Conventional thinking has long held that most patients base their choice of hospital on its clinical reputation, its location, or their physicians’ recommendations. Recently, though, hospital executives in the United States have begun recognizing that patients also consider nonclinical factors, such as comfortable rooms and convenient registration procedures, when choosing where to seek treatment.

New McKinsey research underscores just how important nonclinical factors have become. An online survey of more than 2,000 US patients with commercial insurance or Medicare about their attitudes toward the patient’s experience¹ revealed that most of them are willing to switch hospitals for better service and amenities and that many have already asked their physicians to refer them to specific facilities. We also surveyed more than 100 physicians (split evenly between general practitioners and specialists) to find out how much they agree with their patients in these matters. The survey revealed that doctors are often willing to accommodate a patient’s request for a referral to a hospital that offers a positive experience—sometimes even when it doesn’t have the best clinical reputation among the alternatives.

Few hospitals act systematically to understand what patients value in the nonclinical aspects of their hospital visits or how and when...