Patients trust independent practices more than corporate healthcare chains, survey found

Independent doctors looking to stay alive—as major health systems snap up their brethren—should capitalize on patient trust and leverage technology to remain competitive, according to a new survey.

Advisory company Software Advice found that while patients value the personal experience and higher quality of care offered at independent practices, they will seek care elsewhere for convenience, speed, and lower cost.

“Patients really appreciate the speed of corporate healthcare,” Lisa Morris, a Software Advice associate principal healthcare analyst, told Healthcare Brew. “But when it comes to conditions that might be more difficult to diagnose or treatment for chronic conditions—things where they might need a little bit more from their doctors—that’s when the relationships with the independent providers becomes a little bit more important to them.”

Survey says

Over half of 1,000 patients who received care within the last two years had no preference between a corporate or independent practice, but for those who did, the reported benefits of an independent practice were more substantive, according to the survey from July.

Almost 80% of respondents who preferred an independent practice said they had a more personal relationship with their provider, and 60% of patients who saw an independent provider said they were “extremely satisfied” with their last medical exam. Over 60% of patients surveyed said their independent primary care provider offered high-quality care, compared with 26% who said the same about walk-in clinics, the survey found.

Patients who preferred corporate healthcare providers including urgent care practices and walk-in clinics at pharmacies, like CVS MinuteClinic, noted the convenience and speed of these services. About two-thirds said that they could schedule appointments faster, and over 40% said the exams were quicker than at an independent practice, per the survey.

“[Faster healthcare] is generally expected from large, corporate healthcare organizations with broader infrastructures, more advanced technology on hand, and more employees,” according to the survey.

Competitive edge

One of the ways that independent practices can compete is by providing telehealth options, Morris said. While telehealth use increased greatly during the first part of the Covid-19 pandemic, it then declined by over 30% across all primary care specialties between 2020 and 2021, according to a March 2023 report from nonprofit Fair Health.

Other Software Advice recommendations in the survey include implementing automated systems to help with appointment scheduling and patient check-in or investing in a patient portal such as MyChart, which allows the patient and the provider team to message directly.

“We found that [independent practices] gain an edge if you’re able to convince patients that you can provide the same speed of service that corporate practices can provide,” Morris said.