From the 2025 Press Ganey Patient Experience report several factors stood out to me, but the overall theme was trust.  Insights are reported by how each factor has the ability to positively or negatively impact the care setting’s experience score. While some of the data relates specifically to hospital admissions, most of the insights could be applied to Urgent Care as well.

• Social capital – Defined as the value created through relationships based on trust and shared beliefs.  Clear communication, intent listening, courtesy and respect are several of the fundamentals that can increase the social capital of an organization. Building these principles into the culture of your team will naturally drive trust, loyalty and performance.  Organizations ranked in the top-quartile of performers were 2.4x more likely to have received high experience scores on “doctor listened carefully to you”.
• Physician alignment – Defined as the extent to which an individual feels a strong partnership and connection. Physicians saw the greatest bump in experience scores when patients reported that they “show respect for what you say”, “spend enough time with you” and “provider listens carefully to you”.
• Safety – The sense of safety can present itself to patients in several forms.  One of the basic expectations that drive the likelihood to recommend (LTR) score is cleanliness. Cleanliness equates to hygiene, infection control and quality of care for patients which will impact their sense of safety and therefore trust.
• Experience among different demographics – Patient expectations shift among different populations.  For example, nearly 90% of Gen Z and millennial patients reported choosing providers based on brand reputation and they expect support on demand and will quickly abandon any online interactions if the technology is lacking or outdated. One in four patients reported they will abandon the online appointment process if it isn’t as easy as reserving a table at a restaurant.
• Managing wait time expectations – Results on wait time indicated that clear and consistent communication to patients on wait times was vital and able to boost the LTR scores even for visits with prolonged wait times.  Feeling informed made patients far more understanding of a wait.

Managing the patient experience from the online search experience to the clinician interaction requires organizational commitment and carefully crafted and executed best practices.  To view the full report of insights, download Patient Experience 2025 today.