Pamela Okada

Pamela Okada

Interim Division Chief, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Pamela Okada

Dr. Pam Okada is Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and an attending physician at Children’s Medical Center Dallas. She also serves as Medical Director for Patient Experience for Children’s Health System of Texas, where she leads initiatives to improve communication, patient- and family-centered care, and community partnership across emergency departments and ambulatory settings. Known for her collaborative leadership and warm bedside manner, Dr. Okada is deeply committed to mentorship, education, and building high-functioning teams. She has mentored more than 50 trainees and faculty and has served as principal site investigator on multiple federally funded research grants.

Day 2

3:05 PM Interactive Session | Championing Providers for Human Experience Transformation

Provider skepticism toward patient experience initiatives is common—often rooted in competing priorities, change fatigue, and past efforts that failed to translate into meaningful clinical impact. This session explores how targeted training, collaborative rounding, and shared ownership can transform skepticism into authentic provider engagement and sustained partnership.

Drawing from real-world healthcare experience, this presentation will highlight practical strategies for engaging physicians and advanced practice providers as co-owners of the patient experience rather than passive participants. Attendees will learn how intentional skill-building, relationship-based rounding, and clearly defined accountability structures can strengthen trust, align experience goals with clinical realities, and embed patient experience principles into daily practice.

Participants will leave with actionable tools to foster provider buy-in, strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, and create durable experience improvements that support patients, families, and care teams alike—without adding unnecessary burden to already complex clinical environments.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify common drivers of provider skepticism toward patient experience initiatives and recognize how competing priorities, past failures, and workflow misalignment influence engagement.
  2. Apply targeted training strategies that build provider confidence, relevance, and ownership of patient experience without adding unnecessary burden to clinical practice.
  3. Implement collaborative rounding models that strengthen trust, improve interdisciplinary relationships, and integrate patient experience principles into real-time clinical workflows.
  4. Establish shared ownership frameworks that align providers, leaders, and care teams around clear expectations, accountability, and sustained experience outcomes.
  5. Translate engagement strategies into measurable impact by connecting provider partnership to improvements in patient experience, caregiver engagement, and culture.

Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Pamela.

Download The Latest Agenda