The Patient Perspective: Minimizing Disruptions During Health System Mergers

With the volatility of the healthcare market in recent years, many hospitals and health systems have used mergers and acquisitions as a strategy to maintain stability and increase margins. There has been a steady increase of announced deals year over year with 53 transactions in 2022, to 65 in 2023, jumping up to 72 in 2024. This means tens (maybe even hundreds) of millions of patients across the country are impacted each year by mergers & acquisitions. How do these transactions impact their patient journey?

During these large changes, loyal patients can often be left out in the cold. They lose the familiarity they’ve grown accustomed to and experience confusion with changes to staff, location, costs, and technology - often resulting in a spike in anxiety and a drop in trust. We’ve outlined five common issues that patients experience during these mergers and acquisitions and strategies for your health system to ensure they are addressed.

1. Reduced Access to Care

"It used to take a week to get an appointment. Now, I’m waiting over a month to see a specialist."

One of the most common frustrations patients face during hospital mergers is longer wait times and difficulty accessing care. As health systems integrate, provider networks shift, electronic health records merge, and scheduling systems change. All of these factors can contribute to bottlenecks in appointment availability.

Patients may struggle to find the right provider or lose access to familiar physicians who are no longer in-network. These issues can lead to decreased patient satisfaction and, in some cases, patients giving up altogether and neglecting to schedule appointments that they need. When this happens, hospital reputations are impacted and revenue is lost from decreased appointments.

To minimize these issues, hospitals should prioritize clear and proactive communication. Do you have tools that use AI to show real-time updates on provider availability? Do your patients have easy access to schedule telehealth appointments? Technology enhancements like this can ensure that when your staff does have capacity, your patients have the tools they need to take advantage of the availability.

2. Inconsistent Patient Support

"Ever since the hospital merged, it feels like the staff is stretched too thin. The nurses are great, but they’re clearly overwhelmed, and I feel like just another number."

During a hospital merger, frontline staff bear the brunt of operational changes. As systems consolidate, workflow changes and technology integrations create confusion and add to the workload of already busy care teams. 

When nurses and support staff are overwhelmed, patients notice. They may feel rushed through appointments, struggle to get answers to their questions, or experience delays in follow-up care. These issues often translate into longer wait times, inconsistent communication, and a less personalized experience.

To protect the patient experience, hospitals should explore where technology can take the burden off their staff where possible. Can you implement an AI-driven chatbot somewhere that can answer routine questions to spare your staff some time? Can you provide education to your patients pre and post appointment to empower them to prepare for their appointments and better manage follow up care themselves where possible? These shifts can help reduce the burden on your clinical staff, leaving them more time and space to get acclimated with new technology and provide top-notch patient care.

3. Disrupted Continuity of Care

"I used to feel like my doctors really knew me. Now, with all the changes, I see a different provider every time, and I have to re-explain my medical history over and over."

Patients build trust with their providers over time, but when health systems consolidate, changes in staffing, record-keeping, and referral networks can lead to fragmented care. Suddenly, a patient who was used to seeing the same doctor for years may find themselves bouncing between unfamiliar providers, repeating their medical history at every visit.

This breakdown in continuity not only results in frustration, but can also impact patient outcomes. When providers don’t have access to a patient’s full history, critical details can easily be missed, leading to delays in treatment or duplicated tests. Additionally, a revolving door of providers can erode patient trust, making them less likely to engage in their care and make follow up appointments.

Ensuring seamless continuity of care during a hospital merger requires technology that enhances data accuracy, streamlines referrals, and improves provider collaboration. Would your system benefit from patient matching tools to prevent duplicate or mismatched records? Do you have automated referral and care coordination platforms in place to easily connect patients to the right specialists? Together, these solutions help maintain a high standard of care even as hospital systems undergo complex transitions.

4. Complex Wayfinding & Navigation

"Nobody told me that my hospital was merging until I showed up for my appointment and they sent me to a different location that I’ve never been to before.”

For patients, hospital visits can already be stressful and adding unexpected changes in location only makes things worse. Mergers often lead to shifts in facility usage with signage updates lagging behind. Without clear communication and reliable navigation tools, patients may show up at the wrong place, miss their appointments, or struggle to find their way through an unfamiliar campus.

To ease these frustrations, health systems must prioritize proactive communication and robust navigation solutions. Do you have a way to alert patients about facility changes if it will impact an upcoming appointment? Is your campus large enough to consider a wayfinding solution that helps your patients navigate from the parking garage to their exact point of care? Hospitals that invest in these solutions demonstrate a commitment to patient-centered care, even amid major operational changes.

5. Fragmented Patient Portals & Digital Tools

"I used to be able to check my test results online, but now the system has changed, and I can’t even log in. Nobody seems to know how to fix it."

Mergers often mean consolidating multiple patient portals, scheduling platforms, and digital health tools - leaving patients feeling frustrated and disconnected from their own healthcare. When systems change overnight without clear instructions or support patients may struggle to access test results, schedule appointments, or communicate with their care teams. The result? Increased confusion, missed follow-ups, and a drop in patient engagement.

To minimize disruption, hospitals must take a proactive approach to digital integration. Instead of asking patients to download 4-6 different apps, have you explored options to consolidate all patient resources into one app? Do you have a team dedicated to providing step-by-step guidance on what to do and what to expect with changes in patient-facing tools? When technology is patient-friendly, it strengthens trust and improves the overall care experience, even during times of transition.

Putting Patients First in the Merger Process

Hospital mergers bring significant, unavoidable changes, but the patient experience should never be an afterthought. By listening to your patients and implementing the right technology, hospitals can turn a potentially stressful merger into an opportunity to improve patient engagement, streamline access to care, and create a more cohesive healthcare experience.