On September 12, Perception Strategies CEO Brooke Billingsley premiered a live version of The Perceptive Patient at the Beryl Institute’s Regional Roundtable in Nashville. Brooke shared the emotional details of a patient on a 16 month cancer journey, while also giving the audience her consultant’s perspective on improving the experience. The Beryl Institute provided a great recap of the hour-long presentation:
The event opened with a powerful keynote presentation by Brooke Billingsley, business entrepreneur and breast cancer patient, who was pushed onto stage covered by a sheet, lying on a stretcher. She sat up and started an emotional reenactment of her experiences as a patient; from the moment she heard her diagnosis to her first chemotherapy to surgeries and port placement. The audience was impacted by the vulnerability she shared and felt her pain as she described in detail the emotional toll of losing her hair, among other experiences.
The overarching theme in Billingsley’s message was the significance of every single interaction she encountered – every word, question, comment, head nod, smile and grunt – from her caregivers and anyone she interacted with during her frequent treatments. She shared the story of one cold, disgruntled front-line employee who’s attitude was so disheartening that it caused her to change care facilities, transferring her treatments to a hospital 20 miles away – a move ultimately costing the original hospital over $250,000.
She offered a powerful, and so important, perspective of care and a reminder of how important every single detail of the experience is to the patient and family. She considers her cancer experience her “Amazing Race” including the chemo, surgery, radiation and infusions. In sharing the journey of her race, she’s helping to make those encounters better for future patients around the globe.
