What if the way we treat healthcare employees is the reason patient care is falling short?

In this episode of WorkPossible, Elaine and Hattie sit down with Sven Gierlinger, Chief Patient Experience Officer at Northwell Health, to explore what truly transforms healthcare, and it's not what's on the surface.

Sven brings his deep experience from hospitality and healthcare to show why the patient experience cannot be exceptional without first investing in the employee experience. From redefining luxury in hospitals to empowering housekeepers to launch innovation that saves millions, Sven dismantles the outdated rules of healthcare leadership.

This conversation is about listening harder, leading with empathy, and creating environments where people are free to care, and be cared for. Sven's own personal journey as a patient who was temporarily paralyzed reveals how the smallest human moments can define recovery, and how authentic leadership is the cure for broken systems.

No scripts. No safe answers. Just honest conversations about what's possible when we stop doing things by default and start doing them by design.

Tune in for fresh perspectives, future-focused thinking, and ideas bold enough to actually change things.

Additional Resources:

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• You can't script empathy into burned-out teams.
• Great patient care starts with supported staff.
• Frontline ideas can spark system-wide innovation.
• Authenticity beats perfection in leadership.
• Culture change begins with proximity, not hierarchy.