Barbara Khozam

What Patients Really Experience: Fixing Broken Touchpoints in Healthcare

Patients may not remember every clinical detail, but they absolutely remember how they were treated. From the first phone call to the final goodbye, every interaction shapes trust, satisfaction, and loyalty. And while healthcare organizations continue to invest in systems, processes, and digital convenience, patients still remember the human moments most.

As a mystery patient, I experience healthcare the way real patients do. Through extensive research and firsthand observation, I help audiences see what is really happening at the everyday touchpoints that can either build trust or quietly break it. Sometimes the problems are obvious. Sometimes they are small but powerful details that leaders and staff no longer notice until a patient does.

The good news is that some fixes are simple. Others require clear service standards and practical workflows so patients receive a more consistent, compassionate experience from one employee, department, and location to the next.

In this engaging, practical, and fun session, I share real-world insights, easy-to-apply strategies, and a fresh perspective that helps participants identify service gaps, improve key touchpoints, and create an experience patients remember for all the right reasons.

Learning Objectives:
• Identify the touchpoints that most influence a patient’s perception of care
• Recognize service gaps that weaken trust, satisfaction, and loyalty
• Apply simple, practical improvements that elevate the patient experience
• Use service standards and customer service workflows to create more consistency across employees and departments
• Strengthen the human side of healthcare in ways that feel natural, realistic, and memorable

Zap Negativity and Ignite Your Life

-Set the proper foundation for success at work and at home
-How to approach problems with a “Get over it and get on with it” attitude
-Keeping the fire of enthusiasm going
-Avoid being someone’s emotional garbage truck

Leading for Service Excellence – in person and virtually

-Identify how to earn and keep the respect of your team
-Discover the best way to communicate your expectations and instructions – whether your -people are in the office, or at home
-Learn how to recognize, reward and praise for maximum benefit
-Review how to motivate and inspire your team to greatness
-And much more!

Managing Emotions and Thriving under Pressure

-Identify and control YOUR emotional hot buttons
-Stop getting so worked up over little things
-Stay centered in pressure situations
-Safe ways to blow off steam
-Graceful “exit lines”
-And more!

Telephone Etiquette for our NEW World

-Two proven techniques for making callers feel welcome from the outset
-The Five Basic Strategies for handling a call efficiently
-Call “Transfer Tricks” that save time and energy
-“Phrustrating” Phone Phrases to avoid at all cost
-How to put on that “happy phone face” when you’re stressed and exhausted

How to Deal with Difficult People / Customers / Patients

-Why customer complaints can be your greatest opportunity
-How to use non-verbal communication to build rapport in seconds
-Giving yourself the gift of “No”
-How to motivate your team in good times and bad

How to Deliver an Extraordinary Service – [in times of Covid]

-Get your team to deliver a consistent experience to every person, every time
-Connect with customers while wearing masks and staying safe
-Simple tips to raise scores on customer satisfaction surveys
-Ways to create loyalty
-Gain and maintain repeat customers (without giving away the store)…
-Identify and avoid the most common customer turnoffs
-How to handle difficult customers (and coworkers) (without making yourself sick)