The Beryl Institute Survey finds patient experience as an emerging priority among hospitals

In Spring 2010, The Beryl Institute surveyed more than 200 hospitals and other healthcare providers to learn where improving patient experience fell on their list of strategic priorities and what patient experience efforts they had implemented within their organizations.  The findings of the survey are reported in the research brief, Insights into the Patient Experience, just released by the Institute.

The survey revealed the perception of patient experience as a strategic priority continues to grow. While financial performance, safety, and quality remain top priorities for healthcare organizations, the survey showed that improving patient experience is the one topic that consistently appears as a top three priority across all survey respondents.  When asked to rank the priority order of strategic areas of focus from highest to lowest, quality/safety ranked number one, followed closely by financial performance and then patient experience.

While patient experience is emerging as a strategic priority, the survey data shows that many organizations have yet to engage in actions to address this issue.  In fact, just over half of the organizations indicated that they have launched a comprehensive strategy. However, more than one-third are still determining needs or in planning stages.

"The landscape around experience in healthcare is shifting dramatically in part due to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey (HCAHPS) and the pending value-based purchasing (VBP)," said Jason A. Wolf, Ph.D., executive director of The Beryl Institute.  "Healthcare organizations looking to impact the patient experience must act now, because our research shows that it takes approximately two years to achieve sustained improvement and positive results.  These efforts require a clear strategy, an internal champion and an unwavering commitment to fundamental organizational and cultural changes."

The survey also provides insight into who owns the patient experience within organizations, strategies and elements in place to address the topic, and the supporting resources leaders use to help strengthen efforts of improving the patient experience.

"Many of the solutions being tested by hospitals to address patient experience opportunities (measured primarily by HCAHPS and internal patient satisfaction scores) revolve around improving internal communications, service recovery programs, discharge phone calls, process improvement and process redesign, as well as facility renovations," said Wolf.  "These responses illustrate both the complexity of addressing the patient experience as well as the comprehensive nature that effective solutions must encompass. It also represents the challenge healthcare organizations continue to face in determining the right path to patient experience improvement."

Key Findings from The Beryl Institute Survey on Patient Experience

1. Patient experience is an emerging priority that will require time and committed resources.  
2. Patient experience leadership roles reside in numerous locations within healthcare organizations.  
3. Patient experience planning is only in its infancy.  
4. Patient experience champions are hungry for resources to help effectively drive their efforts forward.