Hanza Asumah, MD, MBA, MPH
You’re a great doctor. Excellent diagnostician. Strong surgical skills. Stellar outcomes.
And you’re losing patients to someone less skilled but more convenient.
Welcome to the experience economy.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Let me tell you something that will offend half the clinicians reading this: patients can’t evaluate your clinical quality.
They don’t know if your diagnostic accuracy is 85% or 95%. They can’t assess whether your surgical technique is excellent or merely adequate. They can’t meaningfully compare your clinical outcomes to your competitors.
What they CAN evaluate:
- Was it easy to book an appointment?
- Did you make them wait an hour past their scheduled time?
- Was your staff friendly or dismissive?
- Could they understand their bill?
- Did you respond to their messages promptly?
Experience. Convenience. Communication. Respect.
And increasingly, patients are choosing providers based on these factors—not clinical credentials.
The Data Doesn’t Lie
According to Accenture’s 2024 healthcare consumer survey, 70% of patients say digital experience affects their provider choice. Not clinical reputation. Not hospital affiliation. Not years of experience.
Digital. Experience.
Here’s another stat that should wake up every practice owner: a one-star increase in your online rating correlates with a 6% increase in new patient volume.
Six percent.
For a practice generating $2 million in annual revenue, that’s $120,000—just from reputation management. Not from being a better clinician. From being more responsive, more convenient, more pleasant to interact with.
The Consumer Mindset Revolution
Twenty years ago, finding a doctor was transactional. You called the number your insurance company gave you. You took whatever appointment was available in three weeks. You showed up and waited. Choice was limited.
Today, patients shop. They compare. They read reviews. They expect the same convenience they get from Uber, Amazon, and their banking app.
If they can’t book online, they’ll find someone who offers it. If you don’t respond to messages within 24 hours, they’ll move on. If your office feels outdated or your staff seems indifferent, they’ll leave a one-star review and tell their friends.
You’re not just competing with other doctors anymore. You’re competing with every other service experience your patients have.
What the Digital Front Door Actually Means
Let’s get specific about what modern patients expect:
Online Scheduling: This is table stakes. If I have to call your office, sit on hold, and navigate phone tree options just to book an appointment, I’m probably going somewhere else. One Medical, Carbon Health, Tia—they let you book, reschedule, and cancel from your phone in 30 seconds. That’s the new standard.
Instant Communication: Not every question requires a nurse callback. “Do I need to fast before my appointment?” “What’s your cancellation policy?” “Are you in-network with my insurance?” An AI chatbot can answer these instantly, saving staff time and satisfying patient expectations for immediate responses.
Price Transparency: Healthcare has been a pricing black box for too long. Patients want to know costs upfront. Practices that publish self-pay rates, provide estimate tools, and offer transparent payment plans build trust. Trust drives loyalty.
Wait-Time Updates: If you’re running behind, tell patients. Send a text. Let them wait in their car or grab coffee. This is basic respect for their time—and most practices don’t do it.
These aren’t expensive infrastructure investments. These are mostly software tools costing a few hundred dollars monthly. But the ROI is enormous because you’re meeting baseline expectations that most competitors still aren’t meeting.
Lifetime Value vs. Transaction Value
Here’s where experience becomes an economic imperative:
Most practices think transactionally: “We did a procedure, we generated $X in revenue, on to the next patient.”
Smart practices think in lifetime value: “This patient will be with us for 5 years, will refer 2-3 friends, and will generate $15,000 in total revenue. How much should we invest in keeping them happy?”
That’s a completely different calculation.
A patient who loves your practice becomes:
- A recurring revenue source for years
- A referral engine bringing new patients organically
- A positive reviewer building your online reputation
- Someone willing to pay out-of-pocket for additional services
That patient is worth 10x more than a one-time transaction.
Cleveland Clinic understood this. They completely overhauled their patient experience strategy—redesigned facilities, retrained staff on communication, invested heavily in digital tools. Patient satisfaction scores increased. Referrals increased. Their brand value increased.
One Medical built a $4 billion business (acquired by Amazon) entirely on experience differentiation. Concierge-style service, same-day appointments, beautiful offices, responsive digital tools. They weren’t necessarily better clinicians. They were dramatically better at experience.
The Competitive Wedge
Here’s the harsh reality: clinical excellence is becoming commoditized.
There are thousands of well-trained doctors, dentists, and specialists. Most are competent. Many are excellent. The clinical quality floor has risen dramatically.
So if everyone’s clinical quality is roughly equivalent, what differentiates you?
Experience. Convenience. Brand. Trust.
These are the new competitive moats. And they’re built through:
- Seamless digital interactions
- Responsive communication
- Respect for patients’ time
- Beautiful, welcoming physical spaces
- Staff trained in hospitality, not just technical skills
The Bottom Line
You can be the most clinically excellent provider in your market. But if your experience is mediocre—if it’s hard to book with you, hard to reach you, hard to navigate your practice—you’ll lose patients to someone who’s just a little more convenient.
Experience isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s not a luxury. It’s the new table stakes for practice profitability.
The practices winning today aren’t necessarily the ones with the best clinical outcomes. They’re the ones that make patients feel valued, respected, and cared for from the first website click to the final billing statement.
Because patients remember how you made them feel long after they forget your clinical credentials.
Dr. Hamza Asumah 
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