How to Gain Leadership Buy-In for Lived Experience Integration

You’re committed to patient engagement, but how do you turn your interest into meaningful action within patient care and quality improvement? The MoMMAs Voices program knows it starts with equipping your team through integrated training, driving advocacy for change, and tapping into a network of certified Patient Family Partners. None of this is possible, however, without strong leadership buy-in to champion the work.

Since January 2022, MoMMAs Voices has collaborated with healthcare providers to enhance patient-provider partnerships and improve maternal health outcomes through our Lived Experience Integration program, which has grown to include 25 cohorts and nearly 850 students. 

LEI supports organizations that want to include lived experience in a structured, respectful, and sustainable way. It offers a practical framework to help healthcare organizations move beyond patient stories and toward meaningful systems change.

Executive-level support can make or break efforts to bring lived experience into quality improvement initiatives. When leadership is on board, doors open. Programs become valued, and most importantly, sustainable.

But getting that buy-in takes intention and planning. Our LEI Training creates space for peer-to-peer learning and open exchange of challenges and successes.  Here are some strategies our  healthcare partners have found to be most effective when approaching organizational leadership.

1. Understand What Matters to Leadership

Before making your case, take time to learn what’s most important to your organization right now. What goals is the system working toward? What challenges are they facing? Which metrics are they watching most closely: patient satisfaction, quality of care, cost savings?

The more you connect lived experience integration to their existing priorities, the stronger your pitch will be.

2. Find a Champion Inside the Organization

Look for someone who already understands the value of patient engagement. It could be a department leader, a clinician, or someone in quality improvement. Having a respected peer who can vouch for the work makes a big difference in how leadership receives it.

3. Bring the Data

We know this work is powerful. But when speaking to executives, data helps seal the deal. Share case studies, benchmarks, or metrics like reduced readmission rates or increased patient satisfaction.

If you don’t yet have data from your own program, start collecting it now. Numbers demonstrate impact in ways that leadership trusts.

4. Highlight the Financial Impact

Patient engagement isn’t just about improving care; it can also improve retention, reduce gaps, and build trust. When patient feedback informs policy and procedure, the result is a more practical and sustainable care plan for providers to implement and patients to follow, leading to improved adherence to treatment plans and increased cost savings. 

5. Involve Leadership Early

Don’t wait until your plan is fully developed. Invite leadership into the process from the beginning. Ask for input, provide regular updates, and show alignment with organizational goals. Ongoing involvement helps them feel ownership of the work.

6. Share Patient Stories

Sometimes the most compelling argument isn’t in a spreadsheet, it’s in a story. Real experiences from patients and families can shift perspectives in ways numbers alone cannot. Share stories that illustrate the difference meaningful engagement makes.

7. Be Honest About Challenges

Don’t gloss over potential costs or staff training needs. Be upfront about challenges and share how you plan to address them. This shows leadership you’re thinking long-term and that your approach is realistic.

Next Steps

At the end of the day, leaders want to improve outcomes, reduce risk, and serve their communities well. Partnering with patients and families advances all of those goals.

When you connect lived experience integration to organizational priorities (through data, stories, and transparency), you give leadership every reason to get on board.

And that’s how sustainable, meaningful patient engagement takes root.

To learn more, visit https://www.mommasvoices.org/lived-experience-integration.