The patient experience is the summation of an individual patient's interactions and perceptions of his or her healthcare experience — before, during and after the delivery of care.
Healthcare organizations that place a relentless focus on offering a superior patient experience will not only be able to elevate the overall perception of their services, facilities, and caregivers, but they'll also inevitably drive more positive patient outcomes. Plus, delivering a consistently optimal patient experience will result in stronger patient loyalty and more referrals, improving organizations' financial performance.
In the same way that leading consumer brands use digital tools to offer an engaging and more seamless user experience to customers, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are increasingly turning to technology solutions to strengthen engagement with patients.
Doctor-patient relationships are more uniquely personal than nearly any brand-consumer relationship. Thus, the tools that offer a positive, frictionless user experience for both patient and caregiver — patient portals, appointment-scheduling tools, and even the facilities themselves — can potentially strengthen these relationships in a meaningful, lasting way. Of course, tools that fail to offer such an experience can have the opposite effect, which is why healthcare organizations must be cautious when it comes to implementing new technologies into their current processes.
The patient experience problem
Consider what makes up a patient's overall experience with a provider. While the quality of care is unquestionably important, it's not the only determinant of a good (or bad) patient experience.
From registration to discharge, there is an array of touchpoints that factor into a patient's perception of his or her overall healthcare experience, and all it takes is one poor interaction to ruin that perception. A confusing billing system, frustrating admission protocol or uninviting facilities will likely stand out in a patient's mind long after discharge, even if the provider's treatment was exceptionable.
Ultimately, a bad patient experience not only deters current patients from seeking further treatment, but also limits the potential number of recommendations bringing new patients into the facility.
Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems forecasted that patient experience scores would determine up to 2 percent of hospitals' Medicare payments by this year. And it affects the providers, too. If doctors and staff increasingly have to deal with disgruntled or frustrated patients, the overall quality of care that your facility can provide will inevitably diminish.
Common sense, uncommon experiences
Fortunately for patients (and the healthcare industry as a whole), many healthcare organizations are starting to realize the paramount importance of providing a positive patient experience. A 2015 study by the Beryl Institute revealed that 43 percent of practices surveyed listed the patient experience as a top priority. That certainly leaves room for improvement, but it demonstrates the traction that the patient experience is gaining.
The facilities that are consistently able to provide a more fulfilling and satisfying experience for patients are the ones that are minimizing the steps that patients must take by themselves to receive care. Likewise, they're offering common-sense tools that make actions such as scheduling an appointment, FaceTiming with a doctor or looking at medical records as seamless as possible for patients.
Kaiser Permanente is one example of a healthcare provider that is taking the right approach regarding the patient experience. Its scheduling system, localized facilities, intuitive mobile and web applications and general care have been a big upgrade from my last healthcare provider.
And like other innovative healthcare organizations, Kaiser Permanente seems to realize that the experience of caregivers is intimately connected to the experience of those receiving care. The fact that its doctors are connected via an internal system means it's easier for them to relay important information quickly, making the entire process of providing and receiving care more efficient. Patients can even download an app to allow access to their medical records.
Other providers, too, have noticed that smaller everyday actions can make for a better, more robust experience. At Cleveland Clinic, every staff member is trained to communicate with patients during long wait times — even custodians. The organization's leader, who was looking closely at patient experience analytics, noticed that scores rose following this initiative.
Organizations that enable doctors to invest in their relationships with patients (for instance, by scheduling uninterrupted time for nurses and practitioners to meet with patients one on one) are ultimately going to deliver more positive results — the Patient Experience Journal reported a positive correlation between patient experience and overall outcomes.
For leaders of all types of healthcare organizations, a focus on the patient experience will become more important than it ever has been in the past. As the industry continues to be disrupted by technology and patient expectations rise, delivering a superior patient experience — in many cases during the most challenging times of patients' lives — will be better not only for an organization's bottom line, but also for everyone involved.
Kevin Yamazaki is the founder and CEO of Sidebench, a leading digital product and venture studio that creates custom software and apps for clients across healthcare, finance, entertainment and consumer product industries. As a passionate solutions architect and product designer, Kevin is driven to create. Because of his unique innovations, Sidebench has a growing reputation for solving its clients' largest unique challenges through custom integrations, internal tools and consumer-facing applications. Forbes listed Kevin in its 30 Under 30 Class of 2017
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