Blog - Why Patient Experience Matters for Private Hospitals… And why you should pay attention to what people have to say

I caught up with the patient experience manager of one of private hospital clients recently and sensed she was frustrated. When asked why, she said some of their executives didn’t believe patient feedback was important. They’re “numbers people” she said. And they want evidence that they should be paying attention to the things patients say about experiences in their hospital.

The bottom-line matters to them apparently. And so it should!

It reminded me about another conversation with a client in the public health sector who said her ED Director didn’t care that patients felt staff were rude. We’d done some work and quantified that 9% of patients attending the ED said staff were rude and uncaring. His response? “We are here to make sick people better. How we do it doesn’t matter”.

For all of you in the patient (and caring) space, let’s put this to bed. Because somewhere right now, a patient could be leaving your hospital. And they're not okay. Not because of the clinical outcome. But because of how they felt:

No one explained what was going to happen.

Their pain wasn't taken seriously and they were brushed off.

They waited and no one came.

They tried to explain what was wrong and no one listened.

They went home not knowing what to do next.

If you’re lucky, they’ll complete a survey and tell you what went wrong. But in many instances they won't. And they won't call or write a letter to your CEO.

But they will talk.

They’ll talk to their family. To their friends. Their GP. Their colleagues and their community. And somewhere along the way, they may leave a Google review that sits there, quietly, for the next two years.

Here's the number that stays with me: One. Because it takes approximately 7 promoters or happy patients to offset the word-of-mouth damage caused by just 1 detractor or unhappy patient.

Clients I work with spend enormous energy acquiring and supporting patients, building facilities, recruiting specialists. And yet a single avoidable bad experience - a clinician who didn't explain the plan, a call bell that went unanswered, a discharge that felt rushed - can unravel more than we ever fully account for.

I care deeply about this because behind every data point is a person who trusted a hospital or health service with something profoundly personal. It could be my mum, my dad, my friends or my wife. Next time it could be you.

So it genuinely frustrates me when I hear senior leaders say: "We focus on data, not comments." Patient feedback comments ARE data.

They're leading indicators, surfacing problems 3 to 6 months before the damage shows up in your admission volumes, referral patterns or activity-based funding. By the time it's visible in the numbers, you're already behind.

Here's the part that gives me hope: The biggest driver of patient satisfaction isn't expensive infrastructure or technology. It's communication - how clinicians and staff talk to patients, explain, listen, and acknowledge. That single factor accounts for roughly 32% of the variance in patient NPS and Care scores.

In my line of work I’m told it’s hard to “measure” communication and almost impossible to quantify how people really feel. The good news is, with the right tools and systems you can measure the unquantifiable. And you can improve it.

All of this is within reach. Right now. Without a capital budget. Without expensive training. And without asking busy and stretched staff to do more.

The business case for patient experience isn't a soft argument. It's a cost-avoidance and growth argument.

Prevent one detractor. Create the equivalent of seven new advocates. That's not customer service. That's strategy. Senior leaders in healthcare: Is the patient experience genuinely driving decisions in your organisation, or are they still being outweighed by next year’s budget?