Patient experience in healthcare: why it matters
Patient experience includes all interactions between individuals and healthcare institutions, going beyond just clinical outcomes. These interactions—from phone consultations and e-mails to in-person visits—collectively influence patients' perceptions of the quality of care.
The importance of patient experience shows in various measurable outcomes for both patients and healthcare providers.
- Better adherence to treatment: patients satisfied with the quality of their care are more likely to follow prescribed treatments and less likely to discontinue them.
- Fewer unnecessary readmissions: high satisfaction with the discharge process is linked to a lower rate of 90-day readmissions, helping to prevent unnecessary returns to the hospital. Similarly, greater satisfaction with hospital staff’s handling of personal concerns is linked to fewer emergency visits within six months of discharge.
- Increased patient retention: positive experiences foster patient loyalty and long-term engagement with healthcare providers. Additionally, satisfied patients are more likely to recommend the healthcare organisation to friends, family, and acquaintances.
- Legal and regulatory compliance: providers with higher patient satisfaction scores typically face fewer malpractice lawsuits. Furthermore, patient experience metrics are often tied to accreditation standards, which influence a healthcare provider’s regulatory standing.
Healthcare providers are increasingly using technology to improve patient experiences. For example, implementing patient experience platforms can change traditional patient interactions into smooth, patient-centric experiences. This technology-enabled approach, combined with established customer experience best practices, helps healthcare organisations improve clinical results and operational efficiency while maintaining a high level of patient satisfaction. Let's look at patient experience platforms in healthcare in more details.
Patient experience platforms explained
What is a patient experience platform? It’s a tool that brings together information from different sources, like review websites, electronic medical records, and internal hospital data. It provides real-time reports on what patients think about their care. Healthcare providers and payers can use these insights to make informed decisions that improve the patients’ experience.
Common features of healthcare experience platform include:
- Online scheduling
- Data-driven insights
- Communication channels
- Holistic customer journey visualisation
To understand how these platforms work in practice and handle the complex requirements of healthcare data management, let's look at the Adobe’s experience platform as an example.
Patient-centred care with Adobe's experience platform
Modern experience platforms play a crucial role in revolutionising healthcare delivery while maintaining the highest data privacy and security standards. For example, Adobe Experience Platform demonstrates how these systems can handle Protected Health Information (PHI) in full HIPAA compliance.
Healthcare providers using this experience platform can maintain granular control over patient data collection, storage, and usage through consent and privacy management tools. The advanced consent capabilities ensure providers adhere to patients' privacy preferences, automating workflows to manage consent revocation and data access requests. This aligns with HIPAA guidelines, builds trust, and mitigates legal risks while enabling organisations to deliver data-driven experiences without compromising patient privacy, meaning that the correct patient experience is key to satisfaction, operational efficiency, and better clinical outcomes.
Such technological foundations enable healthcare organisations to create personalised experiences while maintaining transparency and protecting sensitive information.
The integration capabilities of experience platforms allow healthcare providers to consolidate various data types—from behavioural patterns to health records—creating a comprehensive view of patient needs. This means medical institutions can take next-best actions tailored to individual patient needs. When patients get care that’s specific to their preferences and health status, they’re much more satisfied, leading to better patient retention and more referrals.
Real-time data processing and workflow automation tools help healthcare organisations significantly reduce administrative overhead and optimise resource allocation. For instance, the Adobe Experience Platform utilises Adobe Journey Optimiser (AJO) and Real-Time Customer Data Platform (RTCDP), allowing healthcare organisations to automate workflows, reduce administrative tasks, and improve how they use resources. These improvements streamline operations and reduce wait times, ultimately enhancing both patient experience and system efficiency.
Experience platforms also provide robust analytics capabilities for measuring and optimising personal journeys across various touchpoints. Through tools similar to Adobe's Customer Journey Analytics, healthcare providers can identify improvement opportunities and ensure consistent care delivery across multiple channels (NPP, field, 3rd party). This comprehensive method of managing patient experiences has been linked to improved treatment adherence, reduced readmission rates, and better overall health outcomes.
Experience platforms 2.0: smart healthcare solution
Patient experience platforms are increasingly integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform raw patient data into actionable insights, provide patients with proactive care and more.
Real-time data analytics
Experience platforms powered by AI and ML can analyse large volumes of medical data from various sources, both structured and unstructured, including electronic health records (EHRs), wearable devices, and patient feedback, to identify patterns and predict patient needs.
Natural language processing (NLP), for example, allows these platforms to automatically analyse patient feedback from different channels, such as social media, surveys, and call centre transcripts. This capability helps healthcare providers recognise emerging concerns and trends in patient satisfaction that might otherwise go unnoticed through traditional manual analysis.
Predictive analytics for proactive care
The integration of predictive analytics represents a significant leap forward in patient experience management. Real-world implementations of these capabilities are already showing promising results. For example, the implementation of the Virtual Command Center at Cleveland Clinic has enabled accurate predictions of the number of patients expected to arrive at the hospital within the next 24 hours and allowed for more effective staffing plans.
As a result, the Cleveland Clinic has received a 7% increase in daily hospital transfer admissions at the main campus over the past year, leading to faster access to needed care for patients. The predictive capabilities helped staff anticipate and prepare for patient needs before they arose, creating a more proactive care environment.
Conclusions
As healthcare continues to evolve, patient experience platforms are essential tools for modern healthcare delivery. These platforms streamline operations, improve patient satisfaction, and enable healthcare providers to deliver more proactive, personalised care. From reducing readmission rates to enhancing treatment adherence, the impact of well-implemented patient experience solutions demonstrates their crucial role in shaping the future of healthcare.
FAQs
Patient experience encompasses all patient interactions and touchpoints within the healthcare system, including their perceptions of care quality, communication with providers, and overall satisfaction. It reflects how patients feel about their healthcare journey, from scheduling appointments to follow-up care.
Patient experience is very important in healthcare. It helps improve quality, leads to better clinical outcomes, and increases patient satisfaction and loyalty to healthcare providers. By measuring patient experience, organisations can find areas that need improvement and make sure that care meets patients' needs and expectations.