For many patients, the first interaction with a healthcare provider doesn’t happen in an exam room.
Healthcare, like most of the world, has become increasingly digital-first over the past decade. Patients who once relied primarily on physician referrals or word-of-mouth recommendations start their decision-making online, often long before they ever step into a clinic.
Today, a hospital’s website is basically like a digital front door. It’s where patients research symptoms, compare providers, explore treatment options, and decide whether a health system feels trustworthy enough to handle their care. For healthcare leaders, that reality presents both an opportunity and a risk.
Trust has long been foundational to healthcare relationships. But recent research suggests that trust in healthcare institutions has become more fragile.
A 2024 survey from the Pew Research Center found that public trust in medical institutions declined significantly during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, an Edelman Trust Barometer report shows that healthcare organizations must now work harder than ever to maintain credibility with consumers.
At the same time, patients have become more active healthcare consumers. They research providers, read reviews, compare services, and evaluate options online before scheduling care.
In other words, the website experience often shapes the first impression of the healthcare brand. If information is outdated, hard to find, or confusing, patients may question the organization behind it. Or even less deep, if the website is ugly, clunky, or hard to navigate: huge red flag. On the other hand, a clear, accessible digital experience can, and absolutely does, reinforce credibility and confidence.
Healthcare decision-making starts with search, both on external search engines like Google and within hospital websites themselves.
Patients commonly go online to:
According to research from Kyruus Health, the majority of healthcare consumers use online resources when choosing providers, and health system websites remain one of the most trusted sources of information during that process.
But finding the right information isn’t always easy.
Many hospital websites were originally designed around internal organizational structures, not patient questions. Navigation menus often reflect clinical departments, administrative divisions, or service lines. These categories probably don't make sense to someone simply searching for help with knee pain or migraine treatment.
When patients can’t quickly find what they need, frustration builds. And in healthcare, frustration can easily translate into lost patients.
Through our own primary and secondary research, we've identified some common challenges for healthcare systems in the digital space.
Each of these issues adds friction that patients may not tolerate. When faced with these issues, patients will pick up the phone, drive call volume, or abandon the healthcare system entirely.
An overlooked aspect of digital healthcare experiences is how much patient insight exists within website behavior.
Every day, patients reveal their needs through:
These digital signals can tell organizations exactly what patients are trying to find and where the experience breaks down.
For example, if hundreds of users search for "back pain specialist," but struggle to find relevant results, that’s not just a website issue. It’s a signal about how patients talk about their care needs.
Though many healthcare organizations don’t analyze these behaviors or pair them with patient research. As a result, they miss opportunities to improve both the experience and the underlying patient journey.
As healthcare continues to evolve toward a more consumer-driven model, digital experiences will only become more important.
From navigation to search behavior, health systems that invest in understanding how patients actually interact with their websites can create more intuitive, patient-centered experiences.
That work starts with research.
At MDRG, we partner with healthcare organizations to uncover how patients navigate digital experiences, what information they’re truly seeking, and where friction occurs. Through patient journey research, usability testing, and digital behavior analysis, we help health systems design online experiences that build trust from the very first interaction.
Because the patient journey doesn’t start in the waiting room. It starts at the digital front door.
Edelman. (2026). Edelman trust barometer: Healthcare trust trends. https://www.edelman.com/trust
Kyruus Health. (2024). Patient access journey report. https://kyruushealth.com/insights/
Pew Research Center. (2024). Public trust in medical institutions. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/
Journal of Medical Internet Research: Hospital website usability studies. (2024). JMIR Publications. https://www.jmir.org/