When Patient Experience and Employee Engagement Both Improve, Hospitals’ Ratings and Profits Climb

It’s well known that patient experience and workforce engagement are intertwined, but few providers integrate and analyze these data to understand the connection. Press Ganey researchers now show that hospitals that improve over time in distinct HCAHPS survey measures of employee engagement and patient experience (as gauged by how well doctors and nurses communicate with them) also see improvement in patients’ global ratings of their care. Further, the data reveal that there is an additive effect when organizations improve in both experience and engagement measures simultaneously, and that there is a pronounced association between improvement in overall hospital rating and financial performance: for every five-point increase in hospital rating there is a a 1% increase in profit margin.