How Nemours Children’s Health and NRC Health Turn Data and Empathy into Equity-Centered Action
As health systems navigate rising expectations for equity, communication, and safety, many are seeking effective, scalable approaches to support patients and families. Nemours Children’s Health offers a strong example of how pairing data with empathy can spark systemwide improvements.
In a recent Becker’s Healthcare Podcast episode, Dr. Peggy Greco, Vice President and Chief Patient Experience Officer at Nemours Children’s Health, and Rachel Hamilton, Vice President of Customer Strategy at NRC Health, shared how their teams are transforming patient and family experience by pairing rigorous data with deep empathy—and sustaining change over multiple years.
This collaboration offers a powerful blueprint for any organization seeking to close equity gaps, strengthen communication, and drive safer outcomes.
Published in Becker’s Hospital Review
From Measurement to Meaning: Why Patient and Family Voice Matters
For Nemours, the journey began with a simple but profound belief: measurement matters, but only when it leads to action.
“Patient and family voice is very important to integrate into improvement work in healthcare settings,” Dr. Greco shared. As survey data accumulated, Nemours and NRC Health worked together to disaggregate results by race, ethnicity, and language—an essential step toward uncovering disparities that had previously been hidden.
What they found was striking.
In 2020, when Nemours first worked with NRC Health to break out experience data by demographic factors, they discovered gaps across multiple clinical areas. One question in particular revealed significant inequity:
“Did you know what to do if you had questions after your visit?”
For families who preferred speaking Spanish, scores for this question were 15 points lower than those from English-preferring families. Across race and ethnicity, the gap reached 21 points.
As Dr. Greco explained, this wasn’t merely an experience concern—it was a safety risk: “If you have confusion after a visit, are you going to follow through the recommendation? Are you going to give the medication as prescribed? Are you going to call the right person?”
In this way, that single question became a catalyst for systemwide change.
Translating Insight into Equity-Centered Action
With disparities clearly identified, Nemours then collaborated closely with NRC Health to craft targeted interventions.
Rachel Hamilton described NRC Health’s role. “Once you have that data, what are you going to do with it?” she said. “We walk with them through that process of taking the data and turning it into action.”
Together, the organizations designed a comprehensive approach rooted in data, communication best practices, and operational process redesign. Key components included:
A Patient Experience Initiative That Became a Safety Imperative
While the project began as an experience initiative, data soon revealed a direct connection to clinical outcomes.
Nemours examined emergency department return visits within 48 hours as a proxy for safety and effective communication. The results were stark:
- Families who did know what to do after their visit: 3% return rate
- Families who did not know what to do after their visit: 6% return rate
- Spanish-preferring families: 9.2% return rate
- Black-identifying families: 8.6% return rate
“We found that the return rate was doubled…and that difference was exacerbated for certain families,” Dr. Greco said. This discovery underscored the urgency of change—and helped bring clinical teams on board.
“We didn’t have to do a lot of explaining about the why,” Dr. Greco added. “It was very clear in terms of the need for clear communication.”
How Nemours Sustained the Work
Transformational change rarely happens quickly, and Dr. Greco emphasized that one of the most important factors in their success was simply staying the course.
“This was a three-year initiative…we really didn’t see systemwide consistency and impact until year three,” she said. But senior leadership backed the long-term effort, resisting the temptation to shift focus each year.
Beyond persistence, several other success factors stood out, including:
- Shared ownership across the entire system
- Meaningful, clinically relevant metrics
- Anchoring every improvement in human impact
A Model for What’s Possible
The partnership between Nemours Children’s Health and NRC Health demonstrates what healthcare can achieve when data, empathy, and sustained commitment converge.
By shining a light on disparities, listening deeply to families, and building tools that empower both patients and clinicians, Nemours is setting a new standard for equitable, patient-centered pediatric care.
Listen to the full podcast episode and learn more about the project in the recently released case study
And join Nemours Children’s Health and NRC Health at the 2026 Pediatric Collaborative, March 25–26 in Orlando. Save your spot today!
