How compassion, culture, and connection will drive healthcare’s future

I recently celebrated my 28-year anniversary at Press Ganey—a company I joined when I was close to 28 myself. Half of my life has been dedicated to understanding how we measure, understand, and elevate healthcare. And during that time, I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most talented healthcare leaders and caregivers across the country—people deeply committed to doing what’s right for patients, teams, and communities.

When I was starting out in the late ’90s, the healthcare industry was just beginning to think about patient satisfaction as something worth paying attention to—not as a clinical metric, but as a courtesy. Most leaders believed care was generally good, even if they had no formal way to prove it. In that environment, hospital leaders were primarily focused on preventing patient complaints to minimize the risk of malpractice claims. There was also growing interest in attracting patients by offering better service—often centered around delivering “wow” experiences: beautiful facilities, friendly staff, good food, live music in lobbies, curated artwork, and easy parking. While clinical teams weren’t opposed to these efforts, they largely viewed them as something peripheral to the “real” work of care.

It took the work of thousands of healthcare professionals—and a few transformative events—to start shifting that mindset.

Patient experience: From nice-to-have to quality imperative

The 2000 publication of To Err Is Human was a turning point. It sparked a national reckoning with the realities of medical error and patient safety. Among other revelations, the report highlighted systemic flaws in healthcare delivery. We could no longer assume that good intentions guaranteed good care.

Then came the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS)—the first national, publicly reported patient experience survey. Suddenly, providing positive experiences wasn’t something organizations could simply claim. It was something they had to prove. And it became clear that the patient experience wasn’t about customer service. It was—and still is—an essential dimension of healthcare quality, tightly correlated with clinical outcomes, safety, and workforce engagement.

2020: A hard reset for healthcare

For a time, it felt like we were making steady progress. We moved from concierge service to nuts-and-bolts work: meaningful, measurable improvements across communication, respect, empathy, and teamwork. Better clinical, experience, and safety outcomes followed. In the last decade, we saw the rise of healthcare consumerism, too—the need to reimagine the end-to-end journey through our patients’ eyes. We realized the value of listening deeply, personalizing care, and meeting patients where they are.

Then COVID struck.

The pandemic exposed deep vulnerabilities across healthcare. Overwhelmed systems. Rising burnout. Fractured trust. And widening inequities. The profound emotional and psychological toll on caregivers was impossible to ignore, and operational cracks splintered into full fractures under the weight of constant crisis.

But we also learned a powerful lesson about our industry. When it matters most, healthcare can adapt—even adapt to unimaginable challenges more nimbly than previously thought. We could change practice standards if we truly listened to staff and patients.

Coming out of the pandemic, many organizations have struggled to reinstate the basics: listening, kindness, trust. Staffing shortages, rising patient expectations, and an erosion of trust in institutions have all made the work harder—but more urgent.

Getting back to basics of culture, compassion, and connection

Compassion and connection can’t be put on autopilot. They must be built—and rebuilt—deliberately, every day, through every interaction and every decision.

The basics still matter. Respect, communication, empathy, and teamwork will always undergird great care, experiences, and outcomes. But teaching and reinforcing these fundamentals must be an ongoing effort to keep them front and center and woven into daily practice.

We can't assume people instinctively know how to deliver compassionate, connected care. As baby boomers retire, turnover fuels ongoing instability, and a new generation with different expectations enters the workforce, we have to deliberately invest in culture, just as we invest in clinical skills and technology. 

At the same time, there’s a growing imperative to address the inequities that permeate healthcare. Race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, location, even medical condition—these factors and more shape patients’ experiences and influence outcomes.

There’s an even greater divide. Those with resources can navigate and personalize their care; those without are often left struggling to access the system. And when they struggle with access, trust also wanes. True improvement means reliably delivering on what matters most while reducing friction and tailoring care to individual needs. It's about ensuring that everyone, regardless of their background, feels heard, respected, and cared for—not just as a patient, but as a human.

Technology’s role in accelerating change and deepening connections

The pace of technological advancement has accelerated over the past three decades. Electronic health records became the norm. Telehealth moved from fringe to the front lines. Advanced analytics and predictive modeling have transformed raw data into a strategic asset powering smarter decisions, anticipating risks before they escalate, and driving measurable improvements in outcomes, safety, and operations. 

Now, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are ushering in a new era—helping detect disease earlier, personalize care, streamline operations, and meet rising patient expectations for convenience and connection.

But even as technology transforms what’s possible, success still hinges on something profoundly human: trust. Patients want to feel seen, heard and cared about. Care teams need tools that amplify their expertise—tools to enhance, not replace, their ability to deliver compassionate, clinically excellent experiences.

Innovation must never come at the cost of human connection. Rather, it should deepen it. It should strengthen the relationships, communication, and trust that remain at the heart of healthcare.

Trust as the catalyst for healthcare transformation

I’ve seen tremendous progress in how we measure and understand experience, safety, and outcomes. I’ve seen innovations reshape how care is delivered. And I’ve seen our healthcare workforce show up again and again and again in the face of extraordinary challenges.

As we look ahead, building trust will continue to be a critical priority. Trust is the cornerstone of effective healthcare, underpinning every interaction, decision, and outcome. For patients, trust helps foster engagement, adherence to treatment plans, and open communication. For healthcare professionals, it cultivates a supportive environment where collaboration thrives, and morale is bolstered. By prioritizing trust, we lay the foundation for a healthcare system where every individual feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute to optimal experiences.

But that level of improvement isn’t about chasing the next big thing. It’s about staying focused on what matters most—and leading with excellence, empathy, and intentionality every single day. So that, when our industry stands at another crossroads, we will have trust, culture, and human connection to guide us forward.