When Trust Drops and Costs Rise
- James Young
- Jul 17
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 25
By James P. Young, Jr., PhD, CEO, Concordant Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
What happens when 92% of Americans say trust in healthcare is extremely important—but only 36% actually feel it?
This was one of the most striking findings in the latest PX Pulse – July 2025 report from The Beryl Institute.
In an era of shifting policy, post-pandemic fatigue, and heightened public scrutiny, we now face an urgent truth: we cannot fix healthcare performance without repairing trust, especially among diverse and marginalized communities.
And trust is not rebuilt through metrics alone. It’s rebuilt through human-centered leadership, compassionate care, and systems that honor lived experience—not just clinical indicators.
At Concordant Healthcare Solutions, we design healthcare transformation through a Human-Centered Design Model that bridges performance, equity, and trust. The recent PX Pulse data reinforces the very strategies we bring to our clients across acute, primary, and community-based care systems:
🔍 Key Insights from PX Pulse that Align with Our Approach:
Patients link experience to outcomes. The top reasons patients value their care experience remain unchanged since 2019: respect, being heard, and having their physical and emotional needs taken seriously. Our cultural competency, emotional intelligence, and de-escalation and empathy-based training directly address these needs, especially for historically marginalized populations who often carry justified skepticism toward the system.
Consumers demand transparency and access. The top issues cited in the report—cost of care, delayed appointments, and unclear insurance coverage—signal that patients want a system that is not only competent but also accountable. Our leadership development programs train administrators and frontline staff to lead with clarity, integrity, and responsiveness.
There is still deep trust in individuals—especially nurses and primary care physicians. This is where transformation begins. Concordant helps health systems activate the inherent trust patients already extend to caregivers by training those teams in culturally responsive, human-centered communication. We equip professionals to manage complex interactions without escalation or judgment.
Trust has declined, but comfort in seeking care remains. That’s a critical inflection point. The window to earn back trust is still open—but it requires more than press releases or mission statements. It requires a workforce that consistently models emotional intelligence, cultural humility, and relational integrity.
🧭 What Does This Mean for Healthcare Leaders?
It means your star ratings, value-based reimbursements, and staff retention are all at risk when the human experience is deprioritized. The public has spoken, and they’re not just asking for better outcomes—they’re asking to be seen, heard, and respected.
If you're navigating:
Workforce burnout,
Patient complaints rooted in fear or distrust,
Poor scores on CG-CAHPS or HCAHPS domains like communication and respect…
…then it’s time to look beyond compliance and toward culture.
🧩 Our Solution: Human-Centered Design with Measurable Impact
At Concordant, we don’t just teach human-centered patient experience—we transform systems of Human-centered care. We use survey data and value-based aligned quality frameworks to design training and coaching programs that improve:
Patient trust and experience,
Human-centered leadership, for team-based care
Communication between teams and communities,
Value-based revenue performance.
📣 Let’s Talk
If you’re ready to humanize your strategy and improve how your organization is trusted by the people it serves, let’s start a conversation. You can connect with me here or on LinkedIn to learn more about how our Human-Centered Design Model helps health systems perform with compassion and lead with clarity.
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