For hospitals and health systems, patient satisfaction is likely to become an increasingly important source of competitive advantage. Yet many providers cannot measure the patient experience comprehensively, an important first step in improving it.

Most health systems currently use a survey developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)—the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS)—to gauge how inpatients perceive their hospital stay as their basis for understanding patient satisfaction. While HCAHPS does provide important insights into the patient experience, it does not assess all of the important aspects of that experience. Furthermore, it was not designed to provide the level of detail needed for hospitals to link patient satisfaction with business performance.
Health systems that want to use patient satisfaction as a way to improve business performance need additional feedback and data to identify the factors that matter most to the patients they serve. Armed with the combined information, the health systems can then determine which investments in improving the patient experience can best help them meet their business objectives.
In this article, we describe a comprehensive approach health systems can use to better understand the patient experience and thereby improve patient satisfaction. This approach is based on the experience of companies in other industries that were able to markedly improve customer satisfaction levels.