New NRC Health Research Reveals What Drives Patient Loyalty Beyond Access
New analysis finds that trust, confidence, and clear communication have a stronger influence on loyalty than access alone.
LINCOLN, Neb., July 30, 2026 — People know the value of time in healthcare. Whether it’s waiting weeks for an appointment or hours in an emergency department, access matters. New research from NRC Health suggests that what happens after access may matter even more.
NRC Health’s latest nSight report, The Currency of Time: Easy Access to Care Isn’t Enough to Earn Patient Loyalty, finds that confidence and trust are more strongly associated with loyalty than timeliness alone, and that loyalty falls from 98% to 58% when friction accumulates across the care journey.
The research explores the Currency of Time framework, which examines how people evaluate healthcare through two distinct lenses: time saved and time well spent. Time saved reflects how easy it is to access care. Time well spent reflects whether people feel heard, informed, confident in their care, and clear about what comes next. Organizations that excel do both.
“Healthcare organizations have invested heavily in reducing friction and improving access, and the data show meaningful progress,” said William R. England, Ph.D., Strategic Advisor, Research, at NRC Health. “But access is only part of the story. The organizations that earn loyalty are the ones that make each interaction count, helping patients feel informed, supported, and confident in their care.”
Key Insights from the Research
The analysis combines NRC Health’s nationally syndicated healthcare consumer research with patient experience feedback collected from tens of millions of patients each year across hundreds of partner organizations nationwide. Together, these data sources provide one of the most comprehensive views of how people access care, experience care, and decide where to receive it.
Among the report’s findings:
- 59% of older consumers reported no access barriers in the past year, compared with just 37% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers.
- Confidence/trust and understanding/clarity showed the strongest relationships with patient loyalty.
- Loyalty declined from 98% among patients reporting no friction to 58% when friction occurred before, during, and after care.
Beyond Efficiency: What Drives Loyalty
The report finds that timely access is often the price of admission, but not the reason patients remain loyal. When organizations simultaneously measure confidence, clarity, reassurance, and communication, confidence and understanding emerge as the strongest predictors of whether people will recommend their care experience to others.
The findings also reveal that patients are understanding when a single issue occurs; loyalty remains high when friction is limited to one stage of the experience. However, when problems accumulate before, during, and after care, confidence declines and loyalty drops sharply.
“Healthcare often measures how quickly people can access care, but patients also judge whether their time was valued once they got there,” said Jennifer Baron, CPXP, Chief Experience Officer at NRC Health. “The organizations that earn lasting loyalty are those that treat patients’ time as a precious currency and ensure every interaction is worth the investment.”
Access the Full Research and Join the LIVE Webcast
Healthcare leaders can access The Currency of Time: Easy Access to Care Isn’t Enough to Earn Patient Loyalty to explore the complete findings, methodology, and recommendations for building loyalty across the care journey.
A live national webcast on August 18 will explore the findings in greater depth and help healthcare leaders understand how to strengthen loyalty through trust, confidence, and communication across the care journey. Register today.
About NRC Health’s Data
NRC Health’s patient experience data is built on feedback from tens of millions of patients each year, representing hundreds of healthcare organizations operating in every state. Combined with NRC Health’s nationally syndicated Market Insights survey, which annually collects hundreds of thousands of responses from healthcare consumers across the United States, NRC Health provides one of the most comprehensive views of both the care people experience and the factors that influence where they choose to receive it.
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