How consumers are feeling about healthcare

For the report, Monigle surveyed 25,521 U.S. consumers between November and December 2022 to determine how they felt about healthcare and their perceptions of certain healthcare brands.

According to Monigle, healthcare engagement has remained stagnant over the last few years, likely because "everyone is exhausted by the overabundance of noise in the market," along with fatigue from the pandemic.

Between 2020 and 2023, there was a decline in general interest about health and wellness-related topics among consumers. Consumers were also less likely to say they typically tried new approaches to taking care of their health or that their friends and family went to them for healthcare advice than before the pandemic. 

Consumers' distrust of healthcare providers has grown in the past few years. In 2023, 33% of respondents said that they don't always trust their healthcare provider to make the right decision for them — up from 29% in the year before.

Among different age groups, those ages 25 to 34 are the most distrustful of healthcare providers, with 42% in this age group saying they don't always trust their providers to make the right decisions for them. In comparison, individuals ages 65 and older had the most trust, with only 23% saying they didn't always trust their healthcare providers. 

The top 10 healthcare brands

According to Monigle, the 10 most trusted healthcare brands are:

1.       Emory Healthcare

2.       University of Iowa Health Care

3.       Northwestern Medicine

4.       Mayo Clinic

5.       Johns Hopkins Medicine

6.       UT Southwestern Medical Center

7.       OhioHealth

8.       Cedars-Sinai

9.       Ochsner Health

10.   UChicago Medicine

The organization also ranked the top humanizing healthcare brands based on consumer opinion and a composite score from the Humanizing Brand Experience model:

1.       Valley Health System

2.       OhioHealth

3.       University of Iowa Health Care

4.       Johns Hopkins Medicine

5.       UR Medicine

6.       Baptist Health South Florida

7.       Northwestern Medicine

8.       University of Miami Health System

9.       UT Southwestern Medical Center

10.   The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Although engagement and trust in healthcare has declined in recent years, there are still ways health systems can build trust with their patients. Having a caring staff, allowing patients to be empowered in their care choices, and having enough staff to meet patients' healthcare needs are some of the top attributes correlated with trust in an organization.

What health systems can do to improve their brand

As healthcare continues to evolve, Monigle encourages health leaders to "think across the enterprise and play the role of connector, enabler and integrator" to improve their brand and provide better experiences for patients. Here are five key takeaways from Monigle’s report:

1. Focus on consensus-building and collaboration

"The current challenges surrounding consumer engagement, self-care preference, doctor dodging and addressing the ease and access challenges that plague many organizations are better served by different teams and diverse experts working together," Monigle writes.

To ensure that collaborations are effective, Monigle recommends leaders define focus areas and priorities for their teams. Organizations should also "own the why" of their goals, since it will help them "create momentum that can make an impact across your enterprise."

2. Ensure that your brand strategy is both internally and externally grounded

Although brands are often built on the needs of consumers, "the best healthcare brands of tomorrow will be balanced — bringing equal parts consumer expectation and workforce desire," Monigle writes

To do this, leaders should clarify their brand's positioning and benefits to their workforce. Collaborating with HR can also help leaders deliver both brand and culture to their workers.

3. Use systemness to advance your organization's unique perspective and goals

"From a consumer perspective, we see the benefits of systemness making a comeback because of its significance and ability to drive behavior," Monigle writes. "… You need a clearer 'why' around systemness if you want to maximize its impact on your organization’s growth. It has to go beyond the basics to reflect what makes your brand, culture and experience special."

It's important to evaluate your brand's positioning and ensure that any decisions you make reflect the systemness you want to create for consumers. In addition, organizations should regularly measure the impact of their decisions to "ensure that [their] efforts are paying off among the people that matter."

4. Use your content more effectively

According to Monigle, "[h]ow you think about, deploy and measure the impact of your content should evolve as consumers, the industry and your organization's goals change."

Rather than using a "one-size-fits-most" approach, organizations should rethink the role of their content for both consumers and employees — and what they want to do with it. Leaders should regularly collect data on how different content is performing and start with smaller changes to "demonstrate the potential for impact."

5. Think like a chief customer officer

"Today's health, care and wellness world requires each of us to think like a chief customer officer [CCO]," Monigle writes.

“Our landscape is constantly evolving, with new technologies, regulations and models creating new challenges and opportunities for health, care and wellness every day," Monigle added. "In the role of CCO, you can help your organization to stay ahead of these changes by providing a deep understanding of people and their needs, to identify opportunities to improve nearly every facet of your enterprise." (Monigle Humanizing Brand Experience Vol. 6 report, 5/16)

Consumer navigation is a changing landscape, shaped by a confluence of factors. We’ve identified six key drivers that are shaping consumer preferences and behaviors across the industry. Read our insights to help your organization think about the present and future of consumerism.