Patients no longer measure their hospital visit against their last hospital visit — they measure it against Amazon, their bank app and their last flight booking. Becker’s asked C-suite executives from hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers and universities across the U.S. how they plan to meet rising patient expectations.
The answers point to a common thread: convenience, speed and transparency are no longer differentiators — they’re baseline expectations, borrowed from retail, banking and travel. Leaders described major investments in digital infrastructure, from Epic and MyChart rollouts to AI-driven scheduling and virtual care.
But nearly as often, they cautioned that technology alone won’t close the gap; patients still want to feel known and cared for as individuals, not simply processed more efficiently. Rural and safety-net systems added a sharper point: geography and limited resources no longer excuse slower or less coordinated care, at least not in patients’ eyes.
The 39 executives featured in this article are all speaking at Becker’s 14th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, set for Nov. 2-5 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or a reviewer, please contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
For more information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at the conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What are the biggest shifts you’re seeing in patient expectations and how is your organization evolving to meet them?
Maneesh Goyal. Chief Operating Officer of Mayo Clinic Platform (Rochester, Minn.): A significant shift we’re seeing is that patients are arriving at appointments more informed and engaged. Increasingly, patients are using generative AI tools to stay informed and prepare questions before meeting their care team.
As a result, the role of the clinician is evolving to be the primary source of healthcare information as well as a critical component and trusted expert helping patients interpret that information in the context of their unique medical history and circumstances.
Healthcare organizations must embrace a future where patients use AI tools and are even more active partners in care. That requires integrating trusted AI capabilities into the care experience and ensuring clinicians have the tools for deeper collaboration and even more personalized care.
Leong Koh, MD. Executive Medical Director of Northwest Permanente (Oakland, Calif.): Patients increasingly expect care that addresses the whole person, not just physical symptoms, and accounts for the social and economic factors that shape health.
As a value-based care organization, we align incentives around quality, prevention and long-term health. That model helps care teams design treatment around each patient’s physical, mental and social needs, intervene earlier and reduce inequities in care delivery.
Patients also expect open, transparent communication and a stronger partnership with their physicians. Value-based care supports that by connecting doctors, specialists, pharmacies and coverage within one integrated system focused on the patient’s overall health.
Sarah Ness. President and CEO of PeaceHealth (Vancouver, Wash.): Patient expectations are evolving rapidly — they’re looking for care that is seamless, immediate and designed around their lives, not our systems. They want the same ease and transparency they experience in other parts of their daily lives, combined with trusted, coordinated relationships with their care teams.
In response, we are reimagining access as the front door to a truly connected care experience. We are simplifying how patients find and schedule care, improving timeliness and creating more intuitive digital and virtual pathways that remove friction at every step. Just as importantly, we are aligning care across settings so that whether a patient is seen in primary care, specialty care or virtually, it feels like one cohesive system.
We are also expanding telehealth and innovative care models to extend that experience into the communities we serve — especially in rural areas — so geography is no longer a barrier to timely, high-quality care.
At the same time, we recognize that an exceptional patient experience is only possible when physicians, clinicians and caregivers feel supported, valued and empowered. The best care is delivered by teams that are engaged in shaping the future of healthcare together. By investing in our people and fostering a culture of collaboration, we strengthen our ability to provide the seamless, compassionate and highly coordinated experience patients expect and deserve.
Our vision is straightforward but transformative: care that is easy to access, highly coordinated behind the scenes, and fully centered on the patient. When we combine seamless care delivery with an engaged and supported workforce, we create a differentiated experience for patients, families and communities — delivered when and where they need it.
Kathy Parrinello, RN, PhD. President and CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital and Highland Hospital, University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medicine: The biggest shifts we are seeing in patient expectations are the desire for timely and convenient access to care – be it outpatient primary and specialty care visits, diagnostic imaging or inpatient care. A key initiative of ours is to focus on patient access to care – via electronic and in-person strategies. We have expanded the capability and availability of our patient portal into the medical record for appointment scheduling, on demand video visits for urgent needs and are working on enhanced clinical support for timely scheduling of in person visits. Nurse navigation for persons with chronic care needs as well as specialty care needs for enhanced care coordination are priorities for us. In addition, given our large geographic footprint into rural regions, we are coordinating better access to care for our rural communities providing services closer to home in partnership with our system-owned and affiliated regional hospitals.
Mark G. Moseley, MD. President of USF Tampa General Physicians;, Executive Vice President of Tampa General Hospital. I believe that patients increasingly want healthcare to feel relational without unnecessary transactional friction. They expect the same convenience and transparency they experience in other aspects of their lives, and while healthcare may indeed be complex, patients increasingly care less about why that is and more about how we make it easier for them to navigate. At the same time, they want to be known as people, not just patients, and they want their care to reflect an understanding of their individual needs and circumstances. Our challenge as leaders is not simply to keep pace with these changing expectations, but to earn trust through actions that consistently reflect our values. We must evolve to a place where we design and deliver care around the patient experience as intentionally as we do around access; recognizing that patients are not simply looking for healthcare services, but for a healthcare experience that leaves them feeling understood and confident in their care. Technology can certainly help remove barriers and simplify the experience, but trust is not built by technology alone. As we evolve, our focus is on making healthcare easier to navigate while never losing sight of the fact that, for patients, healthcare is ultimately a human experience.
Benjamin M. Schwartz, MD. President of Academic Delivery at Banner Health (Phoenix): Patients today want partners in staying healthy, not just providers when they’re sick. At Banner Health, we’re meeting this shift head-on. Our fully integrated nonprofit model means we succeed when patients stay well. We’re expanding telehealth so rural patients can see specialists from home. We’re investing over $1 billion in AI and tools like BannerWise to cut administrative burden and improve care coordination. And we’re pioneering prevention programs that actually work. Patients want care that’s both world-class and affordable and our value-based models are proving that better outcomes and lower costs can go hand in hand. We’re moving from “sick care” to prevention, wellness and chronic disease management because that’s what our communities deserve.
Peter D. Banko. President and CEO of Baystate Health (Springfield, Mass.): The biggest shifts are that patients expect (and deserve) healthcare to function like every other aspect of their lives – convenient, transparent, and personalized. The fastest evolution is personalizing care through digital enablement for patients, physicians, providers, and clinicians through expanded partnership with Oracle Health for the first ‘big bang’ go-live on November 1, 2026. We are also making progress in reducing friction and improving transparency between our health plan and our provider system by fixing network development, product development, pharmacy optimization, prior authorizations, denials, and ‘gold carding.’ The biggest lift for us is access and convenience. That is requiring a fundamental design process (rather than tweaking or redesign) which is demanding that we go slow to go fast.
Margaret Dimond, PhD. President of UM Health Regional Network (Ann Arbor): Some of the most notable shifts in patient expectations are directly caused by the rapid pace of new technologies, both on the consumer side, but also how clinicians treat patients. I am a member of the AHA Policy Committee, and the focus of the summer meeting covered changing patient expectations, as well as payer led changes for patients. The patient may require an MRI technology, while the insurer will only allow CT scan, causing patient care implications.
-Patients now have immediate expectations for test results, access to their providers (e.g. text messaging, portals etc.), and convenience-based encounters, like telehealth, and concierge medicine.
-The format of phoning a physician’s office now seems ancient for those technology savvy patients. Many health systems have responded to the change in demands by creating technologies (like EPIC patient portals for immediate posting of test results etc.…) to create more efficient processes that used to be manual or performed by humans rather than electronic processes and digital infrastructures.
-No longer are the days of ‘physicians know best.’ Patients require interpersonal interactions that meet their needs. Empathy, and explanation are desired characteristics now, that parallel skill and reputation of physicians. Immediate access and answers are expected, not nice to have.
Arthur Gianelli. President and Chief Transformation Officer of One Brooklyn Health (N.Y.): The most consequential shift in patient expectations is the expectation of immediacy: patients want their caregivers to respond now, and they want appointments available virtually on demand. This is as true at a safety net health system like One Brooklyn Health as it is anywhere else in American healthcare. Our patients live at society’s margin, but their expectations are not modest — nor should they be. Meeting this demand requires us to rebuild the front door of our system. We are standardizing and optimizing physician scheduling so that appointment capacity is visible, accessible, and used. We will partner with an access center vendor whose AI functionality will allow us to respond to patients quickly and around the clock, and we are driving patient adoption of MyChart while expanding our virtual visit options. We are also leveraging our retail and specialty pharmacies so that medication needs are met with the same responsiveness patients now expect everywhere else. Immediacy is no longer a luxury reserved for well-resourced systems — it is the standard of care, and our patients deserve nothing less.
Robert Wiehe. Senior Vice President and COO of UC Health (Cincinnati, Ohio): Patients today aren’t just comparing us to other health systems, they’re comparing us to every other experience they have. They expect healthcare to be as easy as ordering something from Amazon or managing their finances on their phone. If scheduling an appointment, viewing test results, or communicating with their care team is difficult, we’ve created frustration before we’ve even had the opportunity to deliver care.
Like many academic health systems, we’ve had to rethink how we approach that expectation. At UC Health, we’ve focused on giving patients more control through MyChart and other digital tools, while challenging ourselves to think of access as more than an operational issue. Access is part of the patient experience/journey, and ultimately, part of quality.
The bigger challenge is cultural. Patients are showing up more informed than ever — often having researched their condition or used AI before they ever see a physician. Rather than viewing that as something to push back against, we’re encouraging our clinicians to see it as an opportunity for a better conversation and stronger patient engagement.
We’re also seeing patients expect more care to be available closer to where they live. As Cincinnati’s academic health system, we have a responsibility to provide highly specialized, complex care while also making routine care convenient and accessible throughout the region.
Balancing those two expectations is one of the most important challenges — and opportunities — facing academic medicine today.
Kerry L. Heinrich. President and CEO of Adventist Health (Roseville, Calif.): The truth is, patients today expect what they experience everywhere else in their lives: convenience, transparency, and care that fits around them rather than the other way around. But beneath all of that is something older and more human. People want to be known, not processed. At Adventist Health, we have embraced essentialism, focusing on the few things that matter most rather than the many that matter less. Nothing matters more than the experience of the patients we serve. That is why we are making a $500 million investment in Epic, going live this fall, to transform the patient experience across our entire system: one record, one connected experience, and care that is simpler and closer to home. We are a faith-based and faith-driven organization, and that means something. It’s not just a slogan. Technology will make us more convenient, but our calling to love is what makes us more human. Every person who walks through our doors should feel seen, heard, and cared for. People matter.
Andy Olivares. COO of Lakeview Specialty Hospital & Rehab (Waterford, Wis.): One of the biggest shifts I am seeing is that patients and families expect more clarity, speed, and coordination throughout the care transition process. In post-acute care, especially for medically complex patients, families are not just looking for an available bed; they want to understand whether the organization can meet the patient’s clinical needs, communicate clearly and move quickly when the patient is ready. At Lakeview, we are continuing to evolve by strengthening communication between admissions, clinical leadership, case management and referral sources, so decisions are made earlier and with greater transparency. We are also focusing heavily on being clear about what level of care is appropriate, what barriers need to be addressed, and how we can support a safe transition. Patients today expect care to feel personal, organized and responsive, and I believe organizations that can combine clinical capability with strong communication will be best positioned to meet those expectations.
Rod Neill. COO of Bon Secours Mercy Health Medical Group (Cincinnati): Patients are rapidly becoming consumers of healthcare much in the same way they have shopped for and selected services in other industries for many years. To embrace this shifting approach we have placed attention on Google reviews and other third-party sites. We actively solicit feedback from our current patients and syndicate it to our own and third-party healthcare sites. This allows those searching to receive real-time feedback and hear of the experiences from our actual patients. In addition, we request our patients leave us Google reviews. We actively address and respond to concerns brought forth by those posting and thank those that leave positive responses and feedback. As a result, we are a 4.8-star medical group with over 5,000 responses per month on Google. We have a great story to tell, and we want to ensure consumers know it!
Daniel T. Pickett III. President and CEO of Albany Med Health System (N.Y.): The biggest shift I see is that patients are less accepting of fragmentation, and they are right to expect better. They expect excellent clinical care, but they also expect us to be easier to reach, clearer in our communication, and more accountable for helping them move through the system. At Albany Med Health System, that expectation is directly connected to our goal of becoming the first choice for care in our region by 2030.
We have tremendous assets: Albany Medical Center, our community hospitals, our physician practices, our academic mission, and teams who know the communities they serve. The work now is making those assets function more clearly as one system for patients. That means improving access and referrals, tightening handoffs between primary care, specialty care, hospital care, and follow-up care, and building more consistent expectations around quality, service, and communication. Patients should not have to choose between care close to home and access to advanced academic medicine; our responsibility is to make both feel connected, coordinated, and easier to navigate when they need us most.
Christine Schuster, RN. President and CEO of Emerson Health (Concord, Mass.): Patients today expect healthcare to be as convenient, connected, and personalized as every other service they use. They want timely access to care, seamless digital tools, transparent information, and a healthcare experience that is easy to navigate without sacrificing quality or personal relationships. At Emerson Health, we are responding by expanding access points, enhancing our digital capabilities, and strengthening our clinical integration with Mass General Brigham so patients can receive advanced specialty care while staying close to home whenever possible.
We are also leveraging artificial intelligence and other technologies to reduce administrative burden, improve efficiency, and give our clinicians more time to focus on caring for patients. Equally important, we continue to invest in our workforce because we believe the patient experience will never exceed the employee experience. Our greatest strength is combining nationally recognized quality with personalized, compassionate care delivered by people who know our patients and our communities. While technology will continue to transform healthcare, trust, relationships, and human connection remain at the heart of exceptional care. Our goal is to deliver both—the innovation patients expect and the personal experience they deserve.
Martha Henley. CEO of Unity Medical Center (Manchester, Tenn.): The biggest shift is that rural patients no longer accept that geography determines the quality of their care and for many, it’s more than expectation, it’s need. Adult children juggling careers and caregiving. Aging parents who can’t drive themselves to appointments in the big city.
At Unity Medical Center, we’ve evolved in three ways. First, we bring specialty care to the patient instead of sending the patient to specialty care: our telecardiology program keeps patients who once would have been referred out of the county cared for locally, and our alliance with Ascension Saint Thomas is helping us expand that model to additional tele-specialties, while giving our top-notch physicians colleagues at their fingertips.
Second, we’re extending care continuity to the patients most likely to fall through the cracks. Our primary care patients with multiple chronic conditions are enrolled in chronic care management, essentially a hospital concierge, and we’re preparing to launch a program that brings that same support to every ED patient. We call every patient who steps foot in our ER, and those calls showed us how many people were leaving with an uncontrolled chronic condition and no one walking alongside them. Our belief is simple: no one needs to leave the ER alone.
Third, our volunteer-driven mobile meals program — neighbors feeding neighbors — is growing into a broader nutrition and wellness initiative, because patients rightly expect their hospital to care whether they can eat well enough to manage their conditions, not just treat them when they can’t.
Rural hospitals used to compete on being the only option nearby. Now patients have options, and we have to be worth choosing. That’s raised our game, and our community is better for it.
Angelo Milazzo, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Duke Health Integrated Practice (Durham, N.C.); Chief Clinical Officer of North Carolina Children’s Hospital and Health System: Increasingly, patients want tailored experiences of care. They have become accustomed to personalized engagements with service in most other areas of their lives—retail, travel, banking, entertainment—and so expect their care to feel specifically suited not only to their medical needs but to their aesthetic and experiential preferences. The way patients adjudicate the quality of care is becoming more closely linked to how frictionless, convenient, and efficient it is, and less connected to the traditional, physiologic endpoints that clinicians consider (e.g., control of blood pressure or improvement in blood cholesterol levels). One small step we’ve taken is to open up many of our care services for self-scheduling, including laboratory and imaging services, so that patients can choose locations and times that fit best with their schedule, selecting directly from a menu of options which are accessible through a web-based portal.
Matthew Fry. President and CEO of Freeman Health System (Joplin, Mo.): Patients expect healthcare to be accessible, transparent, convenient and personal like what they feel in other industries and aspects of their lives. While there is still work to do, we’re making progress toward a more consumer-centered experience.
At Freeman Health System, those expectations are shaping how we advance technology, care delivery and strategic growth – especially in the rural communities we serve. Our Epic partnership is better connecting our hospitals, care teams and patients, while new initiatives like our mobile behavioral health unit brings services directly to patients when and where they need them most.
At the same time, we’re investing in talent in areas where patients have told us they need more support, including billing, revenue cycle and customer service. We’re improving access and convenience by leveraging a centralized scheduling and registration model. We have invested in Workday and Epic to help us provide information technology that will enable a smoother, frictionless experience for our patients. We have also been very intentional about strategic growth, including our recent expansion into Arkansas, so we can meet more of our patients’ needs where they live and reduce the access gaps experienced across rural America.
While financial constraints are real and ongoing regulatory pressures remain, the push to better meet patient expectations is making us a stronger health system and driving positive change across healthcare. By focusing on what patients want – greater access, convenience, transparency and connection – we’re building a better experience and delivering better care overall.
Deborah Visconi. President and CEO of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (Paramus, N.J.): The biggest shift I see is that patients no longer compare us only to other healthcare organizations. They compare us to every experience they have in their daily lives. They expect healthcare to be connected, convenient, transparent, and personal, but they also want to feel known and cared for.
At Bergen New Bridge, we’ve learned that technology alone doesn’t create a better patient experience. It has to strengthen the human connection, not replace it. As New Jersey’s largest safety-net hospital, many of the people we serve face barriers that extend far beyond their medical condition. Meeting their expectations means making care easier to navigate, improving access to primary and specialty care, expanding behavioral health services, and using technology, including AI, to keep patients connected after they leave our hospital.
Our goal isn’t simply to provide excellent clinical care. It’s to build lasting relationships with the communities we serve so that every patient feels respected, supported, and confident that someone is walking alongside them on their healthcare journey. I believe the organizations that will lead the future of healthcare are the ones that never lose sight of the humanity behind every innovation.
Chanda Chacon. President and CEO of Children’s Nebraska (Omaha): Parents and guardians want us to be partners in their child’s care along the entire journey. Families evaluate their experience as a continuum; the entire before-and-after care journey and how easy it is to get in, choice in the type of care delivery (telehealth versus in person), how coordinated things feel while they’re with us, and how smooth the follow-up is.
- Behavioral health inclusion in overall health has now become a part of the overall expectation.
- Implementation of Synapse, a central coordination point to support and expedite the continuum of care through manage referrals, scheduling, and capacity in real time for inpatient and outpatient.
- The shift from urgent care model (walk ins) to care today (walk in and urgent scheduled visit). This was driven by the need for families to have same day walk in and scheduled appointments. We have seen a significant increase in our patient experience scores with this change.
- Creation of a fully comprehensive Behavioral Health and Wellness Center where there is no wrong door
- The use of the Glow virtual technology (holographic telemedicine suite) to connect behavioral health patients from across the state to therapists in Omaha.
- Children’s Connect patient portal is used by 75% of our patients to connect with us regarding care questions in real time.
- Migrating all our clinics to online scheduling for parent convenience.
Timothy Layman, DNP, MSN, RN. President and Chief Administrative Officer of St. Mary’s Hospital, Hospital Sisters Health System (Decatur, Ill.): Patients today expect healthcare to be convenient, transparent, personalized, and delivered with the same level of communication they experience in other service industries. At HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital, we are seeing increased demand for faster access to care, shorter wait times, seamless digital communication, and greater involvement in care decisions. In response, we have redesigned many of our clinical workflows to improve throughput, accelerate discharges, and reduce emergency department length of stay while maintaining exceptional quality outcomes. We are also investing in technology that enhances the patient experience, including expanded telehealth services, improved digital communication tools, and smart hospital capabilities that support safer, more connected care. Our $90 million modernization project reflects our commitment to creating an environment that is more patient-centered, comfortable, and technologically advanced. Equally important, we continue to invest in our workforce because compassionate, engaged caregivers remain the cornerstone of an exceptional patient experience. We closely monitor patient feedback and use real-time data to drive continuous improvements in communication, responsiveness, and service recovery. Ultimately, our goal is to deliver not only outstanding clinical outcomes but also an experience that earns our patients’ trust, confidence, and loyalty every time they choose HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital.
Megan Remark. Executive Vice President and COO of HealthPartners Care Group (Bloomington, Minn.): One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing is that people increasingly expect healthcare to be as convenient and cost-effective as the rest of their lives. Here at HealthPartners, we’re reducing friction in a variety of areas to simplify the patient experience and eliminate steps that don’t meaningfully contribute to better care.
A good example is our approach to low-risk cataract surgery. Based on our research, we found that because cataract procedures are brief and require only minimal sedation, low-risk patients do not benefit from a routine pre-operative physical. Last year, we eliminated that requirement. In the first six months alone, nearly 1,900 patients safely skipped an unnecessary appointment, which saved them time, reduced out-of-pocket and insurance costs, and made it easier to receive the care they needed.
We are also creating new models of care, including new triage procedures for the emergency department that reduced unnecessary ED visits by 60% and e-consults between primary care providers and specialists to avoid unnecessary appointments for the patient, among other innovations.
We believe this is the direction healthcare needs to continue moving: making it simpler, more convenient and more responsive to what matters most to patients.
Craig Cheifetz, MD. President of Primary Care Service Line at Inova (Fairfax, Va.): One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is that patients still expect high-quality, clinically excellent care, but they increasingly define a great healthcare experience by how easily and conveniently they can access that care. At Inova Primary Care, we are focused on meeting patients where they are and providing multiple pathways to care based on their individual needs and preferences rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model. Through our primary care access strategy, we have expanded options such as virtual visits, walk-in clinics, after-hours primary care through our InovaAnytime virtual clinic, and shared medical visits, which improve convenience, reduce barriers to care, and create opportunities for greater patient engagement and support. We are also leveraging technology to make care more seamless, including self-scheduling tools that give patients greater control over when and how they access services. At the same time, we are adopting AI-enabled solutions such as clinical note capture technologies that reduce administrative burden and allow providers to spend more meaningful time focused on the patient during visits. The common thread across all of these efforts is recognizing that access is not delivered in just one way — patients want choices, flexibility, and care that fits into their lives. Our goal is to create a healthcare experience that combines clinical excellence with the ease, convenience, and personalization that today’s patients increasingly expect.
Jeffrey P. Gold, MD. President of University of Nebraska System (Lincoln): At an academic medical center such as ours, patients expect excellence across all aspects of our three-part mission: clinical care, impactful clinical research and a world-class educational environment. They also want — and deserve — to be informed, active participants in their care. At the heart of those expectations is trust. Fostering trust creates an environment in which patients feel heard, understood and empowered to make the best decisions about their health.
Building that trust requires more than clinical expertise. Medical professionals must listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions and communicate openly and transparently about conditions, treatment options and expected outcomes. Every interaction—with patients, their families and one another—should reflect compassion, respect and a genuine commitment to partnership.
Our academic medical center is uniquely positioned to bring together the strengths of our tripartite mission to earn and sustain that trust while delivering a compassionate, holistic patient experience. We provide innovative technological tools, including customized apps and online patient portals, that help patients stay informed and engaged in their care. Equally important, we offer access to in-person multispeciality interprofessional clinician interactions and patient navigators who provide personalized guidance, information and resources. That support continues throughout the patient journey — from ambulatory care to hospitalization and after patients return home — ensuring they receive timely, high-quality care and services that promote the best possible recovery while fostering confidence in their care every step of the way.
Roger Mitty, MD. President of Care New England Medical Group (Providence, R.I.): We know that our patients are looking for easier ways to access our practices; everything from the availability of appointments to the ease in scheduling those appointments. With our deployment of Epic over the past year, we have now introduced on line scheduling for primary care, OB/GYN and certain surgical specialties. We are piloting an agentic AI solution to answer phones and book appointments in some of our busier practices that have historically had poor phone answering performance. Our continued commitment to try and improve clinician workstreams will ultimately make it possible for clinicians to see an additional patient or two if needed. Examples of these workstream improvements include ambient listening documentation software and AI assisted inbox management. Finally, we are increasing the number of after hours clinics (both in person and virtual) to improve access for our patients who may have challenges in coming to appointments during the day due to job or childcare requirements.
Sanjay Singh, MD. Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Executive of Allina Health (Minneapolis): There are three specific types of patient populations and their expectations are different. The first are the Gen Z and the Millennials who want online and virtual options, that is how they do everything else. So, we are providing them those options via online scheduling and virtual care opportunities. The next are the elderly who have multiple medical illnesses and require in person complex care with care management. At Allina we are providing these patients with a team-based care model where a multidisciplinary care team takes care of them with a combination of in person and virtual visits. The third are the patients in value based care programs, they require significant care coordination and they now expect it.
Debra Sukin, PhD. President and CEO of Texas Children’s (Houston): One of the biggest shifts we see is that patients and families increasingly expect healthcare to be as accessible, convenient and personalized as every other service they use in their daily lives. They want the right care, at the right time, in the right place, delivered seamlessly across both digital and in-person interactions.
At Texas Children’s, we agree that managing healthcare should not feel like a full-time job. We are responding by expanding access, investing in digital capabilities, and creating more connected experiences that make it easier for families to navigate care.
Specifically, we are growing our geographical footprint, using technology to simplify scheduling, adding digital self-service options, and keeping patients better connected to care teams post-visit to coordinate important follow-up care. We are also using data analysis and AI to personalize care, anticipate patient needs, and create more space for our clinicians to focus on what matters most: caring for patients and families.
Ultimately, this work will help us continue to deliver exceptional outcomes and an extraordinary experience to the patients and families we are privileged to serve.
Chris A. Klay. President and CEO of Southern Illinois Market at Hospital Sisters Health System (Decatur, Ill.): Both locally and nationally, patients are more consistently approaching healthcare transactions and experiences like they do all other goods and services. Access, cost, and quality being the key drivers in defining a positive or successful experience. As healthcare providers, we must focus our efforts on these three key areas if we are going to be successful in maintaining and growing clinical volume and market share. Across HSHS’s Southern Illinois market hospitals, we have introduced lower cost entry points for clinical care, such as the addition of an ambulatory surgery center in September of 2026, as well as promoting utilization of our urgent care versus the emergency department for low-acuity needs. Specific to access, we have aligned our scheduling practices across all radiology modalities and rehabilitation services to not only ensure we have appropriate scheduling slot access but utilization. Last but most importantly, not least, quality of care remains our top priority. Our consistent ability to not only meet but exceed our patient experience and clinical quality metrics is founded on a culture that supports our colleagues’ ability to stop the line or speak up in honor of patient safety. Although not all-encompassing, these initiatives clearly identify how we are strategically approaching health care through the eyes of our consumers.
Ray Vara. President and CEO of Hawai‘i Pacific Health (Honolulu): Patient expectations have changed significantly. People continue to expect outstanding clinical care, but they also expect healthcare to fit into their lives. They want timely access, transparent communication, coordinated care and fewer barriers to getting the services they need. Increasingly, they expect a health care system that helps them stay healthy – not one that’s only there when they become sick. That starts with strong primary care, prevention and early intervention.
We see that as both a challenge and an opportunity.
At Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, we’re continuing to rethink how care is delivered. Through the vision of One Health Hawaiʻi, we believe there’s an opportunity to better connect physicians, hospitals, health plans and community resources so patients experience one coordinated system rather than a collection of separate organizations. When primary care providers, specialists, hospitals and community partners work together, patients receive more coordinated care and have a better chance of staying healthy in the first place.
Our Patient and Family Advisory Councils provide direct feedback that helps shape everything from clinical processes to the patient experience. We also continue investing in the fundamentals that matter most: clear communication, compassion, respect and taking the time to ensure patients understand their care and feel confident about the decisions they’re making.
Technology plays an important role when it strengthens the relationship between patients and caregivers. Ambient listening technology allows physicians to spend less time documenting and more time engaged with patients. Virtual nursing expands bedside support, and digital tools help families stay connected as they coordinate care for children, aging parents and loved ones with complex medical needs.
We have expanded our focus beyond the traditional care setting to address the factors that shape health long before someone needs medical care. For many people, access to nutritious local food sources, affordable housing, education, work force development, social support and preventive services can have as much impact on their health as what happens inside a hospital or exam room. That’s why Hawaiʻi Pacific Health continues to invest in community-based programs and to work alongside partners who share our commitment to helping people live healthier lives.
By helping people better manage chronic conditions, identify risks earlier and access primary and preventive care more easily, we can improve health before issues become more serious or costly. At the end of the day, patients are looking for care they can trust — care that is accessible, easier to navigate, better connected and more affordable. To create healthier communities, we must continue focusing as much on keeping people healthy as we do on treating them when they are sick. That is the future Hawaiʻi deserves for generations to come.
Amit Rastogi, MD. President and CEO of Jupiter (Fla.) Medical Center: Patients today expect access to care to be timely, seamless, and convenient—whether they are scheduling with a primary care physician or a specialist. We recognize that meeting those expectations requires more than just adding appointment availability; it means building a stronger, more accessible network of care. At Jupiter Medical Center, we are recruiting world-class physicians and making strategic investments into additional clinical facilities to expand capacity and bring care closer to where patients live and work through more convenient access points across the region. Just this year, we completed a 92-bed patient care tower expansion on our main campus and broke ground on our second hospital in the fastest-growing area of our region, ensuring that our patients have access to the highest-quality healthcare close to home.
Rick E. Smith. CEO of Troy (Ala.) Regional Medical Center: At Troy Regional, we see the following opportunities related to the expectations of the patients we serve.
- Investing in technology. Patients expect modern diagnostics and seamless care. We’re investing in advanced imaging, electronic health records, telehealth, and digital tools that improve both the patient and provider experience.
- Focusing on the patient experience. Clinical outcomes remain our top priority, but we also recognize that how patients are treated matters. Every interaction — from registration to discharge — should reflect kindness, respect, and clear communication.
- Building a culture of quality and safety. Rural hospitals must demonstrate that they provide safe, evidence-based care. We continually evaluate our processes, engage our team members, and strive for continuous improvement to ensure patients have confidence in the care they receive.
- Remaining community-centered. One advantage rural hospitals have is that we know our patients personally. We are committed to listening to our community, understanding its changing healthcare needs, and adapting our services accordingly.
Ultimately, our goal is simple: to provide exceptional healthcare close to home. Rural hospitals play a vital role in the health and economic well-being of their communities, and our responsibility is to continue evolving so our patients never feel they have to leave their hometown to receive outstanding care.
Matthew Love. President and CEO of Nicklaus Children’s Health System (Miami): One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is that families no longer define access simply by whether an appointment is available. They expect the right pediatric expertise to be closer to home, easier to navigate, and connected across every part of their child’s care. At Nicklaus Children’s, we are responding by building a more connected pediatric network across South Florida. That means expanding access in the communities we serve while making the experience easier for families as their child moves from diagnosis to treatment and follow-up. Our goal is to preserve the depth and excellence families expect from a leading pediatric hospital while making that care more accessible, coordinated and close to home.
Caswell Samms. Executive Vice President and CFO of Nemours Children’s Health (Jacksonville, Fla.): Today, patients and families have an abundance of information at their fingertips, new ways to share their experiences and more ways to learn about the experiences of others. And as their expectations have continued to evolve, we have continued working to meet and exceed those expectations. For Nemours Children’s Health, this is rooted in providing an exceptional experience that is informed by the feedback and voices of those we serve across our footprint. Whether it is expanding access to specialized care, or leveraging technology and innovation to provide 24/7 support for patients in the home setting, we are continuously working to meet children and families where they are in their health journey.
Zachary Yoder, RN. President of St. Mary Medical Center, Holy Family Medical Center and St. Luke Medical Center, OSF HealthCare (Peoria, Ill.): Patient expectations are shifting toward greater convenience, faster access to care, and more personalized experiences. Patients increasingly want seamless communication, easier scheduling, and greater involvement in decisions about their care. Our organization is evolving by focusing on improving access, strengthening communication, and using technology to create a more connected patient experience. We are also working to better understand patient needs and adapt our processes to make care more efficient and patient-centered. As expectations continue to change, we are committed to balancing innovation with the personal relationships and trust that are essential to quality care. By listening to feedback and continuously improving, we can better support patients and provide the experience they expect.
George Mikitarian. President and CEO of Parrish Medical Center (Titusville, Fla.): Patients view healthcare through a consumer lens, comparing their experiences to the convenience, responsiveness and service they receive in other industries. Patients expect timely, transparent and personalized communication, easy access to their care team and seamless coordination across the continuum of care. To meet these evolving expectations, Parrish Medical Center launched a Patient Experience Liaison program across all inpatient nursing units. Our Liaisons round hourly to proactively address patient needs and concerns in real time, while enhancing communication and service recovery. We also implemented an electronic interdisciplinary rounding tool to strengthen collaboration across departments and improve overall care coordination. Together, these initiatives ensure that the experience we provide reflects the consumer expectations patients now bring to healthcare.
Jay Dennard. President of Gwinnett Hospital Foundation; System Vice President of Governmental and Community Affairs at Northside Hospital (Atlanta): At Northside, we’re seeing patients expect healthcare to be more accessible, more transparent, and more responsive to their individual needs. People want easier ways to schedule care, clearer communication before and after visits, and a more seamless experience across the entire continuum of care. They also expect us to make care feel more personal, while still delivering the highest level of clinical quality and safety. In response, we are continuing to strengthen access points, improve coordination across teams and settings, and invest in tools and processes that reduce friction for patients and families. We are also focused on meeting people where they are, whether that is through better navigation support or more proactive communication. At Northside, we recognize that the patient experience is now shaped by both clinical outcomes and the ease of the journey, and we are evolving to meet both.
Mark Sevco. President of Allegheny Health Network (Pittsburgh): We’ve been talking about the consumerization of healthcare for what seems like decades. But COVID accelerated the transition, and post-COVID, both the healthcare industry and its patients emerged realizing that something had fundamentally shifted when it comes to patient expectations. Today’s patients demand more than expert clinical care — frankly, that’s table stakes. They want seamless digital and virtual access. They want to be able to schedule appointments and pay their bills with their smartphones. They want precision medicine with retail-style convenience and service. They want at-home hospital care, when clinically appropriate. And they have highly personalized interactions at every touchpoint of their healthcare journey. Our job is to meet those expectations today while preparing for the future — to skate where the puck is going, so we can be there for patients when they need us and get ahead of costly, chronic health conditions. There is no single tactic or strategy that will help us meet all of these consumer needs. But at AHN, we’ve established a new Digital Transformation Office, along with our parent company (Highmark Health) and its in-house digital solutions company (enGen). The primary role of the DTO is to rethink the way we deliver care — the digital tools and services we use, the people we need, and the way those people and tools align with our strategic, clinical and population health goals.
Eric J. Price. CFO of Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital (Manistique, Mich.): One of the biggest shifts that Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital is experiencing in patient expectations is that we continue to expand specialty care closer to home. This has been an initiative for several years and one area which we believe can help rural hospitals succeed and grow. Several new specialties which have been added over the last several years include; rheumatology, nephrology, and specialized Gastroesophageal Reflux (GERD) care to name a few. The list is fairly comprehensive as the diversification into specialty care has helped the hospital weather the financial storms facing rural healthcare today. Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital has responded where practical to support the patient expectation of care close to home. We try to accommodate that and are continually evaluating what area of growth we should take on next.
Kevin Cook. President of Greater Silicon Valley Market at Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.): One of the biggest shifts we are seeing is that patients increasingly expect convenient, personalized access to high-quality care close to where they live, whether that means primary care, specialty services, urgent care, hospital care or digital options that make it easier to manage their health. In the Greater Silicon Valley area, Sutter Health serves more than 1 million patients, yet the South Bay remains our largest geography without a Sutter hospital to complete the full continuum of care. As Silicon Valley continues to innovate and grow, we are evolving with it by expanding our Northern California care delivery system, including plans for a new hospital, more than 160 additional beds at existing hospitals, 27 new ambulatory care centers, 24 urgent care centers, 22 ambulatory surgery centers and investments in existing care locations. At the same time, we are building a more connected care ecosystem that pairs physical access points with state-of-the-art digital capabilities, including AI, telemedicine, direct online scheduling and remote patient management, so patients can receive more seamless, personalized and accessible care across every setting.
Paul Hiltz. President and CEO of Naples Comprehensive Health (Fla.): The biggest shift is that patients expect care built around them as individuals. They don’t want a one-size-fits-all system. They want care that fits their specific needs, their schedule, and their life. Convenience and trust now matter as much as clinical quality, and patients are right to expect all three.
At Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH), we’re meeting this need by providing access in new and different ways and settings. That means bringing care closer to where people live and work, opening new points of access across the community, and offering more choice in how and where patients connect with us. Individualized care isn’t just about the treatment plan. It’s about making the whole experience fit the person.
Our work on the R.M. Schulze Family Heart & Stroke Critical Care Center reflects this. We’re building advanced capabilities close to home so patients don’t have to travel far for complex care during the moments that matter most. But the settings and technology only work if the people behind them stay connected to why we’re here. We keep asking a simple question: what would we want for our own families? When we lead with that, we tend to get the rest right.
At the Becker's 11th Annual IT + Revenue Cycle Conference: The Future of AI & Digital Health, taking place September 14–17 in Chicago, healthcare executives and digital leaders from across the country will come together to explore how AI, interoperability, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle innovation are transforming care delivery, strengthening financial performance, and driving the next era of digital health. Apply for complimentary registration now.