Michael Winkleman Releases New Book on Patient Experience Drawn from More Than a Decade of Firsthand Interviews

CONNECT: The Patient's Voice examines patient and provider interviews spanning a decade to explore how healthcare organizations can improve care.

SIOUX FALLS, SD, UNITED STATES, June 2, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- A patient once told Michael Winkleman, “I don’t remember what the doctor prescribed. I remember that she sat down, looked me in the eye, and made me feel like I wasn’t alone.” That sentence — and hundreds like it — became the foundation of a new book that’s challenging healthcare organizations to rethink what patients actually need.

CONNECT: The Patient’s Voice — Listening, Leading, and Transforming Care is a book built from more than a decade of firsthand patient and provider interviews conducted by Winkleman, CEO and Founder of PatientX. It’s not a textbook. It’s not a policy manual. It documents what patients experience when they walk through the doors of a healthcare facility — and what they carry with them long after they leave.

“I’ve stood inside surgery suites. I’ve sat in waiting rooms. I’ve watched families fall apart over a rushed word and come back together because someone paused long enough to listen,” said Winkleman. “This book exists because patients told me things they never told their providers. And those things need to be heard.”

CONNECT is organized around the patient journey — from the first phone call, through the exam room, into the hardest conversations, and out the door into what comes after. Across 58 chapters, patients and family members speak in their own words about presence, dignity, fear, hope, partnership, and the moments that made them feel seen — or invisible.

The book doesn’t just speak to physicians and nurses. It speaks to every person who touches the patient experience: front desk staff, medical assistants, billing teams, transporters, environmental services, schedulers, care coordinators, and the leaders whose decisions shape whether connection is possible.
“One patient told me, ‘I almost left from the parking lot. Then the woman at the front desk said, I’m glad you made it. And I stayed,’” Winkleman said. “That’s in this book. Because the patient experience doesn’t belong to one department. It belongs to everyone in the building.”

CONNECT is the first book in a planned three-part series. Book two, Execute, will focus on operationalizing patient-centered care. Book three, Transform, will examine what happens when connection and execution ripple outward across entire health systems.

About the Author
Michael Winkleman is the CEO and Founder of PatientX, a healthcare strategy and branding firm based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Over 20 years, he has partnered with healthcare organizations across the country, interviewing hundreds of patients and providers to capture the unfiltered insights that reveal what people truly want from their care. His work has been featured in more than 25 publications, including Becker’s Healthcare Review, Midwest Med, Med News, and Avera Cancer Magazine. He speaks nationally on patient experience, healthcare communication, and leadership.

About PatientX
PatientX is a healthcare agency that connects patient voice to organizational strategy. Through listening, storytelling, and experience design, PatientX helps healthcare organizations turn what patients feel into what teams do — building trust, loyalty, and long-term reputation from the inside out.

Media Contact: Kimberly Winkleman kimberly@patientxagency.com 844-444-7289 https://patientxagency.com/contact-us/

Kimberly Winkleman
PatientX Agency
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