CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland Clinic will use two staff members — including a recently hired executive chief nursing officer — to fill the leadership opening in its Office of Patient Experience.
Sarah Sinclair, who oversees nurses throughout the system, and Dr. James Merlino, vice chairman of the Clinic’s Digestive Disease Institute, will “collaboratively” lead the office, according to a Clinic press release. They fill a void left when Dr. Bridget Duffy, who ran the office, left the Clinic along with spouse David Strand, who was the chief operating officer.
The two left last month to “pursue other opportunities” in California, which is where they came from two years ago to take their positions at the Clinic, according to a memo distributed to Clinic staff. Two weeks ago Clinic officials redistributed some of Strand’s duties when they named executives to oversee clinical operations and manage the facilities.
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Both Sinclair and Merlino will continue to serve in their position. Merlino entire medical career is in the Cleveland area, beginning with his graduation from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1997. He joined the Clinic as a colorectal surgeon last year.
Sinclair joined the Clinic in February as its first ever executive chief nursing officer, which is similar to the job she held at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston.
Duffy was the first leader of the Office of Patient Experience and did it alone. But Clinic officials through its release stated that the collaborate approach “mirrors the structure implemented within each of Cleveland Clinic’s 26 clinical institutes, in which a physician experience officer and nursing experience officer spearhead improvement initiatives within their institute.”
“Physicians and nurses are key to providing an exceptional patient experience,” Sinclair stated in the Clinic’s release. “This new infrastructure will enable Cleveland Clinic to deliver the best patient experience by utilizing the talent of each staff member and employees, who are all essential components of patient care.”
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The patient experience office is one way the Clinic is adjusting to health rankings and Medicare, which now gives more weight to patients’ opinions. The office came up with new designs for patient gowns and a “healing service division” that offered counseling and stress reduction to patients.
With these duties filled, the Clinic needs to assign someone to take over Strand’s role overseeing its emerging business division.
