Beyond Patient Satisfaction: Optimizing the Patient Experience.

High patient satisfaction is not simply a goal; it is an important dimension of and part of financial incentives and public reporting requirements. However, patient is often siloed within health system organizational charts and considered separately from and safety initiatives, instead of being seen predominantly as a customer service initiative. Representatives from 52 health care systems across the United States completed an online survey to explore both the processes and infrastructure hospitals employ to improve patient experience, and the metrics hospitals use to assess the of patient beyond patient satisfaction survey data. When asked about performance metrics beyond satisfaction, most hospitals or systems noted other metrics of the entire patient such as the rate of complaints or grievances and direct feedback from patient and family advisors. Additionally, respondents suggested that a broader definition of quality of the patient experience may be appropriate to encompass measures of access, clinical processes, and of care and patient safety outcomes. Almost all respondents that we surveyed listed metrics from these less traditional categories, indicating that performance improvement within the patient domain in these organizations is linked with other areas of hospital performance that rely on the same metrics, such as clinical and patient safety.