Takeaway
Investing in staff training, well-being, and autonomy are the ingredients for enabling teams to consistently exceed patient expectations. Empowered teams are the most reliable drivers of patient safety and satisfaction.
Lifelong Learning in Clinical Excellence | January 15, 2026 | 2 min read
By John Wilckens, MD, Johns Hopkins Medicine
In the fall of 2001, I had the unique pleasure of joining the Johns Hopkins faculty as an orthopedic surgeon at the Bayview Medical Center. The additional pleasure was to be working for the late Dr. James Wenz. He was a superlative leader, with legendary surgical administrative and development skills. But most influential to me was his patient care philosophy: “Empower your staff to exceed your patients’ expectations at every opportunity.” That advice served me and my team well during my 23-year tenure at Johns Hopkins, that included roles as clinician, division chief, clinic director, ambulatory surgery center director, and head team physician.
A lot of energy is spent pursuing matrices such as patient related outcome measures, RVUs, and Press-Ganey scores. While these are important, it’s only part of improving the patient experience. As intimidating as the title sounds, a recent read “Patients Come Second,” by Paul Spiegelman and Britt Berret validates my clinical experience. If we want to improve the patient experience, we must improve the work environment. Unhappy staff can lead to patient dissatisfaction, and more.
We’re fortunate at Johns Hopkins to have robust educational opportunities to expand the skill sets of staff. This not only leads to retention, but growth and advancement, as well as recruitment. Clinical and administrative leaders should vigorously encourage staff to take advantage of educational opportunities. Some of my most meaningful leadership accomplishments were seeing entry level receptionists advance to become clinic managers, and medical office clerks and medical assistants go on to earn nursing degrees and advanced leadership roles. This provides unmeasured value-added to your healthcare system.
Our ambulatory surgery center demonstrates the possibilities of a strong staff culture that is patient-centric. We’ve garnished local, state, and national recognition for patient satisfaction. The actual surgical and procedural care is very similar to other institutions, but our patients are very impressed. Case in point, one patient undergoing knee ligament reconstruction, a painful procedure with a long recovery, thanked me at his first post-op visit for his great knee while still on crutches, and was impressed with the positive experience thus far. Every one of our staff is encouraged to treat each patient as their family member. Not only was this my favorite place to work, but it’s where friends, family, and I go for our procedures. Success breeds enthusiasm and a friendly and professional work environment, and GREAT patient experience.
So, here’s The Secret Sauce I’ve learned over the past couple decades: Empower your staff to exceed patient expectation at every opportunity.
This piece expresses the views solely of the author. It does not necessarily represent the views of any organization, including Johns Hopkins Medicine.