Healthcare Is Not Just Another Service Industry

Is patient experience (PX) in healthcare any different from that of CX in other sectors? In theory, no, but in practice, the context, dynamics, and implications can be quite distinct. The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) identifies among the key features of PX that help distinguish it from other areas of CX as follows:

• Consists of a range of interactions that individuals may have with the healthcare system (e.g., health plans, facilities, providers) and across a broad continuum (e.g., health, sickness, advanced illness, end-of-life care).
• Includes aspects of care delivery that patients value and that are key to achieving patient-centered care (e.g., access, timeliness, communication), and reflects providers’ ability to be respectful and responsive to individual preferences, needs, and values.
• Uses standard measures (e.g., Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems [CAHPS]), to assess organizational capacity for patient-centered care and to identify areas for improvement.
• Has a positive association with patient engagement, activation, and compliance in care, which leads to better clinical outcomes, improved patient safety practices, and lower use of unnecessary healthcare services.
• Is an integral component of overall quality when combined with other quality measures, such as effectiveness and safety, that are increasingly tied to compensation that providers receive for the care they deliver and the outcomes achieved.

The fact that PX in healthcare is an integral component of care quality, encompassing a range of interactions with a diverse set of interrelated, but not always interconnected service providers in the patient journey, makes PX, by its very nature, multidimensional and multifaceted, while also being intimately connected to the human experience. Understanding the human experience of the patient across the continuum of care is central. A person’s interactions with care providers, and not just their health status or role as consumers of healthcare resources, are also key to understanding the fundamental nature of PX. As a result, organizations that seek to provide the best PX to achieve the highest quality of care are challenged to address both human perspectives.

The Beryl Institute has captured this integrated and multidimensional nature of PX and the inherent complexity in its definition of PX as “the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions, across the continuum of care.” The definition identifies four themes to address PX: personal interactions, organizational culture, patient and family perceptions, and continuum of care. The Beryl Institute’s Human Experience 2030: A Vision for the Future of Healthcare laid out a strategic framework as a global call to action for effectively addressing PX:

• Reframe consumerism of patient and consumer partnerships as a global commitment to co-designing healthcare with patients, families, and consumers and being transparent with performance metrics and cost of care.
• Provide a precision experience through real-time data and analytics, ensuring simplicity, efficiency, and expanded access to care, information, and knowledge.
• Understand the current and future process burdens and workload issues that will impede the ability of those who deliver care to provide the best in experience for all they serve.
• Transform professional models for a new healthcare workforce, establishing new models of education in formal academic training for healthcare professionals and in health literacy for consumers of care.
• Expand beyond treating illness to addressing the health and wellbeing of communities, recognizing healthcare’s sustained inability to address disparities and ensure equity in care as a systemic illness and not just one nation’s problem.
• Meet people where they are and where they need it, and follow them where they go, including at home, in their communities, and virtually, making care journeys more accessible, convenient, and seamless.

Experiences during the pandemic have highlighted that the only constant is change and the importance of being agile in response to that change. Beryl Institute’s State of Patient Experience: 2021, which surveyed hospital providers in 33 countries, provides insights on how the pandemic has impacted provider operations and a reassessment of strategic priorities:

• Acknowledgment of PX as an integrated effort: Access to care and health equity are new considerations relative to standard patient/family engagement, customer services, patient safety, quality outcomes, and employee engagement.
• New components will play an influential role as part of an integrated focus: Recognition of the expanded role that innovation and technology, policy and measurement, and infrastructure and governance will have influence on experience outcomes.
• Workforce vulnerabilities risk undermining progress: Concerns for care workforce burnout and stress as a roadblock to PX efforts, and need to prioritize engaged employees and organizational culture to achieve a positive PX.
• Metrics and data collection methods are evolving: Overall measurement of the improvement in PX is evolving beyond government-mandated surveys to new direct patient survey methods for gathering timely and actionable insights.
• New driving forces are emerging to drive action: A desire to achieve better overall outcomes together with health equity and addressing health disparities are important factors that are driving organizations toward taking action on PX.
• Critical areas of focus during the next three years: extending services through telemedicine and other means ranked higher than in previous years, while addressing issues of health disparities and inequities were new.
• Investment allocation priorities over the next three years: staff training and development, virtual care strategies, and commitment to address health equity and disparities in ensuring excellence and improving experience.

Author Information

Andrew Broderick

Andrew Broderick is a Senior Analyst contributing to Dash Research’s CX Advisory Service as well as Dash Network’s ongoing editorial coverage of Healthcare CX and Patient Experience. Based in San Francisco, Broderick has more than 20 years’ experience in technology research, analysis, and consulting, including an extensive background in digital health technologies and business practices.