How Global Patient Services Builds Bridges Between Physicians and Patients

Patricia Satjapot is Cleveland Clinic’s new Director of Global Patient Services. In this Q&A, she discusses how her office serves patients and makes Cleveland Clinic a global force in healthcare.

Why does Cleveland Clinic have a department of Global Patient Services (GPS)? What does it offer to patients?

GPS acts as a cultural ambassador that coordinates international patients’ care holistically across their experience at Cleveland Clinic facilities, whether that is Ohio, Florida, Abu Dhabi or London. We work closely with colleagues in finance and in the different institutes to appropriately screen and triage international patient requests. We also provide interpretation, translation and sign language services to all patients.

How do you envision Cleveland Clinic’s role in global healthcare?

We want to ensure that Cleveland Clinic is a world leader in global patient management; we are the only academic medical center in the world establishing a truly global network for patient access. GPS enables us to accomplish these goals by meeting the needs of our international patients and partnering with institutes to bring patients the highest quality care. We also want to function as an agile organization that can anticipate and adapt to our dynamic geopolitical and economic environments.

How has your personal experience prepared you to serve as Senior Director of GPS?

I’ve learned through my work in other top academic medical centers that serving patients globally requires not only business development expertise but also a culture that values the patient above all else. The business efficiencies we seek in GPS help patients — we reduce the time they wait between appointments, we improve their experience with financial authorization and billing, which often requires working with embassies and the like, and more. My goal is to remove as many barriers as possible between the physician and the patient, whether they are cultural, linguistic, financial or geographic.

To learn more about Cleveland Clinic business operations from a global perspective, enroll in one of our Global Executive Education programs.