Art of patient satisfaction meets the science of medicine

In May, the Clinic held its third annual patient experience conference, attended by a record 843 caregivers from around the world, to talk about what it has done and to hear from leaders at other hospitals—including Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and New York University's Langone Medical Center—about what worked at their institutions to transform patient experience. A recent Harvard Business School case study on patient experience highlighted the Cleveland Clinic as one of the institutions at the forefront of this shift back to patients, or "patient-centered care," as it's called. The Clinic's shift began soon after heart surgeon Toby Cosgrove became CEO in 2004.