Monica Salama

Administrative Director, Patient Experiences & Communications MD Anderson

Monica is focused on Patient Experience and communication at MD Anderson Cancer Center through her roles as an Administrative Director within the Division of Diagnostic Imaging (DI) and a member of the core team within HR rolling out Service Excellence to the institution.  Her passion for Service Excellence began in 2006 at Emory University in Atlanta, GA where Monica led teams to develop a departmental orientation, Radiology Leadership Academy and a Service Excellence Institute. In 2013, Monica joined MD Anderson and began by implementing a communication framework for the Division of Diagnostic Imaging. With an understanding of the structure and culture at MD Anderson, she took the lead of the DI Patient Experience Committee and held workshops to engage the division in redeveloping and shaping the service excellence core curriculum. Service Excellence was launched in June of 2015 as a pilot in DI with a positive response and recognizable shift in patient experience scores. In May of 2016, Monica’s knowledge was formally  recognized externally when she earned the designation as a Certified Patient Experience Professional (CPXP) and internally when she was asked to adapt the best-practice program for institutional roll-out. Today, Service Excellence is an expectation within the MD Anderson culture. The program is available to more than 20,000 employees and serves as a cornerstone for strategic guidance. Monica now acts as a change agent within the institution to advocate for the importance of service excellence and cultivates sustainability throughout the various initiatives of MD Anderson.