Roberta Schwartz
Building a Culture for Exceptional Patient Experience

Roberta Schwartz currently is executive vice president of The Methodist Hospital in the Texas Medical Center, responsible for overseeing all operations at the 840+ bed hospital in Houston. Prior to joining Methodist, Roberta worked as director of Business Development for Mount Sinai School of Medicine in N.Y. City, and as a consultant and project manager to a number of academic medical centers for APM/Computer Sciences Corporation. She has received many honors and awards, including the national Jill Ireland Award for Voluntarism, Houston Hadassah "Women of Courage”, Houston’s "Women on the Move” award, "Yoplait Champions” for 2008, and Houston’s Top 50 women in 2009. Roberta cofounded the Young Survivor’s Coalition as a resource for young women with breast cancer.

Kathy Torpie
Widening The Focus: Applying Lessons from Patient Centred Care to the Healthcare System Itself

International keynote speaker, psychologist, author and long term multi-trauma patient with extensive patient experience, Kathy Torpie combines her personal experience as a patient with medical research, organizational theory and psychological expertise to demonstrate the benefits of attending to the human dimension of patient care – and of healthcare itself – in a people centered, integrated approach to improving the quality of the healthcare experience.

Bryan Williams
Delivering World Class Service: What Healthcare Can Learn from Hospitality

Dr. Bryan Williams is a service consultant, trainer, and author. His specialty areas include service excellence, employee engagement, and quality improvement. He has travelled worldwide to work with more than 100 companies in diverse industries such as healthcare, hospitality, spa, banking and real estate. Bryan is the former Global Corporate Director of Training and Organizational Effectiveness for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. He holds degrees and certifications in Business Administration, Total Quality Management, Hotel/Restaurant Management, and Education, including a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership. Bryan is also a member of the Board of Examiners for the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. He lives for service, and is very passionate about helping companies reach high levels of service and excellence.

Britt Berrett serves as president of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, an 898-bed hospital. Berrett also serves at the system level as an executive vice president of Texas Health Resources. He oversees strategic planning and operations for Texas Health Dallas, guiding the hospital in its mission to improve the health of the people in the community it serves.

Paul Spiegelman, chief executive officer of BerylHealth and chairman of The Beryl Institute, is leading a unique, people-centric culture that has remarkably high employee and customer retention rates.  In 2010, Spiegelman was honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Britt and Paul are co-authors of the book Patients Come Second, which suggests that hospitals with the right culture (and culture IQ) can find meaningful ways to engage, honor and connect with their staff. In doing so, their clinical, financial and patient satisfaction objectives will be realized. What is your organization’s culture IQ?