What You Should Know:
– Press Ganey, the leader in experience measurement, analytics, and advisory services for health systems and health plans, today released its extensive report, Healthcare consumer experience 2025.
– The report explores new data on how people make healthcare decisions in an era where patients are empowered consumers who expect clarity, convenience, and compassion in every interaction—digital or human. To keep pace, the industry must approach consumer experience with the same rigor and discipline applied to clinical care.
I. Safety and Social Capital: The Foundational Pillars of Trust
The report reveals that the consumer experience is a strategic discipline built on foundational elements that transcend technology: safety and culture.
- Safety as a Brand Promise: 85% of consumers factor perceived safety into their decisions. These perceptions begin online, where inconsistent listings or confusing communication erode trust before the first appointment. When patients feel safe, their “Likelihood to Recommend” (LTR) top-box scores reach 85.3, but when safety confidence declines, LTR drops dramatically to 34.6 (below the 1st percentile).
- Social Capital Multiplier: The consumer experience is only as strong as the culture supporting it. Social capital—the strength of relationships and shared purpose among teams—is the hidden framework of experience. When teams trust one another, that connection extends to patients, fueling smoother, safer, and more satisfying experiences. Organizations with strong social capital are, for example, 2.4 times more likely to lead on “doctor listened carefully”.
The Search for Care: AI and the Reviews Imperative
The healthcare journey begins long before the first visit; comparison shopping is now the norm, with patients approaching decisions like any other major purchase.
- Google is the Gateway: 72% of consumers use Google to find a provider. Nearly one in five consumers (19%) has used AI tools to search for care.
- Trusting AI: 81% feel comfortable to very comfortable using AI for provider searches. However, the most powerful trust-builders are positive reviews (52%) and credible citations from the provider’s website (46%).
- Reputation as Revenue: The substance of reviews remains central to credibility. 84% of consumers would seriously reconsider a referral if the provider is rated below 4 stars. This underscores that collecting reviews must be intentionally built into the consumer journey, as reputation is now revenue.
The Last Mile Problem: Access and Loyalty
Despite digital advancements, the actual process of booking care remains the industry’s biggest friction point, often referred to as healthcare’s “Achilles’ heel”.
- Top Frustration: Scheduling appointments is the #1 frustration and barrier to receiving care for more than one-third of consumers.
- Digital Expectations: Half of consumers book appointments online, but only 26% rate the experience as “excellent”. This misalignment is driving churn: difficulty scheduling appointments is a top reason (14%) why patients leave their primary care provider.
- Loyalty and Humanity: Loyalty is earned with every interaction. The top drivers prompting a patient to recommend a provider are non-clinical and human-centered: quality of customer service (50%), appointment availability (49%), and communication (45%). This reaffirms that technology can accelerate access, but connection sustains trust.
