As healthcare continues its shift toward value-based care, one factor is becoming impossible to ignore: patient experience isn’t just about satisfaction — it’s directly tied to reputation, reimbursement, and retention. And yet, how we measure experience hasn’t kept pace.
Most systems still depend on traditional surveys that are infrequent, narrow in scope, and often miss the depth and diversity of patient voices. With HCAHPS star ratings playing a significant role in how healthcare quality is perceived and evaluated, many hospitals understandably focus on meeting benchmark thresholds.
But there’s a better way forward — one that puts patients first and equips healthcare leaders with the insights they need to drive outcomes.
The Problem with the Current System
Experience measurement today is largely built on comparisons — rather than consistent, universal standards. As highlighted in JAMA by Mayer, Venkatesh, and Berwick,[1] this approach often reinforces competition instead of learning, discouraging transparency and collaboration in the process.
At the same time, response rates to surveys like HCAHPS continue to decline, and certain populations — including safety-net, rural, and non-English-speaking communities — remain underrepresented. Even with CMS updating its survey methods and expanding language access, many of the core challenges around timeliness, inclusivity, and actionability remain.
Traditional surveys provide only a snapshot — missing the complexity of the care journey, which spans well beyond the clinical interaction: from the initial contact and scheduling through diagnosis, treatment, recovery, discharge, and follow-up. They often ignore the perspectives of caregivers and family members, who play a critical role, and entirely miss the experiences of people who were unable to access care at all.
Patients themselves are growing tired of the process. Many describe surveys as a box-checking exercise, not a meaningful way to explain what they’re going through. It’s not that patients don’t want to be heard — it’s that the current tools don’t truly listen.
From both a measurement and equity standpoint, healthcare needs a new foundation — one that enables providers to improve for every patient, not just those who respond to surveys.
The Case for a Universal Metric: Introducing the PEP Score
The PEP Score is a real-time, criterion-based metric that captures the full range of patient experience — directly from patients themselves.
Built on over 35 million pieces of unsolicited feedback, the PEP Score analyzes online reviews, forum posts, and social media using healthcare-specific AI and natural language processing (NLP). Unlike legacy tools, it doesn’t rely on periodic surveys or benchmark chasing.
This is a smarter, faster, and far more comprehensive way to understand what patients are experiencing — and the best part is, it requires no additional effort from patients. They’re already sharing their stories online, unprompted and unfiltered. PEP simply listens and makes sense of what they’re already saying, in real time.
The result is a validated, transparent, and universally comparable measure — scoring every U.S. healthcare location daily on a 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent) scale across seven standardized care domains:
- Fast Access
- Communication & Involvement
- Emotional Support
- Continuity of Care
- Effective Treatment
- Billing & Administration
- Attention to Physical & Environmental Needs
Backed by over 350,000 mapped locations and tested against HCAHPS, PEP Scores don’t just align with regulatory measures — they reliably predict HCAHPS performance up to 9 months in advance. See the validation summary here.
Why It Matters: Actionable Insights for Today’s Challenges
Whether you’re a hospital executive or a payer leader, the financial and reputational stakes tied to patient experience are higher than ever. The healthcare landscape is navigating:
- Shrinking margins and growing workforce strain
- Increasing patient expectations for transparency and convenience
- Equity mandates and CMS’s evolving frameworks
- Upcoming HCAHPS survey updates and digital survey rollouts
PEP Health addresses these challenges head-on. Our platform equips leaders with real-time insights and system-level clarity across:
Predictive Compliance
PEP Scores act as early warning indicators, allowing providers to make proactive changes before HCAHPS scores are released.
Equity-Driven Insights
By analyzing feedback from rural, minority, and underserved populations often missed by surveys, PEP identifies disparities and informs more inclusive care strategies.
Leakage Prevention
With granular insights by location and specialty, health systems can uncover why patients leave — and where to intervene to improve retention and access.
Operational Efficiency
By automating analysis and surfacing clear trends, PEP frees staff from manual reporting, enabling focus on frontline improvements.
In our most recent 2025 Fast Access Spotlight, PEP Health recognized 10 hospitals that patients rated highest for timely, seamless care — a domain often under-measured, yet consistently cited as critical.
Memorial Hospital Miramar (FL) led the list, improving its Fast Access score by nearly 0.5 points year-over-year — proof that continuous, data-informed improvements are possible.
A Better Ethos for Experience
What healthcare needs isn’t just a better score — it’s a better system.
A system that values transparency over comparison, puts real-time insights in the hands of decision-makers, and listens to all patient voices — not just the ones that fit into a survey window.
At PEP Health, we believe in a future where every provider has the tools to improve — and where excellence isn’t a zero-sum game.
Register for The State of Patient Experience in 2025: Hosted by PEP Health — April 29, 6:30–8:30 PM at the British Consulate General’s Residence, Chicago — here.
