During this year’s Patient Experience Week, Alameda Health System (AHS) honored not only the skill and dedication of our nurses but also the meaningful ways they connect with patients. Through nurse leader rounding, our leaders are building trust at the bedside — ensuring patients feel valued, respected and empowered as partners throughout their healing journey.
“Connecting with a nurse leader during a patient’s stay strengthens communication and provides a venue for a patient to share both compliments and concerns,” said Ro Lofton, chief clinical officer. “It also gives the nurse leader an opportunity to proactively identify issues, implement solutions, and if needed, initiate service recovery before discharge.”
At its core, rounding is about building genuine connections. When leaders engage with patients at the bedside, they reinforce that every patient’s experience matters.
This commitment to connection is brought to life by frontline leaders like Shelledie Huevos, RN, charge nurse in telemetry at Alameda Hospital who exemplifies the power of being present and responsive during every patient interaction.
“What truly matters during rounding is being there when patients need you without them having to ask,” said Huevos. “It gives them peace of mind and makes them feel genuinely cared for.”
Rounding creates space to ask simple, powerful questions like, “How is your care experience going?” In that moment, the focus shifts from metrics and tasks to the individual needs and feelings of the patient.
The dedication shown by individuals like Huevos is part of a much larger, systemwide effort to improve the patient experience through consistent, meaningful engagement. At AHS, team leader rounding has become a cornerstone of this approach.
Year to date, 354 rounders have completed more than 89,000 leader patient rounds. According to Angela Ng, MD, and director of patient experience, “The program has steadily grown and evolved over the past several years. Expanding across service lines and bringing interdisciplinary leaders together to reinforce that delivering excellent patient care is a shared responsibility.”
This growing culture of collaboration and accountability is driving measurable improvements across the system. One shining example of this progress is at Alameda Hospital, where the emergency department (ED) was recently recognized with the Patient Experience – Elevating Care & Sustaining Improvement Award after increasing their “Likelihood to Recommend” top box score by 6.38%. Their percentile ranking also surged from the 18th to the 40th. Marking their best performance in the past five fiscal years.
Improving patient satisfaction scores is no easy task. Only the highest ratings from patients count toward these measures. In fact, a 2 to 3% increase is considered a meaningful shift.
Joe Lotsko, RN and nurse manager of the critical care and emergency department at Alameda Hospital shared how teamwork and communication drove their success.
“Taking the time to explain to patients what to expect during their visit with clear communication has been our collective goal,” said Lotsko. “Critical care and ED manager staff have really put in the time on improving communication with patients and being recognized for consistent improvement in ED patient satisfaction is definitely appreciated.”
Our Patient Experience department was honored to recognize 14 top rounders across AHS.
See their names.