Improving the patient experience

Insights for healthcare professionals from the KPMG 2023-24 US CEE report

Which US healthcare organizations top this year’s rankings for patient experience? What are they doing right? In this healthcare industry companion to the annual KPMG Customer Experience Excellence survey report, we take a look at how US healthcare organizations fared to find the answers.

Excellence in patient experience produces measurable advantages—increased satisfaction and loyalty, accelerated growth, improved operational efficiencies, and reduced costs. In healthcare, it’s not hyperbole to say that patient experience excellence can be a matter of life and death.

With supporting data and analysis from Press Ganey, a leading healthcare performance improvement solutions company, this report examines the key drivers behind success in patient experience excellence. It looks at strategies employed by the leaders in our survey, delves deeper into data that suggests that the most important factor may how well an organization treats its own employees, and offers eight ways to help put these insights into action.

Key healthcare performance stats at-a-glance

-4.8%

KPMG Customer Experience Excellence (CEE) scores were down for the healthcare industry as a whole. The largest drop was in empathy at 4.8 percent.

+119

Humana takes the prize for most improved player, showing the largest increase in CEE ranking, moving up 119 places from 145 to 26 in all sector rankings.

+1.5%

Employees’ perception of respect by their healthcare organization grew 1.5 percent—with gains across all roles.

26%

Twenty-six percent of employees still don’t feel that their organization consistently shows them respect.

Don’t assume technology alone will solve the problem

The values of the organization are all important areas to imbue into the experience—digital or not.

Connect the dots between employees and patients

Recognize the tight connection between employee engagement and satisfaction and the patient experience.

Segment your data

Segmenting both employees and patients can help you understand the diverse needs and preferences of each, and how these may change over time.

Listen continuously

Elevating the patient experience and employee engagement and retention requires an authentic listening strategy.

Build social capital and culture

Connection, inclusion, and relationships form the building blocks of social capital and fuel an exceptional human experience.

Harness the power of AI to accelerate speed to insight

While technology alone can’t solve the problem, it is a necessary ingredient.

Humanize the technology

Any AI implementation must be human-centered and must address key pain points, not introduce more.

Start building an AI ready culture now

Develop people with the skills and competencies to both use and manage AI models in advance of the tool’s deployment.

Dive into our thinking:

Improving the patient experience

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At KPMG, we believe healthcare providers and payors can use technology and innovation to provide higher-quality care, reduce costs, and deliver a more patient-centric experience. Our mission is to assist organizations to transform and innovate in order to effectively compete in tomorrow’s fast changing and dynamic healthcare industry. We offer a market-leading portfolio of methodologies, tools, and services to assist healthcare policy makers, payers, providers, and suppliers as they tackle challenges and transform the way healthcare is delivered around the globe. Together, we can make the difference in your organization’s future.