The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has recently found many positive correlations between patient experience and hospital profitability.

The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions conducted a study to examine the potential relationship between experience and profitability. While many healthcare organizations expect positive outcomes by improving patient experience, the relationship between patient experience and financial benefits has not been as explored. This study conducted regression analysis of HCAHPS scores, and examined their association with measures such as net margin, operating margin, and Return on Assets (ROA). Some key findings from this study included:

• Hospitals with “excellent” HCAHPS ratings had a net margin of 4.7%, compared to 1.8% for hospitals with low ratings.
• “Top-box (9 or 10 out of 10) scores for patient experience correlate strongly with better financial performance.
• Investments in patient experience were correlated to increased costs, but also even higher increases in revenue.
• Patient experience scores dealing with interactions with nurses had the strongest measured effect on hospital financial outcomes.
• Medicare incentives only accounted for 7% of the association between hospital performance and patient experience.

These findings further support the theory that increasing the quality of patient experience will ultimately help augment hospital profitability as well. This association is especially true for aspects of patient experience most associated with care, such as nurse-patient interactions. Therefore, these results indicate that health systems should consider investing in tools and technologies needed to keep patients engaged with their care, and enhance their experience.

For a link to the full study, click here.