The trend: Nearly half (49%) of healthcare leaders say patient experience is their organization’s top strategic priority through 2027. by a new report from Sage Growth Partners. Sage surveyed 101 senior health system and hospital executives about AI during the second quarter.
- For the first time since Sage started tracking this in 2020, healthcare leaders are prioritizing improving the patient experience over staff recruitment and retention or patient safety.
- Healthcare leaders’ focus on improving the patient experience has continued to grow: 36% called it a priority in 2023, up from 25% in 2022 and just 14% in 2020.
Why it’s important: Healthcare leaders are leveraging digital health technology and virtual care solutions to meet patient goals, but must also manage returns on investment.
- 83% of C-suite executives agree that underlying digital tools will be important in improving the overall patient experience.
- Specifically, telehealth (50%) and remote patient monitoring (47%) will be the top digital initiatives over the next two years.
- 49% of healthcare leaders say AI will be important in helping them improve the patient experience. 81% say AI will play a key role in remote patient monitoring, and 71% agree AI will help expand virtual care.
Generating a return on investments in virtual care has been a challenge. More than half of healthcare executives reported at least some ROI gains across a range of services, including remote monitoring, virtual care visits and hospital care at home. The return on investment varied depending on the service offered, but only one – virtual emergency triage – was equal or better.
Implications for health care: Healthcare leaders are prioritizing the patient experience as digital and virtual tools now offer ways to improve it, including simplifying planning, communication and navigation of patient care.
They are adopt AI business solutions at a rate more than twice that of the rest of the U.S. economy, in part because it allows them to move more quickly to achieve their goals of improving the patient experience. For example, AI can transform patient monitoring data into personalized care plans, adherence prompts, and timely interventions. Although the ROI on virtual care investments remains uneven, health systems that delay digital modernization risk losing ground to competitors that offer more engaging, data-driven patient experiences.