Patient experience

The patient experience describes an individual's experience of how healthcare treats them. Increasing focus on patient experience is part of a move towards patient-centered care. It is often operationalised through metrics, a trend related to consumerism and New Managerialism.

Patient experience has become a key Quality outcome for healthcare; measuring it is seen to support improvement in healthcare quality, governance, public accountability and, especially in the English NHS, patient choice. Measures of patient experience arose from work in the 1980s and is now there use is now widescale. However, their effectiveness has been questioned and clinicians and managers may disagree about their use.

Patient experience is akin to patient satisfaction.