific communication tools and approaches worked, or didn’t.
“We started having discussions that took on lives of their own because it was so engaging and everyone was excited to be there,” said Dr. Gavi.
The success of this program was rooted in providing psychological safety and encouraging shared learning.
“It’s so important to create an environment where people feel that they're contributing to the education,” Dr. Gavi explained. “In some respect, we are all experts in communication. We just have different perspectives. But we can also all learn from each other.”
Looking ahead, Atlantic Health’s communication initiatives are evolving alongside the changing health care landscape, such as incorporating ambient voice technology into patient care.
“We want to figure out how to communicate with the patient in the room and a device, and what that looks like in terms of best practices,” said Dr. Gavi.
To do this, Atlantic Health is identifying physicians who have started using the technology effectively.
“We’re going to work with them to create a best practice model that we share with others,” said Dr. Gavi. That way “we can all learn quickly and not necessarily figure it out all on our own.”
