KLAS Research’s Patient Experience Improvement 2021 report with payer and provider customer satisfaction ratings of patient experience (PX) measurement and improvement solutions ranks Press Ganey, Qualtrics, and NRC Health as the top three vendors. Although participating customers expressed general satisfaction with the retrospective benchmarking data captured from the more traditional Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administers as part of its public reporting on reimbursement programs, a key market driver moving forward is the recognition among customers that PX improvement efforts need more customizable capabilities that amplify the patient voice and allow them to respond to patient feedback in real time to quickly identify service recovery options. As healthcare consumerism gains greater influence, the strategic priority for customers is to develop augmented PX capabilities to not only improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, but also to help strengthen their brands and build loyalty. KLAS reported that, across vendors, the most commonly reported benefits are improved visibility into the PX and greater clarity on where to focus improvement efforts.
With CAHPS-centered and individualized approaches to measuring PX highly sought after by customers, a CAHPS-centered approach alone is not enough to satisfy customers’ needs, as patients increasingly have more choices when it comes to where they receive care. Market customers need individualized, customizable PX data that will allow them to address the concerns of specific patients in as near-real time as possible. KLAS research found that more than half of the PX improvement vendors are being used for both CAHPS-centric benchmarking and individualized insights. And although vendors that have traditionally administered CAHPS surveys also provide solutions that can provide the individualized insights that organizations seek, few customers reported using either Press Ganey or NRC Health for individualized PX surveying only. Market competition from vendors that originated outside of healthcare is emerging, with many now using their CX technology and expertise from other sectors to disrupt the healthcare market through delivering innovation and offering a new perspective on the patient journey that is more closely aligned with the consumerism in today’s healthcare market. Qualtrics, Feedtrail, and Quality Reviews offer individualized PX surveying, with Qualtrics the only vendor that also offers CAHPS benchmarking, although few customers use it for both. The two latter companies were recognized for service recovery features.
A key takeaway from the KLAS research is that there are no bad choices among the PX vendors included in the report. While different solutions offer different capabilities, respondents feel their chosen solutions drive actionable insights and do what is expected of them. Determining which solution is right for an organization will often depend on each organization’s specific PX strategy. And payer and provider organizations may need to invest in multiple vendors’ solutions to meet their needs. Measuring the PX is likely to become more personalized as this market evolves. A lot of the custom measurement occurring today is novel and unique. Moving forward, it is likely to become more standard as the healthcare industry continues to learn from other industries. KLAS also expects that cross-industry companies that truly understand experience management will continue to enter the healthcare market. Additionally, payer and provider organizations are likely to expand their experience management focus to encompass a broader variety of stakeholders, such as employee experience (EX), clinician experience, and member experience. As a result, strategies and programs will evolve to enable organizations to manage the experience of everybody they touch, as will the technologies being developed to enable this measurement.
Author Information
Andrew Broderick is a Senior Analyst contributing to Dash Research’s CX Advisory Service as well as Dash Network’s ongoing editorial coverage of Healthcare CX and Patient Experience. Based in San Francisco, Broderick has more than 20 years’ experience in technology research, analysis, and consulting, including an extensive background in digital health technologies and business practices.
