Docs Say Clinical Quality Is High, But Experience Doesn’t Meet Expectations

January 18, 2023 - Patient experience in small and midsized clinics is falling short of expectations, with about two-thirds of patients saying in a survey that they feel rushed and unheard during appointments, while half of providers say patients have become more unreasonable in the past 12 months.

The survey of 360 healthcare providers and 1,040 patients, completed by Weave in partnership with Qualtrics and obtained via email, found that breakdowns in patient experience may be due to misaligned expectations between patients and providers.

While 48 percent of provider respondents said the quality of care they provide has improved since the COVID-19 outbreak, they said patient expectations are getting greater and greater. Half of clinician respondents (51 percent) said patients have become more unreasonable over the last 12 months, and 52 percent said patient expectations have increased since the pandemic.

Consequently, patient experiences are falling short. Particularly, 62 percent of patient respondents said they feel rushed during their medical appointments or like their clinicians are not listening to them. Fifty-three percent said they experience anxiety before a medical appointment.

Providers are cognizant of these pitfalls. Although 95 percent of patients said they trust their healthcare providers, 87 percent of clinician respondents said they think their patients lie to them during appointments, which is seen as a proxy for patient trust levels. Around one in 10 (13 percent) of clinicians said they think their patients trust them less now than they did one year ago.

READ MORE: Patient Engagement Technologies Add to Streamlined Patient Experience

Healthcare organizations may see this misalignment of patient experience and expectations not just because of instability caused by the pandemic, but also because of the larger market forces of healthcare consumerism. Patients are drawing on their experiences from other service sectors, like travel or shopping on Amazon, and it’s skewing their expectations in medicine.

Patients want a digital healthcare experience, the survey administrators said, because technology can help streamline healthcare access and make healthcare more convenient. Technologies like text message patient outreach for appointment reminders, digital form reminders, and email promotions will be key for simplifying patient communications.

For more complex issues, like answering questions, collecting payments, and scheduling appointments, a phone call is the best bet, the survey showed.

Providers agree that this type of technology investment is crucial to fulfilling patient expectations, with 98 percent also indicating that technology investments could ultimately increase revenue. Even still, nearly half (46 percent) of providers said their offices haven’t updated their technology in the past two years, further exemplifying the misalignment between patient and provider experience goals.

Inflation continues to hamper patient care access

The survey also showed the impact inflation has had on the patient experience, mainly as it relates to patient access to care. Two-thirds (67 percent) of providers reported that they are already seeing patients delay care access due to inflation.

READ MORE: Three-Quarters of Patients Note Patient Experience Pros and Cons

This is on top of healthcare’s history of cost-prohibitive treatment. Forty-three percent of patients said they have had to delay care access because of cost concerns, while countless surveys have found as much previously, as well.

This cost problem is only slated to get worse, as provider organizations also under the thumb of inflation work to balance their finances. Half of providers have had to raise their prices in the past 90 days, and another 49 percent said they plan on raising their prices at some point this year.

Healthcare organizations may mitigate these impacts by leaning more heavily on their patient payment plans, with 31 percent of providers saying they already see more patients opt for payment plans.

These findings come on top of other research indicating that inflation is having an adverse impact on patient care. In August 2022, polling from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that people of color are seeing a disproportionate burden from inflation.

Particularly, people are reporting challenges affording medical care and prescription drugs, stating that they cannot access necessary medical care for current illnesses.

On top of that, poll respondents cited issues affording certain necessities like housing and food. Housing and food security are two key social determinants of health directly affecting well-being and are currently being targeted by healthcare organizations.

"These poll findings are a reminder that while everyone is impacted by today's inflation and economy, we're not all feeling the same pressures in the same ways," Alonzo Plough, vice president for Research and Evaluation and chief science officer at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, stated publicly.

"These differences are the result of policies and practices that have created fewer opportunities in some communities and we need solutions that are designed to build a more equitable future,” Plough added.