Susan E. Mazer, Ph.D. Blog

Thoughts and ideas on healthcare

Hi, and welcome to my blog! I'm Susan E. Mazer -- a knowledge expert and thought leader on how the environment of care impacts the patient experience. Topics I write about include safety, satisfaction, hospital noise, nursing, care at the bedside, and much more. Subscribe below to get email notices so you won't miss any great content.

COVID-19: When Fear Is a Risk Factor and the News, a Pathogen

March 12, 2020

Global, natural, and man-made disasters have become a painfully common occurrence. In the last two years, the world has faced hurricanes and earthquakes, mass shootings, terrorists driving trucks into crowds, and a recurrence of measles, whooping-cough, and tuberculosis. Now, we have COVID-19, a virus that remains unknown while it spreads throughout communities. What is new

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The Importance of The Patient Experience in Times of Trauma

August 16, 2019

The patient experience is the richest of models of care. Having moved through the days of managed care, patient-centered care, and family-centered care, focusing on the patient experience as it is lived merges all of our various configurations. Patient as Center Patients are never critically ill and alone. They are the center of a complex

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In Healthcare, the Game Never Ends

July 1, 2019

What do hospitals and baseball have in common? More than you might think. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan with the Detroit Tigers, our amazing baseball team. The mechanics and infrastructure of baseball were easily understandable to me. The roles of each player are clear. The pitcher’s role is to strike out the batter. The

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The Experience Ecosystem and The Patient Experience

April 19, 2019

The patient experience (PX) has grown past its childhood into a movement that is necessary to transform into its next iteration. The Beryl Institute’s 2019 Patient Experience Conference provided an opportunity for over 1,200 attendees to explore the Experience Ecosystem. This ecosystem is a framework that outlines each “lens” that informs the patient experience. However,

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What if The Patient Experience Had Neither a Start or End Date?

October 12, 2018

I recently read a blog from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement titled, Trying to Improve Patient Experience? Don’t Chase “Random Acts of Goodness”. The article inspired me to think about why the Patient Experience (PX) initiatives have required “buy-in” from employees. My assumption has long been that for those who choose to work at a hospital in any

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When Pain is Pain

September 21, 2018

Pain teaches us what it is very early on in life. We learn that if we hurt, we get a kiss, or something extraordinary from someone bigger than we are, telling us “now, it doesn’t hurt any more, right?” However, sometimes we learn differently and suddenly and unforgettably. When I was a child, I had

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PX2018: The State of the Human Experience in Healthcare

April 27, 2018

The Patient Experience Movement is, indeed, a movement in motion. At the Beryl Institute PX2018 Conference in Chicago last week, I met more professionals invested more in the humanity of their patients than those who focus solely on the patient diagnosis and its financial implications. There was some talk about patient satisfaction but this took

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We Need More Than Policies and Procedures To Improve the Patient Experience

April 12, 2018

It is understandable that the healthcare industry seeks to organize the patient experience by using policies and procedures that support the goals of providing optimal care for patients and families. Clearly, this effort makes the patient experience more predictable and easier to manage. Patients Can Only Tolerate So Many Organizational Demands Policies and procedures are

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Ethos, Conscience, and The Patient Experience

March 9, 2018

It’s possible to argue that these three concepts have little in common. On the other hand, they are so blended that healthcare providers cannot excel without considering all of them. I have long written and spoken that providing a therapeutic environment — one that addresses both medical and non-medical needs of patients and families, is

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How Social and Health Inequities Impact the Patient Experience

March 2, 2018

When I recently called my dermatologist to make an annual appointment, the first question I was asked was about my insurance. When I went in for a colonoscopy, before anything else, I had to produce my insurance card. In fact, not one healthcare treatment in the U.S. is provided without an insurance card. There are exceptions,

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