In short
- The patient journey is the patient’s story, told from their point of view, moment by moment - not a diagram of the clinic’s internal processes.
- You need a large sheet of paper, sticky notes, three hours and the people who talk to patients every day.
- The useful output isn’t the drawing itself but three decisions: what we fix, who owns it, by when.
As a manager or doctor, you know the clinic from the inside: bookings, treatment rooms, shifts, supplies, invoices. Patients know it from the outside: a search on their phone, an unanswered message, a smile at reception, a treatment plan that’s hard to follow. The patient journey is the tool that puts the two perspectives face to face.
Why the journey rather than each moment separately? Because in an analysis published in Harvard Business Review (Rawson, Duncan & Jones, 2013), performance across the whole journey was 30–40% more strongly correlated with customer satisfaction than performance on individual touchpoints. Patients don’t experience isolated moments. They experience a story.
Preparation (30 minutes, the day before)
- Choose one patient type and one scenario. For example: “new patient, first consultation”. A journey drawn for every patient says nothing about any of them.
- Invite 4–6 people, prioritising those who talk to patients every day: reception, the nurses, whoever answers the phone. They know what really happens.
- Bring data: your last 30 reviews, recent complaints, the questions that come up most often on the phone.
- Materials: a large sheet or an empty wall, sticky notes in three colours, markers.
The workshop, step by step
Step 1 - The stages (20 minutes)
Split the journey into 5–7 big stages, left to right. For example: hears about the clinic → researches → books → arrives → consultation → pays and leaves → after the visit.
Step 2 - The touchpoints (30 minutes)
Under each stage, note every place the patient comes into contact with the clinic: Google profile, website, phone, WhatsApp, parking, the front door, reception, the waiting room, the treatment room, the invoice, the follow-up message. You’ll be surprised how many there are.
Step 3 - What they do, think and feel (45 minutes)
For each touchpoint, put yourselves in the patient’s place. What do they do? What do they think or wonder? What do they feel: calm, confused, afraid, reassured? Use patients’ own words, from reviews and phone calls - not your internal jargon.
Step 4 - Points of friction and decisive moments (30 minutes)
Mark points of friction (waits, missing information, surprises) in one colour. In another, mark the decisive moments: those where the patient decides whether to stay, start treatment or come back. That’s where trust is won or lost.
Step 5 - Prioritise (30 minutes)
For each problem marked, estimate two things: how much it matters to the patient (a lot / a little) and how much effort the fix needs (low / high). Start with those that matter a lot and need little effort.
Step 6 - Decide (15 minutes)
Choose three actions at most. For each: what changes, who owns it, by when. Without this step, the drawing is just a nice poster on the wall.
A simple template
| Stage | Touchpoint | What the patient does / thinks | How they feel | Problem / opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Researches | Google profile | “Are they open on Saturdays? Can I park?” | Unsure | Weekend hours missing |
| Arrives | The entrance | “Is it here? Where do I check in?” | Slightly awkward | No signage at the door |
| Pays | The invoice | “What’s this line?” | Suspicious | Charges not announced in advance |
The examples are illustrative.
Check it with real patients
The journey your team draws is a hypothesis. Over the following weeks, talk to five patients - by phone, 15 minutes each - and ask them to tell you about their experience from the beginning. Don’t ask whether they were satisfied; ask what happened. You’ll discover at least one moment you didn’t write down.
From our practice: in a recent project, the final journey had 11 key moments and four patient types, built from an audit, interviews and mystery-client visits. You don’t need to start that big. But it’s worth knowing that the first drawing is only the first.
Common mistakes
- The clinic’s processes instead of the patient’s experience. “Reception enters the data into the system” is a process. “The patient stands waiting to be asked something” is an experience.
- Only management in the room. Without the people who talk to patients every day, the drawing shows how things should be, not how they are.
- Too many actions. Ten actions means zero actions. Three, with an owner and a deadline.
- Doing it once. The journey changes. Repeat the exercise every six months.
Patients don’t see how the clinic is organised. They only see the road they travel - and every moment they feel lost along it.
- Rawson A., Duncan E., Jones C. (2013). The Truth About Customer Experience. Harvard Business Review, September 2013. Source ↗
