Patient experience is no longer a luxury.
A 2022 study on patient sentiment found that 69% of patient respondents say they would switch providers for more convenient and patient-focused services, despite many being happy with their current provider. And 61% of patient respondents said they would prefer it if their healthcare operated more like a consumer services like Uber or Amazon.
In an increasingly consumerized world where patients are used to a higher level of customer experience from the services they consume, healthcare organizations can’t afford to ignore their patient experience anymore. But despite the evidence, many hospital systems and provider organizations still hesitate to make meaningful investments in PX.
This resistance isn’t born from ignorance or apathy; more often it comes from tight budgets, overwhelming operational demands, and a lack of confidence in experiential metrics. However, that hesitation is costing organizations—not just in patient satisfaction, but in financial performance, staff morale, and competitive position.
If you’re struggling to convince your organization of the value of PX investment, or simply understand that you can no longer afford to ignore it, here are a few of the main arguments against investing in patient experience—and why your financial and strategic future requires you to do it anyway.
Why Patient Experience “isn’t worth it.”
Healthcare organizations exist to serve their patients to the best of their ability. But they often have to do it with thin budgets and a smaller staff than they need. Because of this, hospital administrators are always on the lookout for ways to get the most value for the least financial investment. When the choice is between immediately necessary clinical investments or patient experience improvements with a more long-term return, it often seems like putting PX on the back burner is the safest choice.
Here are some of the most familiar objections to PX investment:
“It’s too expensive”: One of the simplest and most widespread excuses for not investing in patient experience is the cost. Whether it’s infrastructure upgrades, staff training, or adopting digital front-door solutions, leadership often views patient experience as a non-essential expenditure. And even for those organizations that understand the importance of optimizing patient experience, the cost can be difficult to justify. With hospital budgets constantly tightening and expensive administrative burden increasing, patient experience usually ends up at the bottom of the priorities list.
“There’s no proven ROI”: Most responsible organizations won’t implement a new initiative if they can’t measure its success. And when it comes to patient experience, many argue that it’s too subjective or nebulous to measure. Unlike clinical metrics, which can be tied to things like occupancy and reimbursement rates, experience improvements are much more intangible. As a result, organizations are more likely to prioritize initiatives with clearer, faster financial returns.
“We’re already meeting our quality metrics”: Many organizations equate meeting regulatory benchmarks (such as HCAHPS scores or CMS star ratings) with excelling at patient experience. And while a 3-star CMS rating is enough to avoid penalties, it’s not enough to stand out as a provider of quality care. But because it’s “passible,” many hospital systems take this as a sign that things are “good enough.” If our scores are passable, why invest any further?
“We’re too busy with clinical demands”: Healthcare systems are under immense strain, from staffing shortages to regulatory pressure and more. Leaders and front-line staff often say they simply don’t have the time or bandwidth to prioritize experience. Doctors and nurses are being asked to do more with less, and see more patients in less time to keep up with demand. Often, improving patient experience requires clinical staff to learn and engage in new processes during their day-to-day interactions with patients, which will inevitably slow down productivity in the short term.
Then why should you invest in patient experience?
On paper, all of these arguments make a kind of sense. But cost avoidance today leads to revenue leakage tomorrow. Avoiding investment in patient experience may feel fiscally prudent, but patients who have negative experiences are less likely to return, less likely to recommend, and more likely to seek care from emerging competitors like retail clinics or digital-first providers. In a value-based care landscape, patient loyalty is the currency of sustainability.
As healthcare becomes increasingly consumer-driven, experience is emerging as a key competitive advantage. Systems that invest in seamless, compassionate, and responsive care build stronger brands and capture greater market share. Simply meeting quality metrics isn’t enough when non-traditional players are reshaping expectations.
Improving patient experience doesn’t just benefit patients; it lifts the workforce as well. When the working environment is more respectful, communicative, and efficient, staff report greater job satisfaction and reduced burnout. That translates to better retention, smoother operations, and fewer costly staffing disruptions.
So, what is the ROI of patient experience?
If the benefits of investing in PX outweigh the potential downsides and inconveniences, then what are those benefits? How does PX investment positively impact your organization—and your bottom line?
Patient experience directly contributes to the financial and organizational health of your business in several concrete ways:
- Patient loyalty and advocacy: Loyal patients return for future services, organically promote the health system through word-of-mouth, and contribute to a more stable revenue stream.
- Clinical quality and safety: Engaged patients ask questions, follow care instructions, and recognize symptoms earlier. This reduces readmissions and preventable adverse events. What’s more, studies show that effective and caring communication between staff and patients can reduce malpractice claims.
- Operational efficiency: Tools like digital scheduling, telehealth platforms, and clear communication protocols reduce no-shows and administrative overhead.
- Workforce engagement: When staff feel supported and patients are less adversarial, morale improves. Burnout drops. Front-line teams in high-experience cultures feel more connected to their patients and to the organization’s mission. In a labor-constrained environment, that’s a competitive edge.
How do you make the business case for PX?
Knowing the value of patient experience is only half the battle. How do you convince the decision makers in a large-scale healthcare organization to buy in?
In our 45 years of experience helping large complex organizations drive change, we’ve found that the biggest barrier to collective buy-in is poor communication. This is why so many organizations have difficulty implementing new systems and processes. In an environment of wordy corporate slide decks and siloed business units, it’s nearly impossible to convey the value of driving a new change to the necessary stakeholders. And without a compelling vision of the future—and the return on investment—it’s much easier to maintain business as usual.
But using clear, visual communications tools, you can convey a compelling vision that your leaders won’t be able to ignore. And through the power of iterative design, you can build and implement a PX improvement process so effective, it will make it impossible for your leaders’ to not invest.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Tie experience to hard metrics: To win internal buy-in, connect patient experience to financial KPIs. Quantify the cost of patient attrition. Calculate the impact of reduced legal risk. Show how improved experience reduces staff turnover and absenteeism.
- Start small and show impact: Pilot targeted initiatives, such as improving discharge communication or implementing post-visit follow-up calls. Measure their effects on readmissions, satisfaction scores, and scheduling retention. Use these wins to build momentum.
- Benchmark aggressively: Compare your system’s experience metrics against local and national competitors. If your scores are in the bottom quartile, you’re already losing business. You just haven’t felt it yet.
- Involve the CFO from day one: Frame patient experience not as a moral imperative, but as a financial strategy. Bring finance leaders into the conversation early to co-develop the ROI model and track impact.
In the modern healthcare landscape, patient experience isn’t a soft concept or a “nice to have.” It’s a strategic pillar, a differentiator, and a driver of clinical and financial performance.
Organizations that continue to see patient experience investment as optional will find themselves increasingly outpaced by more agile, patient-centric competitors. But those that embrace it, and invest with intention and strategy, will unlock new growth, deeper loyalty, and better outcomes for all.
If you’re ready to outpace your competitors and set a brand new standard for patient experience, we’d love to chat. Email our principal Steve Frank directly at [email protected]. We’re ready to get you moving.