Case Study
30 April 2025
Welcome to Patient Experience Journal (PXJ)
Published in association with The Beryl Institute, PXJ is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal read in over 220 countries and territories, committed to disseminating rigorous knowledge, evidence, and expanding the global conversation on human experience. Articles from PXJ have been downloaded 1.6 million times since our launch in April 2014. In 2025, PXJ had an acceptance rate of 42%.
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Current Issue
Volume 13, Issue 1 (2026)View issue
Featured Articles
Research12 November 2025Using Patient Experience Data With IMPACT: A Framework for Healthcare Improvement
Background: Despite major investment in patient experience measurement, healthcare organizations often struggle to translate patient feedback into lasting improvements. Existing knowledge translation frameworks provide useful concepts, but often lack the practical detail or contextual relevance needed to improve patient experiences. Objective: To develop and present the IMPACT Framework, an evidence-informed approach designed to bridge the gap between patient experience measurement and meaningful improvement in healthcare. Methods: This framework was informed by a systematic review of patient experience measurement and analysis of barriers to feedback use. Findings from contemporary patient experience research were combined with key principles of knowledge translation, change management, innovation, and service design. Results: The IMPACT Framework consists of six iterative phases: Identify (review and analysis of patient experience data), Measure (co-design of solutions), Partner (collaborative solution development), Action (adaptive implementation), Check (evaluation), and Transform (scaling and sustainability). Each phase provides clear guidance while allowing flexibility for use across diverse healthcare contexts. Conclusion: IMPACT offers healthcare organizations a practical guide for embedding patient feedback into continuous quality improvement. By positioning patients, families, and staff as partners in improvement, the IMPACT framework reframes patient experience measurement from a compliance exercise into a driver of person-centred care.
Current Issue - Volume 13, Issue 1
Most Accessed Articles
- Editorial29 April 2026
Human Experience: A Catalyst for Global Connection
As I think about the state of play in our world today, I find we have two choices in how we react. One is with a sense of despair driven by the intentional efforts to disconnect humanity being perpetuated by some. The other, with a sense of hope, that even in the face of these forces, there are those that strive relentlessly to foster connection and opportunity. I find the path forward in holding the tension of pragmatic idealism – that we can dream, with big and noble goals, while recognizing our path forward must be grounded in practical and realistic action. That, in so many ways, reflects the power of our community. I see it in the words of our authors in this issue who push us to think bigger, understand more broadly, while laying out pathways and practices that can move us forward with intention. There is a foundational theme that emerges from our authors across PXJ. It is a commitment to something bigger, to the human experience we can and must foster and sustain, not only in healthcare, but for our world. - Commentary29 April 2026
Human Experience, The Boarding Crisis, and Moral Injury-A Call to Action
Patient experience has evolved to a broader definition of human experience, including workforce experience, and community experience. Hospital boarding is a common, pervasive problem facing healthcare, which threatens all levels of human experience, from patient experience, to workforce experience (moral injury and burnout in healthcare professionals), and community experience (delayed and denied access to care for patients, Emergency Medical Services, and even interhospital transfers. Effective system leadership across the systems and processes of healthcare, as well as stakeholder and boundary management, will be essential to deliver acceptable human experience, in addition to solutions to smooth surgical flow, improve discharge systems, create ``Bed Czars'' to improve admissions, as well as pursuing reform of healthcare finance mechanisms. Boarding represents a quintessential example of how human experience is affected by failure of effective system leadership. - Personal Narrative29 April 2026
Navigating Medical Ambiguity: A Patient's Perspective on Communication, Timing, and Risk
This essay recounts the experience of navigating re-vaccination decisions after an initial diagnosis of vaccine-associated myocarditis. A diagnosis later contested by other specialists. It is not a tale of medical error, but of diagnostic ambiguity and divergent clinical reasoning. My intent is to show how, in the absence of consensus, a patient was compelled to assume a central role in adjudicating between competing medical narratives. Recommendations are offered to make medical advice more available to patients and bridge a growing gap between medicine and the public. - Personal Narrative29 April 2026
The Quiet End of the Visit
Reassuring language is a common and often well-intentioned feature of clinical encounters, frequently used to convey clinical confidence and bring visits to a close. This personal narrative reflects on an observed outpatient encounter during a physician shadowing experience in which reassurance appeared to function not only as comfort, but also as an implicit signal of conversational closure. From the perspective of a student observer, the piece describes a moment of patient hesitation that arose after reassurance was offered, then quietly disappeared as the visit concluded. Although the encounter was clinically appropriate and efficient, the unspoken pause highlighted how uncertainty can remain unaddressed even in visits that appear successful on the surface. Drawing on observations across multiple similar encounters, the narrative examines how time pressures and established communication patterns can unintentionally limit opportunities for patients to voice lingering questions. The reflection situates this experience within broader discussions of patient experience, emphasizing that uncertainty is often invisible in standard quality metrics and patient satisfaction measures. Rather than critiquing individual clinicians or discouraging reassurance, the piece invites consideration of small, practical adjustments, such as brief pauses or explicit invitations for questions, that may allow uncertainty to surface without disrupting care. Ultimately, this narrative argues that patient experience is shaped not only by what is said and done, but also by what goes unspoken, and that acknowledging quiet uncertainty may be an important step toward more humane, patient-centered care. - Personal Narrative29 April 2026
The Voices I Never Heard: Reflections from a Public Health Advocate on Representation, Silence, and Struggle
Representation of ethnic minorities among trial participants in the UK is poor. It is true that the need for diversity and inclusive language is important in research, but the practicality of making this a reality for patients from under-represented groups has not generally been the case. As a patient advocate, I have been a participant in clinical trial reviews and advisory boards during the past three years and have engaged in a national-level conversation about patient voice and equity. I draw connections between structured frameworks for patient and public involvement (PPI) in the UK and the more informal, community-based caregiving practices in Nepal. This article examines how, across different systems, exclusion creates a similar kind of invisibility for patients and what it means to be an advocate across borders. - Research29 April 2026
Beliefs Regarding Patient Experience in the Emergency Department Among Individuals With Sickle Cell Disease
Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) frequently experience intense, unanticipated pain episodes known as vaso-occlusive events (VOEs), which often require emergency department (ED) treatment. However, they often report suboptimal experiences in the ED. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), this study aimed to elicit salient beliefs regarding SCD patient experience in the ED. Three virtual focus group sessions were conducted with individuals with SCD recruited through a Texas SCD Association and Rare Patient Voice. Nine open-ended questions were used to elicit participants' behavioral, normative, and control beliefs regarding ED use when experiencing VOEs. Qualitative analysis was performed using a thematic inductive approach. A total of 21 individuals with SCD, aged 18 to 48 years (mean± SD: 35.3± 7.2), participated in the study. The majority were female (85.7%) and Black (95.2%), with over one-half having HbSS genotype (57.1%). A total of 22 beliefs were identified as salient, including 11 behavioral, 4 normative, and 7 control beliefs. Disadvantages of using the ED, including provider bias and stereotypes, were the most cited behavioral beliefs. Family, friends, spouses/partners, and hematologists were considered individuals who would influence the decision to use the ED. Control beliefs included ED-related factors, such as the presence of SCD treatment protocols; disease-related factors, such as the inability to manage pain at home; and support-related factors, such as reliable transportation. Findings provide insights into the ED experiences of individuals with SCD and could inform future intervention strategies to enhance patient experiences and health outcomes.