The healthcare industry has always been under pressure. Overworked and understaffed healthcare teams are stretched thin and under constant stress. This combination often results in communication breakdowns, disengaged employees, and poor teamwork, ultimately affecting patient care. Tami Gaines, founder and CEO of Sage Enterprises LLC, has been at the forefront of changing this for about 25 years. As a seasoned business strategist and corporate trainer, Gaines is leveraging team-building strategies to reshape healthcare culture, enhance communication, and improve patient experience.
As someone who was an athlete, a team captain, and a coach and watched sports her whole life, Gaines has incorporated this knowledge into her training to address communications, negotiations, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, team building, and cooperation, among many other things. By providing a comprehensive approach to improving patient experience, she strengthens individuals and the teams they work on.
She points to systemic issues such as understaffing, outdated technology, and administrative burdens that add to staff stress. Gaines states, “The nursing shortage since COVID has made things even worse. Overworked teams don’t have time to communicate properly, and that creates frustration, mistakes, and poor patient experiences.” She further shares, “When healthcare facilities retain me, it’s normally because there’s a problem that they can’t fix themselves. I don’t treat the symptoms until I get to the root cause of the issue.” The problems are usually related to communications, poor hand-offs between staff, and more incidents involving conflict within the staff, between staff and patients, and between staff and leadership.
She has worked with many healthcare facilities to help them improve their Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores. It is a key metric that affects insurance reimbursements and a hospital’s overall reputation and declining patient volumes, which impacts bottom-line revenue.
In one instance, a New York City hospital hired Gaines to address declining patient satisfaction ratings in the emergency department. Instead of relying on traditional training seminars, she took an unconventional approach: she became a patient herself. “I spent nearly eight hours in the waiting room, observing the frustration, the miscommunication, and the chaos,” Gaines recalls. “I saw staff members yelling at each other, patients being ignored, and physicians using language that alienated those they were treating. It was clear: internal team health directly impacts patient experience.”
Gaines’ training programs incorporate hands-on, experiential learning. In one hospital, she led a two-week leadership and teamwork program. She incorporated full-court Nerf basketball games. “Sports teach you about communication, trust, and strategy,” she explains. “We stopped the game frequently to analyze decision-making: why didn’t you pass the ball? Why didn’t you communicate? And related those lessons back to hospital teamwork.”
At another hospital, she developed the ‘fishbowl exercise,’ where the doctors would sit in a circle in the middle of the room. They voiced their frustrations and ‘wishes’ of their colleagues. The nurses had to sit and listen and not respond. Then, the nurses got in the fishbowl while the doctors listened quietly. This exercise forced teams to acknowledge and address long-standing issues without immediate rebuttals. Gaines explains, “At first, it was uncomfortable. But by the end, they saw each other’s challenges in a new light, and we worked together to create real solutions.”
According to Gaines, hospitals implementing these methods saw HCAHPS scores rise along with significant improvements in staff morale, retention, and patient satisfaction.
She further states that many healthcare facilities attempt to solve workplace issues with surface-level fixes such as more policies, more training modules, and more oversight. But she believes the root causes go deeper. “Healthcare settings are incredibly heterogeneous workplaces. You have people from diverse cultures, speaking different languages, with varying levels of experience working in high-stress environments,” she says. “If you don’t address those underlying tensions and communication gaps, you’re just putting a band-aid on the problem.”
As a mother of four, Gaines’ connection to healthcare runs deep. Her twins spent months in neonatal intensive care. Her son has significant physical and mental disabilities. Her personal experience, combined with her professional expertise in corporate leadership, marketing, and team dynamics, gives her a rare, holistic perspective. “I’ve been in dozens of hospitals throughout the country for my son’s surgeries. I’ve seen the best and worst of hospital culture,” she says. “And I know that when staff are exhausted, unsupported, or misaligned, patient care suffers. That’s why I focus on building better teams; because when employees thrive, patients do too, and ultimately, the bottom line.”
In addition to consulting, Gaines expands her influence through speaking engagements and her new podcast, ‘Executive Awesomeness: Resilience Earned.’ The podcast features C-suite executives discussing their paths to leadership, the obstacles they’ve overcome, and the lessons they’ve learned along the way. Additionally, she also weaves in a healthy dose of inspiration.
Her goal is clear: to bring fresh perspectives and transformative strategies to healthcare leaders who are ready to change their organizations for the better. Gaines affirms, “Healthcare teams don’t just need more resources; they need better communication, leadership, and connection. And that’s what I help build—one hospital at a time.”
Source: USA Today
