Patients want clinicians they can connect with and trust. But right now, there aren’t many tools patients can rely on to evaluate whether a clinician is right for them. Clinician directories are outdated and incomplete. Word-of-mouth references are hard to come by, and online clinician rating systems are out of touch with what really matters to patients.¹

Patient needs are also diverse and complex. They want information that will help them pick a clinician who aligns with their clinical, cultural, and communication needs. For example, a patient may benefit from a clinician who speaks their language, understands veterans’ unique health needs, or is trained in body-positive care.

Prioritizing patient-clinician compatibility can help organizations advance their strategic goals. Matching patients with clinicians based on compatibility makes it easier for patients to find a clinician that they trust. And this ultimately helps organizations improve patient outcomes, increase patient retention, spur clinician engagement, and advance health equity.

Read on to learn six advantages of matching patients with the right clinicians up front.

Organizations often think that if demand for clinicians is high, focusing on patient-clinician compatibility is unnecessary, or even counter to addressing access concerns. However, intentionally matching patients with the right clinician expands clinician capacity, frees up new patient appointments, and increases access to care for the patients who need it.

Currently, new patient appointments, which aren’t leading to repeat visits, are taking up primary care capacity because patients are trying to find the right clinician fit. For example, a 2013 analysis of claims data and health risk assessments found that 23% of patients saw three or more primary care physicians (PCPs) across 24 months.² If those patients had been paired with a compatible physician, they may not have needed to visit multiple clinicians, which would increase the number of new-patient appointment slots for other patients.

When patients like and trust their doctor, they are less likely to leave. Panels built with loyal patients experience less attrition and have lower cost and administrative burden associated with activities needed to replace established patients with new patients.

It takes time and energy to orient new patients to a practice and a new clinician. New patient visits are longer than established patient visits because clinics request and interpret patient records, input or update insurance, and help new patients fill out additional intake information. The extra time spent on administration means additional costs with minimal reimbursement and return for provider organizations.

There are a variety of reasons patients do not return to clinicians. Although some patients may leave due to a new job or change in insurance plan, patient attrition is more likely due to incompatibility with a clinician. On the other hand, patients who feel aligned and connected to a clinician are more likely to return.

Organizations see attrition due to incompatibility

• 20% average rate of annual patient attrition³
• 80% of patient attrition due to incompatibility^4,5

Compatibility in care helps provider organizations drive results in value-based payment models. Unlike fee-for-service care, value-based care reimburses clinicians based on patient outcomes rather than the cost of individual visits and procedures.

Value-based care prioritizes preventive care and managing chronic conditions to improve health outcomes. Patients who feel compatible with their doctor and understood are more likely to have honest discussions about symptoms and conditions that they may have avoided having in the past.

When clinicians have long-term, trusting relationships with patients, patient education becomes easier, patient adherence increases, and quality improves.⁶ Setting clinicians and patients up to form sustainable and trusting relationships ensures organizations can achieve financial viability within pay-for-performance models and risk-based contracts.

In an environment where 7% of physicians turn over every year and 53% of physicians report feeling burned out,⁷ investing in clinician engagement and retention is increasingly important. In 2018, 78.7% of surveyed physicians indicated that their relationship with patients was the most satisfying thing about medical practice.⁸ Pairing clinicians with compatible patients may increase clinician retention by bolstering job satisfaction.

Clinicians have few outlets to share their diverse backgrounds and unique personalities with patients, especially when third-party patient review sites and quality grading systems can’t holistically reflect the clinician. Patient-clinician compatibility efforts may give clinicians a way to convey their perspective and approach to patients. They can also create opportunities for clinicians to learn more about patients on a deeper level.

Because compatibility improves patient satisfaction and outcomes, efforts to match patients with the right clinicians allows clinicians to realize the reason they went into medicine in the first place — to make a positive difference in patient lives.

Patient demographics matter in selecting the right clinician, and matching the demographics of your workforce to your patient population can support compatibility in care.⁹

However, giving patients the opportunity to find the right clinician involves more than just a patient’s demographics. It entails learning about their needs, including their preferences for clinic amenities, identity-centered competencies, care approaches, and bedside manner.

A better understanding of patient needs and preferences can also help shape an organization’s workforce strategy. When organizations have a holistic view of their patients, they can offer targeted training opportunities to clinicians, better allocate talent across sites, and make hiring decisions based on what patients want and need. Offering culturally competent and inclusive care is a learned skill that gives clinicians many ways to provide compatible care across diverse populations with credibility.

Clinicians are open to additional training in identity-centered care

In a 2023 Optum survey, patients and clinicians were asked about preferences and experiences with identity-centered care competencies, including body-positive care.

• 67% of patients indicated that they prefer a doctor that can provide body-positive care
• 9% of clinicians had been trained and the other 91% were open to training in body-positive care

Just as clinicians put extra effort into new patients, patients spend energy trying to find the right doctor. They may need to take time off work, make time to gather all their medical records, secure transportation, or find childcare. Compatible care can especially feel out of reach for marginalized patients who don’t always have the resources to research new clinics and afford multiple new appointments in the quest for the right clinician. If these patients have a bad experience at the first appointment, they are much more likely to go without care altogether.

When organizations invest in a better match, they can advance their health equity goals by improving the experience of marginalized patients and by promoting identity-centered care. In turn, marginalized patients who have the option to choose a clinician based on compatibility — such as having shared experiences around body size, gender, culture, sexuality, and communication style — are more likely to build trusting relationships with their doctor and return as established patients.

The opportunity to match Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) patients with PCPs¹⁰

• 29% of Black Americans do not have a PCP
• 36% of Latino Americans do not have a PCP
• 60% of Black patients and 51% of Latino patients expected to be insulted or thought they had to be careful about their appearance when going to the doctor at least some of the time¹¹

Strategies to improve patient-clinician compatibility must be efficient, convenient, and scalable. Status quo approaches, such as third-party patient review sites and payer-focused quality grading systems, don’t provide the right information patients need to find a compatible doctor.

Simply adding more information to clinician bios or adding designation labels to existing directories may just exacerbate search fatigue among patients.

Organizations should consider how new technologies can help them match patients with clinicians at scale to unlock the advantages of prioritizing compatibility for stronger patient-clinician relationships.

Optum Match intelligently matches patients with clinicians based on shared values for durable relationships. The journey to find the right clinician can be overwhelming. Optum Match makes the process simple with authentic connections and lasting results.

Learn more at https://optummatch.com/#/about-us.

Interested in bringing Optum Match to the communities you serve? Contact us at joinus@optummatch.com.