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Patient & Member Experience
We improve patient experience and member experience by mapping the full journey across clinical, administrative and digital touchpoints, identifying the moments that shape trust and engagement, and designing and testing better services.
The problem behind the problem.
Patients and members experience healthcare as a single journey, but organizations deliver it in fragments. Scheduling, registration, clinical care, billing, pharmacy, portal messages and follow-up are owned by different teams with different systems. Each may perform well in isolation, while the patient or member experiences confusion, repetition and long waits between steps. Survey scores reveal dissatisfaction but rarely explain which specific moments caused it, why, or what to change first.
Patient experience is also deeply emotional. People often arrive anxious, in pain or worried about cost, and small details carry great weight: whether someone explains what will happen next, whether a bill matches what was expected, whether a message is answered. For health plans and membership organizations, member experience shapes renewal and trust. Improving experience requires understanding these moments from the patient's perspective and redesigning the service behind them, not only training staff to be friendlier.
How we deliver patient & member experience.
- 01Observe
Walk the journey with patients
We interview and shadow patients, members and caregivers, and observe front-line operations across scheduling, intake, care, billing and follow-up. Staff interviews reveal the constraints behind frustrating moments. We pay particular attention to emotional peaks and to patients who struggle most, including those with limited health literacy, language barriers or complex conditions.
- 02Signal
Connect experience to behavior
We link survey and complaint data with operational and behavioral signals, such as no-shows, portal use, care plan follow-through and plan renewal. This identifies the conversion points in the journey where experience most affects what patients and members do next, so investment targets the moments that matter rather than every low score.
- 03Design
Redesign the service
Using service design methods, we create current and future-state journey maps and service blueprints that show the front-stage experience and the backstage processes and systems behind it. We co-design improvements with staff and patients, such as clearer expectations, simplified handoffs, better communication timing and plain-language materials that respect health literacy.
- 04Test
Prototype and pilot
We prototype new experiences quickly, from revised scripts and letters to redesigned scheduling flows, and test them with patients before committing resources. Pilots in selected sites or service lines measure changes in both experience and behavior, comparing results with similar sites or service lines where possible, and capturing staff feedback on feasibility.
- 05Scale
Spread and sustain
We help organizations spread successful changes across sites, align teams around shared journey ownership and build experience dashboards that combine survey data with behavioral signals. Leaders and managers receive coaching on reinforcing new practices, so improvements outlast the initial project and keep evolving as patient needs change.
Deliverables.
What changes.
Who engages us.
We work with health systems, physician groups, specialty practices, health plans, behavioral health providers and membership-based health organizations. Clients include chief experience officers, operations leaders, quality leaders and member services executives. Typical triggers include declining experience scores, high no-show or disenrollment rates, a new facility or service line, a digital front door initiative, or a merger that requires harmonizing experiences across previously separate organizations.
Industries
Beyond the balance sheet.
A better patient experience is not only about satisfaction. When people understand their care, feel respected and can navigate the system, they are more likely to attend appointments, follow care plans and seek help early. Clearer services reduce frustration for staff, who often absorb the consequences of broken processes. Designing for people with the greatest barriers improves equity, and trusted health organizations strengthen the communities that depend on them.
Frequently asked questions.
How is patient experience different from patient satisfaction?
Patient satisfaction measures how people feel about their care, typically through surveys. Patient experience is broader: it covers everything patients encounter, including communication, access, coordination and billing, and how those encounters affect what they understand and do. We use satisfaction data as one input, but focus on the experiences and behaviors behind the scores.
What is a service blueprint?
A service blueprint is a diagram that shows the patient journey alongside the staff actions, systems and processes that support each step, including those patients never see. It reveals where handoffs break down, where delays originate and which teams must collaborate to fix a problem. Blueprints help organizations move from treating symptoms to redesigning the underlying service.
Do you work on member experience for health plans?
Yes. Member experience shares many principles with patient experience: clear communication, easy navigation and trust. For health plans, key moments often include enrollment, finding care, understanding coverage and resolving claims. We map these journeys, link them to behaviors such as renewal and use of preventive benefits, and design improvements that make plans easier to use.
How do you include patients in the design process?
We involve patients and caregivers throughout: in research interviews and observation, in co-design workshops, and in testing prototypes. We seek out people with different conditions, ages, languages and levels of health literacy, and we compensate participants fairly where appropriate. Patient advisory councils can also play an ongoing role in reviewing and refining changes.
Often paired with.
Service Design
Align people, processes, policies and technology behind the experience you promise, using service blueprints, behavioral research and tested pilots.
ExploreCustomer Journey Mapping
Map the real journey your customers, members or patients take, combining research with behavioral data to find the moments that decide outcomes.
ExploreEvidence-Based Health Communication
Health communication grounded in behavioral science and health literacy, with messages tested on real audiences before they reach patients and the public.
ExploreRelated insights.
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ReadReady to talk about patient & member experience?
Every engagement begins with a conversation. Tell us what you are facing and we will tell you, candidly, how we would approach it.
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