Delivering value by focusing on patient experience

The use of patient experience as a quality metric in healthcare remains controversial. Clinicians have expressed concern that incentives focused on patient experience may lead to lower quality care. However, empirical evidence from the United States and abroad suggests that hospitals and ambulatory care providers with higher patient satisfaction scores also perform better on clinical process and outcome measures. While it may be that high-performing providers simply have more resources to devote to both patient experience and the technical aspects of care, we suspect that these providers' performance is also driven by a conscious commitment to quality. As the country shifts toward new payment models, we should encourage this type of commitment to quality. Perhaps most importantly, improving the patient experience will build trust in the healthcare system, guard against withholding of services in the face of changing provider incentives, and promote collaboration between clinicians and patients. Therefore, patient experience measures should play a critical role in how we judge high-quality, value-based care.