The Power of Relationships in Humanizing Healthcare

In this episode of Humanizing Healthcare, we sit down with Michelle Brady, Director of Patient Experience and Relationship-Based Care at MyMichigan Health, to explore why strong relationships are at the heart of great healthcare experiences.

A registered nurse with more than three decades of healthcare experience, Michelle brings a clinician’s perspective to patient experience leadership. She explains MyMichigan Health’s relationship-based care model, which starts with caring for yourself, extends to relationships with colleagues, and ultimately strengthens relationships with patients, families, and the communities healthcare organizations serve.

In this conversation, Michelle shares practical ways caregivers can create meaningful human connections without adding more work or requiring more time. She explains why “words matter,” how eye contact and simply sitting beside a patient can build trust in seconds, and why healthcare should reconsider language such as “frontline workers” and “boots on the ground.” She also discusses how patient stories and Patient and Family Advisory Councils can uncover insights that survey scores alone may miss.

Michelle also offers a thoughtful perspective on artificial intelligence and healthcare technology. Rather than allowing technology to further separate caregivers from patients, she believes organizations should use it to reduce administrative burdens and give caregivers more time for human connection. At MyMichigan Health, ambient listening technology is already helping clinicians spend less time documenting and more time looking at and talking with their patients.

If you lead patient experience, care for patients directly, or are working to build a more human-centered healthcare culture, this conversation offers practical ideas for making relationships part of how care is delivered every day.

Key Takeaways

02:21 How Michelle Brady Found Her Calling in Nursing

04:16 How 37 Years in Healthcare Shaped Her Approach to Patient Experience

05:23 The Four Relationships at the Heart of Relationship-Based Care

08:58 Why Better Patient Experience Doesn't Always Require More Time

12:47 Why Words Matter—and Language Healthcare Should Reconsider

15:23 Listening Beyond Patient Experience Survey Scores