Outcomes-based quality improvement in healthcare

Patient-centered, digital technologies and innovation

Process engineering in healthcare

Clinical ethics consultation

Patient-centered decision making

Surrogate decision making

Transplantation ethics

Critical care ethics

Courtenay Bruce is chief experience officer of Houston Methodist System. Courtenay and her team have played a significant role in advancing patient experience, using a data‑driven, stepwise approach. They have implemented nationally recognized patient‑ and family‑centered communication courses that strengthen service‑line and provider performance, while contributing to systemwide process improvements, Epic innovations, workflow enhancements, scorecard development and real‑time coaching through embedded rounding. As a result, six of our eight hospitals now rank in Vizient Inc.’s, top 10% for patient-centeredness, with some rising from the 60th to the 5th percentile. System emergency department scores have also improved from the 70th to the 25th percentile nationally.

Courtenay holds a JD, an MA in bioethics, mediation certification, a Texas law license and completed a two‑year fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. As a professor with the Houston Methodist Academic Institute and Texas A&M Health Science Center, Courtenay teaches patient interviewing, patient‑ and family‑centered communication and end‑of‑life decision making.

She is a prolific educator and researcher, with over 75 peer‑reviewed publications, including more than 60 first‑author articles in Circulation, BMJ, Critical Care Medicine, JACC, CHEST, American Journal of Transplantation and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

A nationally credentialed clinical ethicist, Professor Bruce has led or sustained more than 15 hospital ethics committees and conducted over 4,000 ethics consultations across the country. Her expertise has earned her leadership roles on national bioethics committees, including service on the ethics committee for the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).