HCA Holdings, Inc. announced the appointment of Lyn Ketelsen, RN, MBA, as the company's first chief patient experience officer, effective February 23, 2015. In this role, Ketelsen will be responsible for leveraging best practices that have been developed at HCA's 166 affiliated hospitals and other healthcare providers throughout the company to help ensure patients have the best experience possible. Ketelsen, who will report to John Steele, HCA's senior vice president of human resources, joins HCA after more than 12 years with Studer Group, an organization that helps healthcare providers improve outcomes, particularly with respect to patient experience.

There, Ketelsen helped organizations build a culture of operational excellence and improve patient, employee and physician satisfaction levels. During her last four years at Genesis Health System holding, she served as an internal consultant, developing a customer service strategy that led to significant improvements in patient satisfaction.