Patient engagement experts have long advocated that hospitals and health systems pay more attention to the consumer experience.

Convoluted registration, poor wayfinding, intimidating clinical spaces, confusing bills and hidden charges all prevent new patients from becoming repeat patients, much less brand advocates. But momentum is shifting toward focusing on the care delivery experience.

Hospital and health system execs discussed their efforts at length this month in Minneapolis at Modern Healthcare‘s Consumerism Symposium, Alex Kacik reported.

“We have to get away from brick and mortar,” said Dr. Jeffrey Le Benger, CEO of New Jersey’s Summit Health Management. “It’s going to be the network that controls the system, and the physician will have the control of that network.”

“We are really bad at making it easy for people,” agreed Adventist Health System CEO Terry Shaw. “Waiting three months to see a doctor is unacceptable.”

Newly-developed metrics like “net promoter score,” which measures healthcare consumer loyalty, offer provider organizations better opportunities to monitor patient engagement and tailor the care delivery experience.

Learn more here, from Modern Healthcare.