Patient experience metrics collected over millions of encounters show continuous topline improvements across all types of care settings, either meeting or surpassing those reported ahead of the pandemic.
But the gains aren’t uniform, with substantial variation between organizations, regions, patient groups, admission types, specialty and other operational factors under providers’ control, warned Qualtrics in its “State of Patient Experience 2026” report, released Thursday.
“The national trendline is encouraging, but tells an incomplete story,” the report reads. “Some organizations are improving rapidly; others are standing still.”
The experience management software vendor’s analysis, released Thursday, pulled data from 43.1 million of its over 2,500 hospitals and 490,000 medical office site customers.
It showed national patient experience scores like Likelihood to Recommend (LTR) reached new highs in ambulatory surgery (86 out of 100), medical practice (86), inpatient (70.5) and emergency department (69.5) settings through 2025. Overall ratings across each of those settings also improved from the prior year, with the exception of a slight decline (70.4 to 69.7) among inpatient facilities.
Several data points highlighted in the report paint the picture of how inconsistencies or other operational hurdles can impact patients’ reported experiences, and how providers with the best overall satisfaction scores stand out in those areas.
When comparing a planned versus an unplanned admission, for instance, hospitals in the top quartile of overall patient experience scores recorded an 8.9-point median gap between the two encounter types. At bottom-quartile hospitals, unplanned admissions were a median 18.2 points lower.
At the same time, practices that encourage consistent care delivery can make scores for unplanned visits look more like their counterparts. Here, the vendor pointed to bedside shifts, a nursing practice in which nurses going off duty update the on-duty nurse with patient care information at the bedside. A planned admission that did not have a bedside shift was tied to a 68.3 LTR, versus a 76.5 LTR during an unplanned admission that included a bedside shift.
That data point is also an example of the loyalty benefit providers can enjoy when implementing practices to address operational friction, described as a chief drag on patients’ likelihood to recommend a provider. In an inpatient setting, for instance, patients who reported no operational friction rewarded hospitals with LTR scores of 90.6, versus 60.3 when friction is present. These types of operational factors had a greater negative impact on experience scores than those related to clinical care, per Qualtrics’ data.
“The highest performing organizations double down on reliability and consistency, making exceptional experiences the standard, not the exception,” the report reads.
Another standout in the data was patients’ favorable responses to caregivers demonstrating teamwork and trust. Units in the top quartile for teamwork (where patients report “staff worked together for you”) were almost twice as likely to notch top hospital ratings, while those with high levels of trust (as reported by employees) are about 2.4 times as likely to be a top performer.
“Teamwork has emerged as the defining key driver of confidence in care and lasting loyalty,” the report reads. “Patients notice when caregivers communicate clearly, coordinate effectively, and work together toward a common goal.”
Qualtrics’ report concludes with several patient experience recommendations for organizations to target in the coming year. Among these are embracing omnichannel listening, or combining traditional metrics like survey data with other channels; reducing workforce administrative burden to maximize patient face time; and removing barriers that keep patients from making an appointment, including by reserving slots for first visits or by offering assisted scheduling.