According to data recently released from Qualtrics, employees working in the healthcare industry show lower scores across several employee experience pillars, are at risk of burnout, and are considering leaving their organizations. The 2023 Healthcare Experience Trends Report, which includes feedback from 10,000+ patients and employees, provides insights into these trends as well as the potential effects on patient experiences.

Healthcare Workers Struggle on Several EX Fronts

Healthcare workers have a lower engagement score (66%) compared against a cross-industry global average, and are also three percentage points lower than average in their intent to stay at their jobs (61%). Only a third (33%) of healthcare employees report their experiences meet expectations. Not surprisingly, 38% of healthcare employees are at risk of burnout. Women in healthcare reported lower scores than men in every area of employee experience.

Fifty-two percent of healthcare employees believe they are paid fairly for the work they do, which is the lowest score of any industry. Only 38% feel their pay is clearly linked to their performance.

Related Article: Recognizing Workforce Experiences to Operationalize Patient Experience

There Is Opportunity to Improve Patient Experience

The discontent healthcare workers are experiencing may be trickling down to the patient experience (PX), just as employee experience affects customer experience. While consumer trust in healthcare is high, satisfaction is low, particularly when it comes to hospital experience. Just less than three-quarters (74%) of respondents report being satisfied with their hospital experience compared with the global cross-industry average of 77%.

Providing opportunities for feedback is of importance for great CX and the survey data shows this is also true for patients as well. Providers and payers could improve in this area with 61% of patients feeling that healthcare providers need to do a better job at listening to their feedback, and 69% said the same about health insurance companies.

“2023 is the year our industry makes the lives of everyone healthcare touches easier,” says Qualtrics Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adrienne Boissy. “It has to be – and we have to revolutionize our approaches. Emotions are running high no matter what industry you are in, which amplifies when things are not easy, and yet people still put their trust in us. We earn that trust when we intentionally listen across channels, use advanced analytics to understand emotion, intensity, and intent, and immediately take action on what we hear.”

Related Article: Patient Experience Management Reimagined

Dash Research’s analysis of CX in the Healthcare Industry points to healthcare consumers’ expectations today requiring providers to be more customer centric. Healthcare consumers expect to be treated as whole persons with individualized needs, not as problems to be solved, and they demand greater convenience, better access to care, and more seamless experiences. Healthcare organizations that prioritize PX understand that it signals their commitment to the patient, and also has the potential to establish the foundations for building deeper relationships that will contribute to improving care outcomes. However, sometimes this is difficult to accomplish if healthcare organizations struggle with how to improve with employee and operational issues.