(Just released by The Beryl Institute)

Healthcare professionals have taken major steps to understand, measure, and improve the Patient & Family Experience. But do consumers really care about this?

The Beryl Institute’s inaugural consumer study explores consumers’ viewpoint on healthcare and the patient experience and how this fits into their broader set of expectations around health and healthcare delivery. The first of its kind global research, the study engaged 2,000 respondents from five countries representing four continents sharing insights from consumers of care on the patient experience – its importance, critical factors and value.

According to the research:

• Consumers confirm patient experience extremely important to them overall
• Patient experience is personal and connected to how people view their health outcomes overall
• Consumers affirm human interactions most important to them in assessing patient experience, followed by processes and then place.
• Of greatest importance to consumers is how they are connected with as human beings with a focus on listening, communicating clearly and being treated with dignity and respect
• Consumers confirm they see experience as the integration of all they encounter in healthcare from quality and safety to service, cost and more
• People easily recall their healthcare experiences, especially those positive in nature, and the top thing they do, for both positive and negative encounters, is tell others.
• Patient Experience is significant to the healthcare decisions of consumers
• Recommendations and referrals far outweigh everything else in making health decisions and choices.

http://www.theberylinstitute.org/?page=PXCONSUMERSTUDY