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Patient Experience, GuideThe Importance of Patient Experience
Why patient experience is a strategic imperative: impact on clinical, financial and value outcomes.
Patient experience has become a strategic imperative in today's healthcare, moving from an approach focused exclusively on technical quality to a comprehensive vision that includes all patient interactions and perceptions throughout the care process. This shift responds to three major trends: the recognition of experience as part of clinical value, the active role of the patient in decision-making, and the direct link between experience and healthcare funding. The evidence shows that a better experience not only improves clinical outcomes — reducing complications, readmissions and errors — but also positively impacts hospitals' financial results, increasing revenue, reducing costs and minimising legal risks.
Riccardo Begelle, 2025 
14 min 
The Three Trends Making Patient Experience Central
Patient experience has moved from being a peripheral concern to becoming a strategic pillar of modern healthcare systems. Three underlying trends explain this paradigm shift.
1. From Technical Quality to Holistic Experience
Traditionally, hospitals have focused their resources on the technical quality of medical care, leaving the quality as perceived by patients in the background. Today, patient experience encompasses all touchpoints with the organisation: from a call to make an appointment to discharge instructions.
The SECA Guide for the Implementation of Value-Based Healthcare (2025) places this transition within the VBHC paradigm: care innovation should not be evaluated by its technological novelty, but by its capacity to generate real value for patients and healthcare systems. Patient experience is an evaluation criterion as rigorous as clinical effectiveness.
The same guide introduces the distinction between three levels of the patient's perspective: the biological-symptomatic level, the intimate-emotional level and the level of interaction with the healthcare system. It is at this third level — treatment received, waiting times, available information, perceived empathy — that patient experience is forged in the strict sense.
2. From Passive Patient to Decision-Maker and Co-responsible Partner
The patient is not a customer in the strict sense: they do not choose to be ill and do not always have the knowledge to make decisions autonomously. However, their role is far from passive. Like a customer, they have the decision-making capacity to choose which hospital or organisation best suits their needs.
In 2025, 69% of patients globally declare they would switch provider if communication does not meet their expectations, a figure that rises to 79% among millennials (AMPLYFI Healthcare Communications, 2025). HCAHPS results are publicly available on Medicare's Care Compare, allowing patients to compare hospitals before choosing.
SECA (2025) deepens this shift in role with a more ambitious proposal than simple 'freedom of choice': the patient as an active member and co-responsible partner of the care team. The guide documents the benefits of active patient participation: greater treatment adherence, greater satisfaction with care received, better health outcomes and greater clinical safety through the detection of errors or misunderstandings.
79% of millennial patients would switch healthcare provider
If the quality of communication does not meet their expectations. The patient's decision-making capacity is no longer a future trend: it is the present. (AMPLYFI, 2025)
3. Redistribution of Resources Based on Patient Experience
HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is mandatory for all hospitals billing Medicare in the USA. Patient experience accounts for 25% of the Total Performance Score of the Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) programme, which distributes reimbursements with incentives and penalties based on results. In 2019, 1.9 billion dollars in value-based payments were available to hospitals based on their HCAHPS scores (CMS, 2025).
SECA (2025) contextualises this redistribution within the framework of the 'Quintuple Aim', adopted by the American College of Cardiology: improving the health of the population, improving patient experience, improving professional experience, increasing equity and quality, and increasing system efficiency. Patient experience is the second objective and is directly linked to the other four.
Why is it Important to Improve Patient Experience?
""Improving patient experience is key for both patients and hospital outcomes, as demonstrated by several studies."
— Patient Experience Journal / Beryl Institute
— Patient Experience Journal / Beryl Institute
The scientific evidence is clear. Improving patient experience has a demonstrated impact across two dimensions: outcomes for the patient and outcomes for the hospital.
Impact on Patient Clinical Outcomes
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| Patients with good nursing communication have 33% fewer hospital complications and up to 56% lower readmission risk in severe cases. | Journal of Hospital Management and Health Policy, 2024–2025 |
| Shared decision-making improves adherence, satisfaction and reduces inappropriate use of procedures by up to 20%. | SECA, VBHC Guide 2025, Ch. 1.5 |
| Better experiences are linked to greater treatment adherence, especially in chronic diseases, and greater use of preventive services. | Beach MC et al., J Gen Intern Med 2006; Doyle C et al., BMJ Open 2013 |
| Heart attack patients with positive ratings respond better to treatments one year after discharge. | Fremont AM et al., J Gen Intern Med 2001 |
| Active patient participation reduces clinical errors and improves safety; the active patient can detect misunderstandings in their care. | SECA, VBHC Guide 2025, Ch. 1.7 |
"33% / 56% fewer complications / lower readmission risk with good clinical communication. (Journal of Hospital Management, 2024)
Impact on Hospital Outcomes
| Finding | Source |
|---|---|
| Better patient experience is associated with higher future revenue and lower hospital costs in the following year, through reduction of complaints, litigation and improvement in clinical efficacy. | PMC / Swiss Hospital Study, published 2024 |
| For every point drop in satisfaction scores, the probability of being named in a medical malpractice lawsuit increases by 21.7%. | Fullam F et al., Med Care 2009 |
| A focused effort to improve patient experience resulted in a 4.7% reduction in employee turnover. | Rave N et al., J Ambul Care Manage 2003 |
| Hospitals with a strong safety culture linked to patient experience simultaneously show better outcomes for patients and staff. | Press Ganey / AHA, March 2025 |
| Hospitals with lower disparity in experience between racial and ethnic groups are almost 3 times more likely to be top performers in likelihood to recommend. | Press Ganey, State of Patient Experience 2025 |
"25% of the Total Performance Score of CMS Value-Based Purchasing corresponds to patient experience (HCAHPS). Improving patient experience means improving hospital revenue.
The Patient Trust Crisis: The Most Urgent Challenge
Patient trust in the healthcare system has fallen from 70% to 40% between 2020 and 2024. The majority of patients continue to trust their physicians, but lose confidence in the system when communication is slow, processes are confusing and feedback does not generate visible changes.
SECA (2025) includes the testimony of Alfons Viñuela Juárez, coordinator of APEPOC in Catalonia: 'When I am asked what is important to me — whether being able to breathe again without pain, reducing hospitalisation time or receiving clear information about my treatment — those are the objectives that truly generate value in my health process.'
| Factors that erode trust | Factors that rebuild trust |
|---|---|
| Slow or confusing communication with the clinical team | Proactive, clear and empathetic communication in every interaction |
| Complex administrative processes with no response | Simplified, accessible and effective processes |
| Patient feedback that does not generate visible changes | Closed-loop feedback: the patient perceives that their opinion led to improvements |
| Disparities in experience by ethnicity, age or socioeconomic level | Programmes that actively reduce the experience gap between groups |
| Unplanned admissions with poor coordination (–16% in likelihood to recommend) | Reinforced communication and continuity at moments of uncertainty |
Equity in patient experience
Hospitals with lower disparity in experience between racial and ethnic groups are almost 3 times more likely to be top performers in likelihood to recommend. Equity in experience is not only ethical: it is also strategically profitable. (Press Ganey, 2025)
Summary: The Three Macro-Reasons
| # | Trend | Status in 2025–2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patient experience goes beyond treatment quality | SECA integrates it as a value evaluation criterion within the VBHC framework, as rigorous as clinical effectiveness. |
| 2 | The patient has decision-making capacity to choose a provider | 69–79% would switch provider if experience does not meet expectations. SECA expands the concept: patient as active co-responsible partner. |
| 3 | Redistribution of resources based on experience outcomes | VBP/HCAHPS links 25% of Medicare reimbursement to experience. SECA frames it within the healthcare Quintuple Aim. |
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Bibliography
1. Beach MC, Keruly J, Moore RD.: Is the quality of the patient-provider relationship associated with better adherence and health outcomes? J Gen Intern Med 2006;21(6):661-5.
2. Doyle C, Lennox L, Bell D.: A systematic review of evidence on the links between patient experience and clinical safety and effectiveness. BMJ Open 2013;3(1):e001570.
3. Fremont AM, Clearly PD et al.: Patient-centered processes of care and long-term outcomes of acute myocardial infarction. J Gen Intern Med 2001;14:800-8.
4. Fullam F, Garman AN et al.: The use of patient satisfaction surveys to predict malpractice risk. Med Care 2009;47(5):1-7.
5. Rave N, Geyer M et al.: Radical systems change: innovative strategies to improve patient satisfaction. J Ambul Care Manage 2003;26(2):159-74.
6. PMC / Swiss Hospital Study: Patient-reported experience is associated with higher future revenue and lower costs of hospitals. BMC Health Services Research, published 2024.
7. Press Ganey: State of Patient Experience 2025 — July 2025.
8. Press Ganey / AHA: Improvement in Safety Culture Linked to Better Patient and Staff Outcomes — March 2025.
9. Shields Health / Journal of Hospital Management: Patient Experience and Patient Outcomes: A Comprehensive Guide — 2025.
11. Nundy S, Cooper LA, Mate KS.: The Quintuple Aim for Health Care Improvement. JAMA. 2022;327(6):521-522.
12. SECA / Varela Rodríguez C. (ed.): Guía para la Implementación de Asistencia Sanitaria Basada en Valor. Sociedad Española de Calidad Asistencial, 2025. Ch. 1.1, 1.5, 1.7.
Why is patient experience important?
Because it simultaneously impacts clinical outcomes (33% fewer complications with good nursing communication), hospital financial results (higher revenue, lower costs, fewer lawsuits) and hospital reimbursement (HCAHPS accounts for 25% of Medicare VBP in the USA). Patient trust in the system has fallen from 70% to 40% since 2020.
What is the Quintuple Aim?
The reference framework for healthcare systems according to SECA (2025) and the American College of Cardiology. Its five objectives are: improving population health, improving patient experience, improving professional experience, increasing equity and quality, and increasing efficiency. Patient experience is the second objective and is directly linked to the other four.
What clinical impact does shared decision-making with patients have?
According to SECA (2025), shared decision-making improves adherence, satisfaction and reduces inappropriate use of procedures by up to 20%. It also improves psychosocial outcomes in chronic diseases such as diabetes or cancer and reduces clinical errors by increasing active patient participation.
What is Value-Based Purchasing and how does it affect the hospital?
CMS VBP adjusts Medicare hospital reimbursement based on quality outcomes. Patient experience (HCAHPS) accounts for 25% of the Total Performance Score. Hospitals with higher scores receive incentives; those with lower scores receive financial penalties.
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