Incorporation of the emotional indicators of the patient journey into healthcare organization management.

backgroundIn recent years, attempts have been made to incorporate patients' experiences into healthcare processes, to complement clinical indicators, with what are known as patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs). While the research into PROMs is more developed, the application of PREMs faces some difficulties. The incorporation of emotional indicators into assessments of the experience is an area that remains to be explored.

objectivesThis study proposes a new technique to analyse the emotions experienced by patients during the care process, examines how these emotions influence their satisfaction and propose that if healthcare services focus more on patients' emotions, they can improve the effectiveness of the sector.

methodsThe first, qualitative stage, gathered data from patients to design a patient journey (PJ). The PJ was then reproduced as a video. In a subsequent, quantitative stage, the video was shown to experimental participants, and their emotions were measured through facial expression analysis and a questionnaire.

resultsA new technique to gather emotional data showed that the emotions patients experience do not affect their satisfaction with their clinical care or the physical aspects of the process. However, their emotions did affect their satisfaction with people and organizations.

conclusionsThe importance of the emotional component of patients' experiences was underlined. Therefore, healthcare organizations should take account of this dimension, as well as the cognitive, to increase patient satisfaction and improve their care processes. Understanding the impact of the emotions identified at the subconscious level can help improve the patient experience. A new methodology was applied that may help health professionals to collect emotional data about patients' experiences and to develop PREMs. PATIENT/PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: Patients were involved in all stages of this research. In the exploratory phase, some helped define the touchpoints of the PJ. The data from the subsequent experimental phase were collected from another group, and the emotions they experienced were identified through the analysis of their facial expressions. Based on the results of this study, a working group including patients has been established to work on improvements in the PJ.