Press Ganey Recognizes its HX24 Executive Award Winners for Leading Industry to Improve the Human Experience in Healthcare

The recipients were honored this week at Press Ganey’s HX24 client conference in Orlando, Florida

Press Ganey, the leader in helping healthcare providers and health plans transform the Human Experience (HX), today announced eight recipients of its HX24 Award at the organization’s annual national client conference. The awards honor six individuals and two healthcare organizations in the United States, recognizing their leadership in the areas of patient, consumer and employee experience; nursing excellence, and safety.

“Navigating change in our industry requires passionate leaders who can help organizations evolve, without losing sight that it is our humanity that sets us apart,” said Patrick T. Ryan, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Press Ganey. “These awards honor the individuals and teams dedicated to improving the human experience of healthcare.”

The year’s winners include:

HX24 CEO of the Year: Madeline Bell, President and CEO, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

This executive award is reserved for someone who exemplifies exceptional leadership, passion, and strives for innovation to improve the human experience to great lengths in their healthcare career. In her 41 years at CHOP, Bell, a former pediatric nurse, has demonstrated empathetic and integral leadership, inspiring over 28,000 employees in the $4.1 billion health system and research institute.

HX24 Lifetime Achievement Award: Kurt Newman, President Emeritus, Children’s National Hospital

This executive award honors one individual who has been an influential leader in their organization and community over the course of their career. Kurt Newman, MD is President Emeritus of Children’s National Hospital, retiring after nearly 40 years with the organization. He was instrumental in developing the vision for the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National, inspired by the bold vision of making surgery for children minimally invasive and pain-free.

HX24 Health System of the Year Award: Methodist Health System (Dallas, Texas)

This executive award recognizes an organization that has shown an outstanding commitment to patient care, community health, and innovation in the field innovating at the system wide level instead of by medical center or unit. Through the Methodist Patient-Centered Accountable Care Organization and wellness initiatives, the system is dedicated to transforming healthcare delivery with high-quality, well-coordinated care, honoring a nearly century-long legacy while creating a vision of advancing healthcare for the future.

HX24 HRO Foundation Award: Northeast Georgia Health System (Gainesville, GA)

This executive award recognizes an organization who prioritizes safety, quality, and high reliability as a main pillar. The organization began their high reliability organizing journey in 2014 and continued to evolve and refine their daily management systems with next step initiatives in 2016, 2018 and 2022. NGHS has had zero Serious Safety Events in over a year and zero adverse clinical events like hospital-acquired infections, pressure injuries, and falls, which is an important reflection of the quality of nursing care.

HX24 CXO of the Year Award: Sven Gierlinger, Chief Experience Officer, Northwell Health

This executive award recognizes our roots in Patient Experience and the innovators who are changing PX along with us. Sven Gierlinger is responsible for building an engaging, innovative, and collaborative culture that drives organizational growth and customer loyalty through customer experience. He has worked closely with leadership at Northwell to drive culture change around improving the customer experience in every encounter across the system.

HX24 Physician of the Year Award: Kavita Bhavan, MD, MHS, Chief Innovation Officer, Parkland Health

This executive award recognizes a physician’s tremendous commitment to exceptional leadership, compassionate and connected care, and the improvement of the human experience of healthcare. Dr. Bhavan's commitment extends beyond clinical care. Parkland Health serves vulnerable communities in Northern Texas, with most patients uninsured or underinsured. To support her community, she initiated "Annie's Place," a program at Parkland Health offering on-campus short-term childcare, addressing access challenges faced by patients with young children. This compassionate approach to scheduling appointments has significantly improved the overall patient experience.

HX24 Nurse of the Year Award – Nurse Leader: David Willis, BSN, RN, CEN, Nursing Operations Manager, Orlando Health (ORMC)

This peer-nominated award recognizes compassionate, high-quality care and overwhelming commitment to nursing excellence and staff education as a nurse leader. David was peer-nominated for this award for exemplifying tremendous commitment to care innovation, transformation, and collaboration to support an exceptional patient experience on the front lines. David’s colleagues view him as the nurse every patient wants, and every new nurse wants to be. His clinical expertise, compassion, dedication, advocacy, and humanity have been instrumental in fueling the resilience, morale, and pride of his team.

HX24 Nurse of the Year Award – Front Line Clinical Nurse: Annielyn Azor-Ocampo, MSN, RN, CWOCN, DAPWCA, Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse (WOCN), Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

This peer-nominated award recognizes a frontline nurse who exemplifies tremendous commitment to care innovation, transformation, and collaboration to support an exceptional patient experience at the bedside. Annielyn embodies the qualities of an exemplary nurse, consistently delivering compassionate care that goes above and beyond. She excels in connecting with patients on a personal level, demonstrating empathy even in challenging situations. Patients frequently express gratitude for her kindness and unwavering support.

HX24 is Press Ganey’s national client conference, which took place from February 5–7 in Orlando, Florida at Walt Disney World’s Swan and Dolphin Resort. The event draws more than 3,000 healthcare executives, physicians, nurses, and other professionals from across the country to learn and collaboratively explore paths toward advancing the human experience of healthcare.

About Press Ganey

Press Ganey, the leading Human Experience (HX) healthcare performance improvement company, offers an integrated suite of solutions that address safety, clinical excellence, patient and member experience and workforce engagement. The company works with more than 41,000 healthcare facilities in its mission to reduce patient suffering and enhance caregiver resilience to improve the overall safety, quality, and experience of care. Press Ganey is a PG Forsta company.

About PG Forsta

PG Forsta provides the technology and expertise to help organizations get a deeper, more complete understanding of the experiences of their audiences. The company powers the HX (Human Experience) Platform – a comprehensive experience and research technology platform that breaks down the silos between CX (Customer Experience), Employee Experience (EX), Patient Experience (PX) and Market Research. PG Forsta serves a variety of industries, including healthcare, financial services, hospitality, market research, professional services, retail, and technology.

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