Facing financial headwinds, health systems prioritize patient loyalty

Patient loyalty hinges on consistent brand experiences

A good patient experience plan is just good business sense, as top-performing healthcare organizations move from reactive assessments of patient satisfaction to more sophisticated assessments guiding operational investments.

"Patient experience has shifted from merely a satisfaction metric, which is valuable, to a leading indicator of loyalty, trust and retention," Michelle Silva, consumer experience lead at NRC Health, said in an interview. "It used to be something that we simply measured, but now it's something that we manage and, increasingly, something that we anticipate."

The healthcare organizations best positioned to survive shifting healthcare landscapes are the ones that incorporate the patient experience as a business imperative, not just a clinical quality metric. When organizations design their systems to be consumer-friendly, they are making an investment in their overall growth, according to Silva.

That doesn't mean healthcare organizations need to be infallible, Silva and England agreed. Healthcare is a human-centered business, meaning it's liable to human failure and disappointment. It is natural that the patient experience will fall short every once in a while.

But, citing NRC Health data, the pair noted that lapses in the patient experience do not need to be a make-or-break moment for patient loyalty.

"Patients typically don't leave because of one clinical moment," Silva explained. "They leave because of accumulated friction, things like difficulty accessing or navigating care, communication gaps and even feeling unheard and unseen."

For example, a patient who had a hard time booking an appointment and who spent a long time in the waiting room might not leave a practice because of those experiences. But after layering in multiple poor interactions with the doctor, that patient might begin to consider finding a new provider.

England advises organizations against striving for perfection. Rather, they should strive for consistency.

"Where trust falls off the most is when image, reputation and brand are really strong, but experiences don't match that," he explained.

Digital front door adoption requires market knowledge

Healthcare organizations are increasingly investing in the technologies that comprise a digital front door. Online appointment scheduling, a patient portal, telehealth and digital bill pay have become commonplace for organizations looking to enhance the patient experience.

Although these tools can play a role in creating a consistent patient experience, Silva said they need to be deployed judiciously.

"That's where health systems go wrong -- they're not necessarily using tools practically and closely aligning them with their operational capabilities," Silva said.

For example, adopting a robust telehealth system won't help an organization navigating staff shortage problems. Without the staff to fill telehealth slots, patients will simply be left disappointed that they can't even get a virtual appointment, which Silva said could severely damage patient trust.

Instead, organizations need to conduct deep market research to assess patients' biggest pain points, understand their preferences and understand the organization's own capabilities at that time. Artificial intelligence can be a big help here, Silva noted.

But it's not just whether a patient has access to technology, England added. It's whether that technology can realistically lead the patient to care. After all, an online scheduling app can't close long travel distances or overcome transportation barriers.

He recommended that organizations analyze the health IT utilization patterns of their catchment areas with overall healthcare utilization. When there's a mismatch -- low healthcare access but high IT utilization -- that's when it's clear there are structural barriers at play.

A digital front door won't work to get patients in, and organizations should invest their resources elsewhere. Instead, England stressed the importance of strong interpersonal connections to ensure brand consistency.

"Having a great digital front door is fantastic. These are good uses of technology to get people access to care and manage scheduling," England acknowledged. "But if patients get to the appointment and it doesn't go well, your digital front door didn't do you much good. The primary focus has still got to be the interpersonal interactions."

To that end, organizations need to shift their perspective on patient experience data, according to Silva.

Patient experience data must drive organizational strategy

Acknowledging patient experience data as a driver of organizational strategy is what will set the best health systems apart, according to Silva. Improving patient experience to build patient loyalty isn't a standalone priority, she added. Rather, organizations need to integrate that mission into all organizational growth opportunities.

"Those that are seeing the strongest performance are not choosing between margin and experience -- because we're always talking about hospital margins -- but they're really integrating both," Silva said.

Healthcare organizations should consider embedding patient feedback into all operational decisions to ensure those decisions address key friction points in the patient journey, she advised. This data can help determine where expansion investments will have the best return on investment.

Ideally, executive-level attention on patient loyalty will trickle down to frontline staff, Silva said.

"This will empower their frontline teams, so the people who talk to patients one-on-one and check in on patients," she concluded. "Data can empower them with that real-time feedback, and that enables them to address issues quickly and escalate resolution before trust is lost."

Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.