Sven Gierlinger once watched about 15 clinicians in a Detroit trauma bay work to save a teenager hit by a train. Then the patient was rushed to surgery, and the room went quiet.
Mr. Gierlinger was shadowing at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, his first healthcare employer after years in the hotel industry. The charge nurse was still documenting in the corner, so he asked whether she would ever learn what happened to the patient.
She told him staff find out in maybe one of every 100 cases, usually by running into the surgical team in the cafeteria. A minute later, another incoming helicopter was announced overhead.
“That shocked me, that they’re doing lifesaving work, and only one in 100,” said Mr. Gierlinger, now chief experience officer of New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health. “No formal process was in place to circle back.”
At Northwell, a physician-led program called Thank a Lifesaver is now that process. Since 2023, it has brought patients who survived cardiac arrests and other critical events back to the hospital. There they meet the emergency medical service crews, emergency physicians, nurses and other hospital workers who kept them alive.
The program started at Huntington (N.Y.) Hospital. In 2026, it expanded to Bay Shore, N.Y.-based South Shore University Hospital with a $1,500 internal grant.
‘Just another cardiac arrest’
Jennifer Goebel, DO, an emergency physician at South Shore and director of wellness for Northwell’s emergency medicine service line, said she founded the program to address a gap built into emergency medicine.
“We stabilize the patient. We see patients during their most critical time, and then we admit them, we transfer them, and we don’t really see the follow-up,” Dr. Goebel said.
The idea took shape after the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Goebel described the pandemic as an “acute and chronic stressor” that prompted people to leave medicine at “staggering rates” and made staff well-being an urgent priority.
“I think sometimes we minimize the impact of the work that we do. Just another patient, just another cardiac arrest, just another stroke,” she said. “But patients are coming to us during a very critical moment within their lives.”
How a reunion works
Each event starts with what the team calls a “great save.” At first, cases reached Dr. Goebel by word of mouth. Some patients were those who wrote thank-you letters to the hospital, according to a case study the team published with the Beryl Institute.
At South Shore, Dr. Goebel added another channel: QR codes posted throughout the emergency department. Staff can scan them to recognize a colleague or nominate a great save.
Finding the first case at each hospital was the hard part, she said, but after the first one, momentum naturally built.
Most featured patients have survived cardiac arrest. Some went into cardiac arrest outside the hospital and received bystander CPR. Others walked in or drove themselves to the ED and went into arrest there. One was a heart transplant patient.
Once the team picks a case, organizers reach out to everyone who cared for the patient. That includes EMS, ED physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, nursing assistants and consultants. Then they invite the patient and family back.
Each event runs about an hour during the day. It is open to the whole hospital, and with the patient’s consent, it streams on Microsoft Teams for staff who cannot leave their posts. Hospital leaders and the public relations team are invited.
Four to six team members tell the patient’s story in order for about 30 minutes, starting with EMS when possible. Then the patient and family speak about what they remember and what they appreciated. A Q&A follows.
Huntington has held events twice a year since 2023. South Shore had scheduled three for 2026: March, July and December. Dr. Goebel said the events are purposefully kept infrequent.
“We want to make sure that it’s special,” she said, adding that each one takes a substantial amount of work to organize.
What it costs
The money came from Northwell Health Physician Partners, the system’s medical group of more than 5,000 physicians. About two years ago, the group began offering well-being micro-grants that give physicians seed money for new initiatives. Dr. Goebel received $1,500 for 2026 to bring the program to a second hospital.
Mr. Gierlinger said money is not the real cost.
“This doesn’t cost a lot of money. You know, you have to put on an event. That’s basically it,” he said. “But it costs time and energy and effort to do that, and you have to make a conscious decision to do that.”
In a large system with many competing initiatives, Dr. Goebel said, the biggest early hurdle was helping people understand what the program was.
“I had a vision, and I think sometimes it’s difficult to describe, and people need to see it firsthand,” she said.
What staff report
The team surveys participants after each event. At a 2026 event at South Shore:
- Every respondent agreed or strongly agreed that the event had a positive impact on their well-being, while 83% strongly agreed.
- Every respondent agreed or strongly agreed that it made them feel recognized and valued by local leadership. Among the group, 72% strongly agreed.
- Every respondent agreed or strongly agreed that events like this strengthen their desire to keep working at the organization. Among the group, 89% strongly agreed.
- Ninety-four percent agreed the program improves patient experience by supporting staff well-being. The other 6% were neutral.
The results are self-reported from a single event, and the case study does not say how many staff responded. Neither leader cited data linking the program to turnover or patient experience scores. Mr. Gierlinger said the impact shows up “mostly on the employee engagement side.”
He argues that impact spreads beyond the featured patient.
“When you feel better about what you do, you give better care to all patients,” he said.
Why a clinician has to lead it
The program fits Northwell’s broader experience strategy, which leans on storytelling to reconnect staff with their purpose. Teams read patient letters aloud at department meetings. The system also produces videos that put patients side by side with the physicians, nurses and therapists who cared for them.
Mr. Gierlinger said Thank a Lifesaver came from the front lines, not from his office. It was driven by Dr. Goebel, her team and patient experience staff. His main advice for other systems is to pair a clinical leader with the patient experience team.
“Especially in clinical areas, patient experience goes in, ‘Hey, I have a great idea. Let’s do this.’ Then it doesn’t get the same attention than when a physician or another clinical leader leads the charge,” he said. “Otherwise, it’s like, ‘We don’t have time for this.'”
What is next
Mr. Gierlinger said Northwell hopes to bring the program to more of its hospitals. He did not give a timeline or say what a rollout across the system would look like. Demand isn’t the limit, Dr. Goebel said.
“It’s been a huge success at both hospitals,” she said, “and people are actually asking me for it more.”
