Why leader rounding is critical to improve patient experience

By Katie Haifley, Product Director for Rounding at NRC Health

What if every patient interaction in your hospital was an opportunity to improve care in real time?

What if leaders had a reliable way to reduce staff burnout, enhance patient satisfaction, and personalize care delivery at scale?

That’s the promise of leader rounding in today’s healthcare landscape. Yet, surprisingly, many healthcare organizations struggle to integrate this into their daily routines effectively.

By combining technology and human connection, leader rounding is shifting the narrative on patient care.

As healthcare executives, administrators, and nurse leaders, understanding how to harness the power of leader rounding could be the most impactful decision you make this year.

NRC Health sat down with the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast crew to talk about elevating patient care through leader rounding. We’ll break down the impact of leader rounding on patient outcomes, the challenges that healthcare organizations often face with traditional rounding practices, and how solutions like NRC Health’s Rounding are revolutionizing the process of building better patient experiences.

Listen to Becker’s Healthcare Podcast to learn more about the power of leader rounding.

Leader rounding involves active, in-person engagement between healthcare leaders, patients, and staff.

The goal?

To both listen and influence.

At its core, leader rounding provides visibility into a hospital’s most critical areas of performance while patients are still being cared for.

“It allows leaders to gain visibility into the cornerstones of patient experience while they’re still in the four walls of the hospital,” explained Katie Haifley, Product Director for Rounding at NRC Health.

By taking the time to communicate directly with patients and staff, leaders can identify and address concerns at the moment while positively shaping the perception of care.

Rounding can act as a bridge, addressing gaps in the patient care continuum and making healthcare experiences feel seamless and personalized.

Jon Tanner, Senior Director of Product at NRC Health, highlights the value of rounding as part of the broader patient experience spectrum.

“What we’ve seen over the last few years is a shift from reactive patient care to proactive engagement. Historically, insights were gathered retrospectively—but rounding provides that in-the-moment ability to both listen and influence outcomes.”

Leader rounding gives leaders the chance to hear feedback firsthand and make immediate improvements. “We can influence the patient experience and inquire to make process improvements that same hour,” said Haifley.

Direct interaction with clinical teams helps leaders provide meaningful feedback and coaching, fostering a supportive culture that improves morale.

With insights gathered during rounding, healthcare leaders can proactively address issues instead of waiting for patient satisfaction surveys to shed light after the fact.

By creating opportunities to listen to patients’ concerns, leaders gain valuable insights to guide organizational changes, from fine-tuning workflows to introducing new safety protocols.

Healthcare leaders are already stretched thin, and when push comes to shove, rounding is frequently deprioritized.

Tanner notes, “The challenge we hear most often, especially from nurse leaders, is that rounding doesn’t ‘stick.’ It’s the first thing to go when the department gets busy.”

Traditional leader rounding often follows the aspirational (but unrealistic) goal of engaging every patient every day. While noble in intent, this practice is usually time-intensive and unsustainable in fast-paced healthcare settings.

Haifley emphasizes the need for smarter solutions over broader efforts. “Rather than rounding on all patients every day, at NRC Health, we’ve built predictive algorithms to highlight which patients most need attention and when saving time while maximizing impact.”

Leaders may not know which patient or staff conversations should take priority, leaving critical opportunities to optimize care unaddressed.

By integrating historical patient data, real-time feedback powered by AI, and observational insights, healthcare leaders can make more informed decisions during their rounding efforts.

“This goes beyond streamlining workloads,” says Haifley. “Predictive models provide actionable insights that allow for personal, proactive interventions.”

NRC Health partners with hospitals to combine past patient data with real-time insights.

Leaders can step into patient interactions with a clear understanding of previous experiences, concerns, and preferences, allowing these moments to feel less like formal check-ins and more like compassionate conversations.

Tanner shares that this approach allows leaders to personalize interactions and tailor them based on what matters most to the patient. “It makes these moments feel less like a task and more like a meaningful conversation,” he said.

Success hinges not just on technology but on culture.

Haifley points out, “Organizations that thrive at leader rounding intentionally build time for it into their leaders’ schedules. They remove competing distractions, giving nurse leaders the space to make meaningful connections with their teams and patients.”

By dedicating structured time for interactions, leaders can develop consistent habits that promote better engagement with both teams and patients.