System AVP, Patient Experience

Overview

The System AVP of Patient Experience provides enterprise leadership for the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of patient and family experience across UF Health. Reporting to the System Chief Quality Officer, this role is responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive system-wide strategy that advances patient-centered care, improves patient experience outcomes, and supports UF Health's aspiration to become Florida's premier health system by 2030.

This leader serves as the enterprise authority for patient experience across inpatient, ambulatory, and digital care settings. Working collaboratively with clinical, operational, and administrative leaders, the role establishes system-wide standards, performance expectations, and improvement strategies that enhance the experiences of patients and families across the continuum of care.

The position oversees patient experience programs, measurement and reporting, patient and family engagement initiatives, and service excellence efforts. As the voice of the patient within organizational decision-making, this leader ensures patient experience priorities are incorporated into quality, safety, access, and operational improvement strategies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the enterprise patient experience strategy and long-term roadmap.
• Establish system-wide patient experience goals, standards, and performance expectations aligned with organizational priorities.
• Lead the development of governance structures that promote accountability and performance improvement across all care settings.
• Serve as the organizational subject matter expert on patient-centered care, patient experience, and service excellence.
• Lead initiatives to improve patient experience outcomes across inpatient, ambulatory, procedural, emergency, and virtual care environments.
• Partner with hospital, ambulatory, and physician leaders to identify performance gaps and implement sustainable improvement strategies.
• Develop and deploy evidence-based best practices, toolkits, and improvement methodologies across the health system.
• Oversee patient experience measurement, benchmarking, reporting, and performance monitoring.
• Leverage patient feedback, survey data, complaints, grievances, compliments, and other voice-of-customer insights to drive improvement.
• Create executive-level dashboards and reporting processes that support accountability and informed decision-making.
• Monitor enterprise patient experience metrics and provide strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
• Lead initiatives that elevate the voice of patients and families in organizational planning and decision-making.
• Collaborate with Patient Relations, Patient Advocacy, and Patient and Family Advisory Councils to strengthen engagement and partnership.
• Promote effective communication, shared decision-making, care coordination, and patient trust.
• Advance initiatives that improve access, navigation, understanding of care, and removal of barriers to care.
• Foster a culture of service excellence, compassion, respect, and patient-centered care throughout the organization.
• Develop education, leadership development, and recognition programs that reinforce service excellence behaviors.
• Partner with Human Resources, Nursing, Medical Staff, and Operations leaders to strengthen the connection between employee engagement and patient experience.
• Lead a system-wide network of patient experience leaders and champions.
• Collaborate with leaders in Quality, Safety, Nursing, Medical Affairs, Population Health, Access, Digital Health, and Operations to advance enterprise priorities.
• Represent UF Health in regional and national patient experience organizations and collaboratives.
• Provide regular updates, performance reports, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership and governance committees.  

Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree in healthcare administration, Business Administration, Nursing, Public Health, Organizational Leadership, or a related field required.

Experience

• Minimum of eight (8) years of progressively responsible leadership experience in patient experience, healthcare operations, quality improvement, nursing leadership, physician practice operations, or a related healthcare field.
• Minimum of five (5) years of leadership experience within a complex health system, academic medical center, integrated delivery network, or comparable healthcare organization.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-wide improvement initiatives with measurable patient experience outcomes.
• Experience utilizing patient experience analytics, survey methodologies, performance measurement, and improvement science.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading patient experience programs across both inpatient and ambulatory care settings.
• Experience with Press Ganey, Qualtrics, HCAHPS, CG-CAHPS, NRC Health, or similar patient experience platforms.
• Experience working within an academic health system or large multi-hospital integrated delivery network.

Certifications

• Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP), Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent certification preferred.