How Patient Experience Feedback Improves Communication in Emergency Care
A single patient comment can stay with a clinician for years. But the healthcare organizations making the greatest strides in patient experience aren’t focused on eliminating negative feedback. They’re focused on learning from it.
During a recent NRC Health webcast, “Yes! These Numbers Still Hurt My Feelings!”, Dr. Emily Scott, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician at Akron Children’s, shared how one negative patient comment transformed her approach to communication and ultimately improved her patient experience results over time.
Her story offers a practical roadmap for healthcare leaders looking to strengthen patient experience by turning feedback into consistent, repeatable communication behaviors.
Key Takeaways
- Patient experience improves when feedback is translated into specific communication behaviors rather than treated as a performance score.
- Emergency department communication most often breaks down during transitions, handoffs, and discharge conversations.
- Small, repeatable behaviors such as confirming understanding and inviting questions can increase trust, clarity, and confidence.
- Relationship-Centered Communication (RCC) training helped Akron Children’s train 10 facilitators and more than 1,200 staff members to build stronger patient and family connections.
- Leaders improve patient experience adoption when they meet clinicians where they are emotionally and position feedback as learning rather than judgment.
Why Patient Experience Feedback Feels Personal to Clinicians
Most clinicians entered healthcare to help people. When feedback suggests they failed to do that, the emotional impact can be profound.
For Dr. Scott, that reality became clear after receiving a negative survey comment from a family she treated in the emergency department. Clinically, everything went well. The patient received appropriate care and was safely discharged. Yet the family’s perception was very different.
The experience reinforced an important lesson for healthcare organizations: clinical excellence and patient experience are not the same thing.
“The core of it really was I was embarrassed,” said Dr. Scott. “My reputation, my boss is going to read this, other people are going to read this.”
Many clinicians interpret patient experience scores as grades rather than opportunities for improvement. When that happens, feedback often triggers defensiveness, frustration, or avoidance.
The challenge for healthcare leaders is helping providers separate personal identity from performance improvement. Patient feedback should function as operational data, not a character assessment.
How Healthcare Leaders Can Improve Patient Experience Through Actionable Feedback
Organizations that achieve sustainable patient experience improvement focus less on scores and more on behaviors.
After receiving the comment, Dr. Scott selected one survey question to improve: helping families understand what to do if their child didn’t get better after leaving the hospital.
Rather than overhauling her entire communication style, she made one targeted change.
She began returning to the room near the end of each visit to confirm understanding and answer questions.
“All I did was I went into the room after I was done to just say, ‘I want to make sure we’re on the same page,'” said Dr. Scott.
The result was measurable improvement over time.
This is one of the most important lessons for patient experience leaders.
Broad directives like “be more empathetic” are difficult to coach and sustain. Specific, observable behaviors are far more effective. Examples include:
- Returning before discharge to review next steps
- Confirming family understanding
- Summarizing care plans in plain language
- Inviting final questions
- Clarifying what symptoms should prompt follow-up care
When communication behaviors are clearly defined, they become easier to coach, measure, and replicate across teams.
Which Communication Behaviors Improve Patient Experience in the Emergency Department?
Emergency departments are uniquely vulnerable to communication breakdowns.
Families arrive under stress. Wait times can be long. Handoffs occur frequently. Clinical uncertainty is common. Even when care is excellent, confusion can undermine patient trust.
Through her patient experience journey, Dr. Scott began focusing on three simple questions during every encounter:
- Do I know what matters most to this family?
- Do they feel listened to?
- Do they understand the plan?
These goals now guide how she approaches communication with patients and families.
Another important lesson involved simplifying information delivery.
“What I realized was I was giving all of the information in one setting,” said Dr. Scott. “Now I break it up into smaller chunks.”
Rather than overwhelming families with every possible outcome at once, she focuses on what happens next. Then she revisits the plan as new information becomes available.
This staged approach reduces confusion, improves understanding, and supports a stronger patient experience throughout the emergency care journey.
How Relationship-Centered Communication Strengthens Patient Experience
One of the most significant drivers of improvement for Dr. Scott was Relationship-Centered Communication (RCC) training.
Akron Children’s Hospital trained 10 facilitators and put approximately 1,200 staff members through RCC workshops focused on rapport building, empathy, and shared planning. These programs provide practical communication skills clinicians can immediately apply at the bedside.
The training also helped drive a critical mindset shift.
“I’ve spent 20 years telling people what I thought they needed to know; the last seven years asking what they need,” said Dr. Scott.
That shift from telling to asking changes the entire patient experience.
One RCC technique she frequently shares is “small talk before big talk.” Before discussing treatment plans, diagnosis, or testing, clinicians make one or two personal connections with patients or families.
These moments may seem insignificant. They’re not.
Trust often begins before the medical conversation begins. When people feel seen as individuals, they’re more likely to engage, ask questions, and retain information. In emergency care, where emotions often run high, small moments of connection can make a meaningful difference.
How Healthcare Leaders Build a Culture of Patient Experience Improvement
Patient experience improvement requires more than reporting survey results.
Healthcare leaders play a critical role in helping clinicians engage with feedback constructively.
According to Dr. Scott, leaders should:
- Meet clinicians where they are emotionally
- Validate reactions before discussing data
- Celebrate incremental improvement
- Pair strong communicators with peers who need support
- Offer practical communication training
- Create psychologically safe environments for coaching and learning
These approaches reduce resistance and encourage lasting behavior change.
Importantly, patient experience work should never be treated as separate from clinical excellence.
“Nobody goes to work to do a bad job,” said Dr. Scott. “But when we’re told we did, man, it hurts our feelings.”
When organizations frame patient experience feedback as skill development instead of judgment, clinicians become more willing to learn, adapt, and improve. Over time, those improvements strengthen patient trust, enhance loyalty, and contribute to a more resilient workforce.
Frequently Asked Questions About Patient Experience in Emergency Care
How can emergency departments improve patient experience?
The most effective approach is improving communication consistency. Simple behaviors such as confirming understanding, setting expectations, and inviting questions help patients and families feel informed and supported.
Why does negative patient feedback affect clinicians so strongly?
Patient experience feedback often touches professional identity, reputation, and personal standards of excellence. Many providers remember a single critical comment long after positive feedback fades from memory.
What is Relationship-Centered Communication?
Relationship-Centered Communication is a communication training approach that teaches rapport building, empathy, and shared planning skills to help clinicians connect more effectively with patients and families.
How can leaders help clinicians engage with patient experience feedback?
Leaders should validate emotions, provide coaching resources, celebrate progress, and create safe learning opportunities. Feedback is most effective when it is viewed as a tool for growth rather than evaluation.
