Melissa Phipps

Novant Health

Melissa Phipps is Vice President of Patient Services for Novant Health. She is responsible for leading functions that impact the patient experience. Her responsibilities include oversight of patient relations, guest services, the patient partnership program, interpreter services, health literacy, patient education and forms, bioethics, volunteer services and advance care planning. She also leads Novant Health’s end-of-life transformation efforts and was a key architect in developing Choices and Champions™, Novant Health’s platform to help normalize advance care planning and focus on patient empowerment.

Melissa is a licensed attorney and served as Assistant General Counsel for Novant Health from 1998-2015. She concentrated her legal practice on areas that impacted patient care, with a particular emphasis on patient rights. She views her new role as an opportunity to blend patient advocacy, hospitality and innovation. An example of her creativity is the launching of “Novant Health Reads,” a community book discussion to engage, educate and empower team members. Over 7,500 team members are reading the first book, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

Melissa’s passion in patient advocacy stems from personal experiences with significant hearing impairment, as a breast cancer survivor, and as a family member of those struggling with mental health issues and addiction.

She obtained her BA in Journalism and her law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.