When Katherine Hochman, MD, director of the Division of Hospital Medicine at New York City-based NYU Grossman School of Medicine, launched a book club for employees in 2012, she wanted to test whether literature could deepen empathy and improve patient experience.
More than a decade later, the Patient Experience Book Club has grown from a small gathering into a systemwide initiative with more than 500 members across NYU Langone Health, including physicians, nurses, administrators, support staff and remote employees across the country.
“It all started when I went to a conference on the patient experience,” Dr. Hochman told Becker’s. “The big takeaway I took from that conference was that in order for us to achieve an amazing patient experience, we had to ensure the faculty and staff were equally engaged and enthusiastic about coming to work and able to connect with themselves to be able to connect with patients and be joyful at work.”
At the outset, participants read a book every other month and met monthly to discuss works centered on the patient experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the club expanded rapidly as employees sought more connection.
“I thought that was going to be the end of the book club, but actually it was like an enzyme, a catalytic reaction,” Dr. Hochman said. “Everybody craved so much more connection that we started doing 12 books a year, a book a month.”
Today, the group meets twice monthly — once virtually and once in person — to discuss novels, memoirs and essays exploring illness, caregiving, inequity and human connection. The program is philanthropically funded through the auxiliary of NYU Langone Health, which supports books, lunches and additional programming throughout the year.
The club also hosts supplemental “pop-up” sessions featuring visiting authors, patients and guest speakers connected to the health system. Recent guests have included Suleika Jaouad, author of “Between Two Kingdoms,” and Reginald Dwayne Betts, a poet, legal scholar and prison reform advocate who first turned to literature while incarcerated.
Dilshad Marolia, system director of hospitals regulatory and policy management at NYU Langone Health, said the club has become a way to connect employees across disciplines and locations as the organization has grown.
“We were a large institution then, and we are enormous now,” she said. “This is really a way of breaking down silos. Literature creates empathy and provides an equalizer for conversations you may not have otherwise because the narrative generates discussion.”
That cross-disciplinary aspect is central to the club’s structure. Sessions include both clinical and nonclinical employees, from physicians and nurses to administrative and regulatory staff. Leaders also said the group intentionally selects books representing a wide range of perspectives and lived experiences that reflect both the workforce and patient population.
“We are not a monolithic body of patients, and we’re not a monolithic body of employees,” Ms. Marolia said.
Over the years, leaders said the discussions have shaped patient interactions and care delivery in tangible ways.
One recent example followed the group’s discussion of Tanya Selvaratnam’s memoir “Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence.”
“A few weeks after finishing that book, I was on service treating a woman for alcohol withdrawal,” Dr. Hochman said. “The treatment for alcohol withdrawal is pretty straightforward, and I could have discharged her home easily. But that book still sat in my frontal lobe, so I gently asked her, during the history and physical exam, if she felt safe at home.”
The patient disclosed she was in an abusive relationship, which contributed to her drinking. Instead of discharging her home, the care team arranged inpatient rehabilitation and additional support.
Dr. Hochman said the experience directly changed her practice and made her more intentional about asking similar screening questions.
Other selections have explored homelessness, poverty, inequity and human connection. The group has read Andrea Elliott’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City,” which follows a girl growing up in Brooklyn’s homeless shelter system, and Tracy Kidder’s “Rough Sleepers,” about a physician caring for Boston’s unhoused population. The club has also discussed Will Guidara’s “Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect,” about building meaningful service experiences.
“When we’re dealing with patients in difficult situations or patients who are upset and emotional, what do we do to make their experience just a little bit better at the most vulnerable point in their lives?” Ms. Marolia said.
Leaders also emphasized the importance of creating a psychologically safe environment for discussion, particularly as conversations often touch on grief, addiction, end-of-life care and other deeply personal topics.
The hybrid structure has also created flexibility for employees who may feel more comfortable participating remotely. Ms. Marolia recalled one administrative employee who chose to attend a Webex discussion virtually after reading Samina Ali’s memoir “Pieces You’ll Never Get Back,” which reminded her of her mother’s final days.
“People need to know there will be no repercussions for speaking freely,” Ms. Marolia said. “I think that openness helps people become more connected.”
For health systems interested in creating similar programs, Dr. Hochman recommended starting small and keeping the focus centered on patients and the workforce experience.
“But also be serious about it,” she said. “The core question we ask ourselves at every session is: How does this book change our understanding of patients or humanity, or did it change your practice in any way?
“We always bring the book back to the patient and the patient experience.”
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