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Anyone who’s ever interacted with the healthcare system in the United States could probably tell you a story about how hard it was to get the care they needed. (You could most likely think of a few personal examples yourself!)

Maybe it was that summer they spent hours on the phone every week trying to get vital medication covered by their insurance. Or the six months they waited anxiously to be seen by a referred specialist due to lack of appointment availability. Or that time they panicked after receiving test results, and the explanation didn’t come for another few days.

The truth is that improving patient experience is something most organizations struggle with. Even with exceptional care and clinicians, many healthcare organizations create negative experiences for their patients because there’s simply too much friction in the patient experience.

Of course, friction cannot be completely eliminated — there are certain things that are out of your control. But over the past half a decade of working with healthcare organizations to improve their patient experience, we’ve found that you have the power to improve your patient experience more than you might think.

In this article, we explain where to start when diagnosing friction and improving patient experience in healthcare.

What Is Friction in the Patient Experience?

“Friction” in your patient experience includes anything that makes receiving care (or continuing care) more challenging. These challenges can range from the obvious, like months-long wait times to see a clinician, to the more subtle, like high staff turnovers that cause patients to be assigned a new physician too frequently.

Friction could also be extended to include anything related to your patients’ compliance, such as having to travel a significant distance to fill a prescription or having no accountability for lifestyle or dietary changes related to a healthcare condition.

Bottom line? Friction represents weak spots — or, as we prefer to see them, opportunities to enhance patient experience.

The ROI of Improving Patient Experience

Improving patient experience is something that we talk about a lot in the healthcare space. So it almost seems like its importance doesn’t need to be stated again.

But especially during periods of uncertain funding, we all start to examine our budgets more closely, deciding with fresh eyes what’s worth it. It’s crucial to have a clear business case for every resource investment.

Fortunately, improving the patient experience is one area with a firm, documented return on investment for healthcare organizations. For instance, a 2024 review of the relationship between patient experience improvement and business outcomes found that:

Patients with better experiences are more likely to return to the same hospital or clinic (higher retention)
Higher patient satisfaction is associated with lower health plan disenrollment rates (lower patient turnover)
Better patient experience leads to increased word-of-mouth recommendations (census growth)
Better patient experience correlates with fewer complaints (with some evidence even suggesting a lower malpractice rate correlates with better patient experience)

Other research has shown that patient decisions influence as much as 60% of spending in healthcare — meaning that how a patient perceives their experience will likely dictate where they spend their healthcare dollars.

In short, investing in improving patient experience in hospitals or other healthcare organizations is likely to boost revenue and decrease costs.

But where do you start?

How to Diagnose Friction in Your Patient Experience

When budgets are tight, there’s less room for experimentation. You need to be nearly certain that the solutions you invest in will pay off for you.

That’s why we don’t recommend applying generic patient experience best practices to your organization and hoping the theoretical advice improves your specific situation. Instead, we recommend starting by identifying the biggest weaknesses in your patient experience. Then, you can confidently invest in highly targeted solutions for stronger ROI.

Let’s dive into how to diagnose the weak spots in your patient experience.

Collect Feedback from Patients

One of the first things we do with our clients is create dynamic feedback loops for patients. This means setting up systems to routinely collect patient feedback at different steps of care (rather than a one-time push for feedback that might quickly become outdated).

Some places to start collecting patient feedback regularly:

Set up a patient feedback survey after each stage of care (on your website, after booking an appointment, after the appointment, and a few months later). These tasks should be automated through email, SMS text, or your patient portal.
Regularly invite 1:1 patient interviews. Designate this task to someone on your team to reach out and conduct interviews with patients every three to six months.

Get Feedback from Staff

The best way to understand patient experience friction is to ask your patients. The second best is to ask your frontline staff, which includes clinicians and administrative staff who interact directly with dozens or even hundreds of patients every day.

During our proprietary Value-Mapping process, we bring your staff together and invite their open-ended thoughts on what they’ve noticed about the patient experience. These workshops are a treasure trove of underutilized insights that would typically go untapped by senior leadership.

Analyze Data and Metrics

It’s wise to balance patient feedback with hard data. Patients, like every person on earth, have inherent biases and may not always self-report accurately. This is where data comes in:

Implement digital behavior monitoring software to observe how patients are interacting with your website or patient portals. Compliant software like Fullstory or Mouseflow can reveal how patients navigate your online resources and where they get stuck.
Keep records of where patients “fall off” in their patient journey. For example, look at your number of patients who book appointments, those who show up, and those who return for follow-up care. If you see a steep drop-off at any point, you’ll know there’s friction there.

Map the Entire Patient Journey

When was the last time (if ever) you visually mapped out your patient journey? This is a key strategy we use with our clients at EnticEdge, where we create visual flowcharts of each different type of patient journey. Seeing these laid out can instantly reveal where the weak spots are.

You might discover a missing step that’s causing patient disengagement at a crucial point. For example, if patients aren’t receiving clear pre-visit instructions, many patients will arrive unprepared for their appointments, and this can cause delays and frustration for both patients and providers.

Observe the Patient Experience Firsthand

Finally, if possible, it’s valuable to have a third party walk through your patient experience to identify friction points. This is especially helpful for the finer points of friction that patients might not think to bring up or that aren’t readily apparent from the data.

For example, how easy is it to get from the parking area to your facility? How did the waiting room make patients feel? How consistent was the handover from the intake nurse to the primary care provider? These micro-experiences can add up to create a positive or negative patient experience.

Warning Signs That Your Patient Experience Needs Attention

If you’re not sure it’s worth diagnosing your patient experience weak spots, check to see if your organization is experiencing these common “warning signs” that your patient experience needs attention.

Frequent Patient Complaints

Check in with the team members who handle patient interactions (those who answer the phones, respond to patient queries or emails, or do patient intake). How often are patients voicing complaints? Anything over 10% of the patient feedback is cause for concern. Many patients will not speak up at all, so the complaints voiced are likely to be only a fraction of the true number.

Low Patient Satisfaction Scores

Low patient satisfaction scores are not always about care. Often, patients leave care feeling dissatisfied because they experience hiccups along their journey.

Confusing appointment bookings, difficulty rescheduling, unwelcoming environments, or dismissive attitudes from clinicians can create an overall feeling of not being cared for at a high level — even if your standard of care is among the best.

High No-Show or Appointment Cancellation Rates

No-shows or appointment cancellations are clear markers of friction in your patient experience, particularly between the time of booking and the time of the appointment.

It’s worth it to check your numbers here. If your no-show rates have increased by 5% or more in the past 30 days, your patient experience needs attention.

Negative Online Reviews and Reputation Issues

Are your online reviews declining? Is your word-of-mouth reputation waning or becoming muddled? These are both clear signs that your patient experience may not be good enough or that frustrations are significant enough to hamper a patient’s willingness to refer your organization to friends and family.

Lack of Patient Engagement

As we’ve written about before, patient engagement is a vital indicator of both improved patient outcomes and organizational revenues. And your patient experience directly impacts patient engagement.

So, low engagement (disinterest in their own care, failure to comply with lifestyle advice, not returning for preventive care) is a sure sign that there are weak spots in your patient experience.

Actionable Strategies for Improving Patient Experience in Healthcare

We’re big believers in investing in solutions that are custom-fit for your organization. Otherwise — and we’ve seen it! — you spend resources on solutions that you thought you “had to have” but don’t ultimately move you closer toward fulfilling your mission.

Instead, we take our clients through this approach to improving patient experience:

1. Diagnose your friction points. We do this through the methods outlined here:

Value-Mapping sessions with your team and frontline staff to identify what patterns they’re noticing across different touchpoints in the patient experience
Mapping the patient experience with patient experience architects who have deep knowledge in how to spot the gaps
Creating compliant systems to collect feedback from patients regularly, so you always have your finger on the health of your patient experience
Analyzing data (and setting up tracking systems if you don’t have them yet) in order to back up qualitative claims with hard data

2. Based on your diagnostics, take action on specific ways to improve patient satisfaction and experience. For instance, you might…

Streamline your appointment scheduling process if that's a friction point
Improve communication between visits if patients report feeling disconnected
Redesign waiting areas if the physical environment is causing stress
Implement better care coordination if handoffs between providers are creating confusion
Upgrade digital tools if your patient portal is difficult to navigate
Train staff on communication techniques if patients don't feel heard or respected

Building a Better Patient Experience Starts Here

As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, so do patient expectations. At EnticEdge, we've seen firsthand how even small improvements in reducing friction can lead to significant gains in patient retention, referrals, and ultimately, improved patient outcomes.

If you want to thrive in our competitive healthcare environment, make patient experience a strategic priority — not just in theory but by diagnosing your current experience and taking targeted action to fill in the gaps.

Ready to transform your patient experience? Start by identifying where your patients are stuck and then clearing the path to better experiences. We can help. Get in touch about working with EnticEdge today.

How to Diagnose Friction & Improve Your Patient Experience

What Is Friction in the Patient Experience?

The ROI of Improving Patient Experience