Satisfactory patient care is a core component of quality health care. A positive care experience has occurred when patients report that they experienced what they desired during their interactions with care providers and the system, for example, respectful communication, coordinated care, and timeliness. Positive patient experiences also are important because they are associated with other desirable outcomes, including greater patient adherence to treatment recommendations, better health outcomes, less unnecessary health care utilization, higher staff satisfaction, and better financial performance. As reported in the April 2023 issue of the journal Health Services Research, despite these acknowledged benefits many adults in the United States who visited a doctor report undesirable care experiences. Furthermore, analyses of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid data in 2022 show that only 6% (178) of 3121 hospitals received the highest score of five stars for patient experience. Moreover, this experience particularly is poor for members of minority groups with Black and Hispanic patients relative to Whites having lower scores for person-centered care (26% and 29% of measures lower, respectively) and care coordination (73% and 44% lower, respectively).
Increasingly, empathy, i.e., understanding and responsiveness to others' thoughts and emotions, is being discussed as a critical contributor to patient experience and patient-centered care. Research on this topic in health care has investigated what facilitates and hinders it, its outcomes, how to measure it, who is (un)likely to display it, and how to improve it. Investigations have produced a large field of information. Unfortunately, it has remained disjointed with little summarizing or integrative work to date, limiting clarity about predictors, outcomes, gaps, opportunities, and intervention effectiveness. A study is described in the aforementioned journal of a systematic review of research on empathy that provides an integrative summary of what is known about predictors and consequences of empathy, methods to study it, and interventions targeting it. The review indicates most studies are survey-based and cross-sectional, empathy predicts health care goals (better outcomes), and five factors predict empathy: provider demographics, characteristics, and behaviors; target characteristics; and organizational context. Analysis of interventions to improve empathy suggests that it can be increased at the individual level via education, but evidence is lacking on organizational-level interventions.