Wise EYES Guys Podcast — Episode 4

What makes a great medical experience? It isn't just the technology, the procedure, or even the physician. From the moment a patient contacts a practice to the way they're greeted, treated, educated, and ultimately made to feel, every interaction contributes to the patient experience.

In Episode 4 of Wise EYES Guys, Dr. Andrew Holzman, Dr. Jonathan Solomon, and Dr. Sonny Goel welcome their first guest, patient experience expert Sharif Mahdavi, founder of PX90. Together, they discuss what medicine can learn from hospitality and other customer-focused industries, why the patient should be viewed as the hero of their healthcare journey, and how practices can create a more personal, meaningful experience.

In This Episode

The Wise EYES Guys and Sharif Mahdavi discuss:

• Why patient experience extends far beyond bedside manner
• What healthcare can learn from hospitality brands like Four Seasons
• Why patients increasingly behave like informed consumers
• The importance of eliminating friction throughout the patient journey
• How the entire staff influences a patient's perception of a practice
• Why online reviews have become an important source of patient feedback
• Creating a workplace culture focused on service
• Hiring people for empathy and a willingness to serve others
• Why the patient—not the doctor—should be the hero
• How physicians can identify blind spots within their own practices
• The difference between transactional and transformational healthcare
• How AI could change medicine without replacing the human connection
• The growth of office-based surgery and its potential impact on patient experience

What Makes a Great Patient Experience?

A successful medical procedure and a great patient experience aren't necessarily the same thing.

Mahdavi explains that healthcare practices can focus heavily on clinical expertise and technology while overlooking the many interactions surrounding the actual medical care.

A patient begins forming an impression from the moment they interact with a practice. How quickly are they helped? Are they greeted warmly? Does the environment feel organized? Do staff members seem interested in helping them? Does the physician listen?

These interactions create what Mahdavi describes as positive or negative cues. Collectively, they influence how a patient remembers the experience, regardless of how technically successful the medical care may have been.

What Medicine Can Learn From the Four Seasons

Dr. Solomon shares an interesting example from his own practice: taking his staff to the Four Seasons in Georgetown to experience exceptional hospitality firsthand.

The exercise wasn't about luxury. Staff members were asked to pay attention to the entire experience: how they felt before arriving, how they were greeted, how employees interacted with them, how service was delivered, and, most importantly, how they felt when they left.

Mahdavi points out that an experience like that doesn't happen accidentally. It is intentionally designed, trained, and reinforced.

The same concept can be applied to medicine. Instead of accepting the traditional doctor's-office experience, practices can intentionally examine each interaction and ask how it could be made easier, warmer, more personal, and more respectful of the patient's time.

Creating a More Frictionless Patient Journey

Dr. Goel describes “frictionless” as one of the principles he tries to apply throughout his practice.

Every unnecessary obstacle can create friction: confusing scheduling, excessive waiting, poor communication, repetitive paperwork, unclear instructions, or difficulty reaching someone when a patient has a question.

The objective isn't simply convenience for convenience's sake. Removing unnecessary friction allows patients to focus more of their attention on the actual decision they're making about their health.

For an elective procedure such as vision correction, that experience can be particularly important because patients frequently have multiple options and may visit more than one practice before deciding where they feel most comfortable.

The Patient Is the Hero

One of the most memorable ideas from the episode is simple: the patient is the hero. The doctor and the practice are the guides.

A physician may provide the expertise and technology necessary to improve someone's vision, but the ultimate story belongs to the patient—what they want to accomplish, what concerns they have, and how better vision could affect their life.

Dr. Holzman specifically highlights this concept after the interview as something he wants to reinforce with his own team.

For a patient considering vision correction, that philosophy means the conversation shouldn't begin with a particular procedure. It should begin with understanding the patient, their vision, their lifestyle, and what they're hoping to achieve.

Why Every Member of the Practice Matters

A surgeon may perform the procedure, but patients spend much of their time interacting with other members of the practice.

Reception staff, technicians, counselors, diagnostic teams, scheduling staff, and others can all influence how a patient feels.

Mahdavi explains that this is why creating an exceptional experience requires more than good bedside manner from the physician. It requires systems, structure, culture, and participation from the entire team.

Dr. Goel provides an example from his own practice: patients sometimes mention individual technicians by name in positive reviews. That feedback reinforces the staff member's behavior and demonstrates that seemingly small interactions can make a lasting impression.

Why Online Patient Reviews Matter

The doctors and Mahdavi also discuss the increasing importance of patient reviews.

Patients now routinely research physicians in much the same way they research restaurants, hotels, and other services. Reviews give prospective patients insight into not only outcomes, but how people felt throughout their experience.

They also create a valuable feedback loop for the practice. Positive reviews can identify staff members and experiences that patients particularly appreciate, while critical feedback can expose areas where the practice may need improvement.

Mahdavi encourages patients to use reviews constructively—both to recognize excellent care and to identify experiences they believe could have been better.

Building a Culture of Patient Service

Creating a better patient experience also depends on having the right people.

The discussion moves beyond simply training staff and into hiring, compensation, retention, leadership, and culture.

Mahdavi makes an interesting distinction: many of the technical responsibilities within a medical practice can be taught. What's considerably harder to teach is what he describes as “the heart of a servant”—someone who naturally enjoys helping and taking care of other people.

That's why practices may benefit from looking beyond traditional healthcare experience when hiring. Someone who has worked successfully in hospitality or high-quality retail, for example, may already understand how to anticipate needs, communicate effectively, and make customers feel valued.

From Transactional Healthcare to Transformational Healthcare

Another major theme of the episode is the difference between simply performing a medical service and understanding the broader transformation that service creates.

For vision correction, the transaction might technically be LASIK, RLE, cataract surgery, or another procedure. But that's not necessarily what the patient ultimately values.

The transformation could be waking up and seeing without glasses, participating more easily in activities, reducing dependence on contacts, or simply experiencing the world differently.

Thinking about medicine through that lens can change the conversation from “What procedure do we perform?” to “What are we helping this person achieve?”

Will AI Replace the Human Side of Medicine?

The conversation eventually turns to artificial intelligence and whether AI could reduce the need for physicians or staff.

Mahdavi takes the opposite view. He believes AI will become increasingly valuable for administrative and back-office functions, including areas such as billing, communication, and answering routine questions. But as technology becomes more prevalent, genuine human interaction may actually become more valuable.

In medicine, patients still want empathy, reassurance, judgment, and the confidence that another person understands what they're experiencing.

Rather than replacing that relationship, AI may allow practices to automate certain tasks while giving their teams more opportunity to concentrate on the interactions where human involvement matters most.

The Future of the Surgical Experience

The doctors also discuss the continued evolution from hospital-based procedures to ambulatory surgery centers and, increasingly, office-based surgery (OBS).

Dr. Holzman and Dr. Solomon discuss their adoption of office-based surgery, while Dr. Goel describes having a surgical facility integrated closely with his practice.

Beyond economics and technology, Mahdavi points to an important patient-experience benefit: continuity.

Instead of being evaluated in one location and then sent somewhere unfamiliar for surgery, patients may be able to remain within an environment and care team they already know.

For appropriately selected procedures and patients, that continuity may help make the surgical experience feel more comfortable and less fragmented.

Better Medicine Starts With Understanding the Patient

The central idea running throughout Episode 4 is surprisingly simple: how patients feel matters.

Clinical outcomes remain paramount, but patients experience much more than the procedure itself. They experience the phone call, the front desk, the diagnostic testing, the conversation with their physician, the surgical team, follow-up care, and dozens of interactions in between.

Practices that intentionally improve those interactions aren't simply providing better customer service. They're creating an environment where patients can feel heard, respected, informed, and confident in the people caring for them.

And as Dr. Holzman emphasizes after the interview, it comes back to remembering one thing:

The patient is the hero.

Featured Guest: Sharif Mahdavi

Sharif Mahdavi is a patient experience expert and the founder of PX90, a program designed to help medical practices improve the patient experience by applying principles from hospitality, customer service, and organizational culture.

Mahdavi has spent decades working within healthcare and refractive surgery and joins the Wise EYES Guys to share his perspective on creating medical experiences that are more personal, intentional, and focused on the people practices ultimately serve—their patients.

Experience a Patient-First Approach to Vision Correction

If you're considering LASIK, refractive lens exchange, cataract surgery, or another vision correction option, the first step is understanding what's appropriate for your eyes, lifestyle, and vision goals.