Healthcare organizations have traditionally delivered care focused on the needs and convenience of the organization, not the patient. But a new paradigm, based on a more consumerist approach is sweeping healthcare as it has swept other industries. 

Patient and Family Engagement (PFE) is a critical component of any Patient Experience Strategy. That is true if healthcare providers want their organizations to grow, and it is also true if they want to adhere to policy.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) develops and implements a strategic plan for Person and Family engagement. The purpose of the strategy and plan is to guide the meaningful, intentional implementation of person and family engagement throughout CMS programs and policies. 

Person and family engagement has become an essential part of the developing national health care policy, quality measurement, reporting and improvement initiatives, and new payment models. The intention goes beyond policy to desired results: patient satisfaction.

This places traditional thinking at odds with new policy.

Evidence of a Shift in Patient Expectations

Not all hospitals have enacted this new approach, and the results are beginning to show. If we can expect similar changes in healthcare as in other industries, growth and decline will increasingly be determined by customer satisfaction.

“….companies offering an exceptional customer experience can exceed the gross margins of their competitors by more than 26 percent while they make their employees happier and simplify their end-to-end operations.” (McKinsey, “Customer experience: Creating value through transforming customer journeys”) 

Consumers who are no longer satisfied with the inefficiencies and paternalistic nature of healthcare are driving this paradigm shift. With the ability to receive other services and goods in a way that anticipates and delivers on their needs, the healthcare environment is changing rapidly. 

Patients feel a large gap between the way they receive healthcare and the way they want to receive care. A recent experience I had while a visitor at Pennsylvania Hospital made this point even clearer. On a personal level, it appeared to me that Pennsylvania Hospital has not adopted the new normal but a good enough approach to the changing demands of an educated consumer. 

A more objective study shows the current system to be out-of-touch. Our team at CX University did a brief study just to see how aligned critical reviews are with actual consumer reviews. We looked up the top hospitals in Philadelphia according to US News and World Report, then cross-referenced this list with actual Google Reviews. Here are the results. Keep in mind that these are the “best hospitals in the Philadelphia region.”

US News & World Rank Hospital Name Average Google Review
1 Hospitals of the University of Pennsylvania-Penn Presbyterian 3.5 (289 reviews)
2 Jefferson Health-Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals 3.5 (254 reviews)
3 Christiana Care Hospitals 2.6 (293 reviews)
4 Lankenau Medical Center 3.4 (199 reviews)
5 Pennsylvania Hospital 4.0 (198 reviews)
6 Jefferson Health-Abington Hospital 2.8 (327 reviews)
7 Chester County Hospital 3.2 (121 reviews)
8 Doylestown Hospital 3.5 (117 reviews)
9 Bryn Mawr Hospital 3.2 (127 reviews)
10 Virtua Voorhees Hospital 3.0 (240 reviews)

The highest user rating we found with more than 100 reviews was Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine (part of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital system). Perelman received an average ranking of 4.2 but was not listed in the Top 10 by US News. 

There are hospitals in the Philadelphia region that are worse at satisfying their customers than the “Top 10.” These ratings are average overall, but it does not make sense for one of the best hospitals in the region to post an average user rating of 2.6 out of 5. Patient feedback should always be weighed heavily when appraising the success of a healthcare provider.  

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Aspects of Patient Experience from Yesterday Are Not OK Today

Consumers who are no longer satisfied with the inefficiencies and paternalistic nature of healthcare are driving this paradigm shift. With the ability to receive other services and goods in a way that anticipates and delivers on their needs, the healthcare environment is changing rapidly. Patients feel a large gap between the way they receive healthcare and the way they want to receive care.

The forces that drive this disconnect and dissatisfaction with healthcare delivery are numerous. With the advent and infusion of new technologies, we are seeing global democratization of information, access, and significant power shifts that are creating a more demanding consumer. 

Just as we have seen the flattening of the world because of the infusion of technology, we are now seeing a new flattening in health care, turbocharged by the power of the patient. We are seeing a new playing field in which the rules of the game are being defined by patients whose power and influence are placing new pressures on healthcare organizations.

This kind of dynamic is creating a new normal. Many healthcare organizations are not keeping pace with changing patient demands and dynamics and find themselves behind in meeting patient expectations. The standard ‘review’ entities are also not keeping pace. 

To gain the benefits in clinical and financial outcomes that come with a more patient-centric paradigm there is a need to focus on redefining patient relationships and transforming the professional and organizational culture towards a model that puts the patient at the core of healthcare delivery. That starts with measurement.

With the changing dynamics in healthcare, patients are voicing new demands. Dr. Oliver Kharraz summarizes these demands in three areas (Becker’s Hospital Review, “3 patient expectations healthcare organizations need to meet to stay relevant”):

  • Immediacy. Waiting 6 months for an appointment with a physician is no longer acceptable in a world where consumers can gain access to a myriad of choices immediately.
  • Choice. Just as consumers can choose their airline seats in a moment, patients can also select their providers within insurance coverage guidelines. ZocDoc, for example, is an online booking system where patients can choose the doctor and book their appointments at the patient’s convenience and choice. When patients have a choice, they are more likely to continue with the providers they choose.
  • Personalization. Consumer-driven programs from Amazon.com and JetBlue can remember preferences and anticipate customers’ needs and wants. In healthcare, patients expect that their needs will be remembered, information stored in healthcare records will be used to satisfy them, and most importantly, communications will be personal. 

To meet these new demands, healthcare organizations must fundamentally reorganize themselves from patriarchal, non-flexible, and non-responsive models of care delivery to patient-focused ones. Doing this requires an understanding of what it means to be focused on the person receiving care. 

The consumer of healthcare services is the patient. Healthcare is borrowing lessons and business models conceived and implemented within other industries such as retail, service industries, hotels, fast food, and banking to name a few. As far removed from the bedside as these industries are they share a basic economic premise: supply and demand (Gamble, 2012). 

Consumers do have a choice in healthcare, so it is only a matter of competition. When will a provider in close proximity improve patient experience?

Many healthcare executives advocate that health care organizations need to benchmark themselves against other industries, not just against other healthcare providers that often lead the thinking in consumerism.

User reviews make this need abundantly clear. As healthcare restructures, the winners will not be the average but the few that can reorganize themselves around the patient.

Sources Cited

Gamble, Molly. “What Can Healthcare Learn From Other Industries? 5 Lessons.” Becker’s Hospital Review. Aug 31, 2012. 

Rappleye, Emily. “3 patient expectations healthcare organizations need to meet to stay relevant.” Becker’s Hospital Review. Sep 29, 2015. 

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