UI Health Care 2nd on list of ‘trusted health care brands’

IOWA CITY — A new report ranks University of Iowa Health Care as the second “most trusted health care brand” in the country.

The report from an independent consultant ranked more than 200 hospital and health care brands across 64 markets using feedback from more than 25,000 consumers.

UIHC garnered positive feedback from 81 percent of respondents, placing it just behind Emory Healthcare’s 82 percent and ahead of other esteemed health care enterprises like Northwestern Medicine and the Mayo Clinic, which earned 79 percent; Johns Hopkins Medicine, achieving 77 percent; and Cedars Sinai, University of Chicago Medicine and Duke Health, which placed farther down the list.

“Being named a most trusted health care brand is an honor that reflects the strong relationship with our patients, many of whom are generations of Iowa families who have received care with us,” outgoing UIHC Vice President for Medical Affairs Brooks Jackson said in a statement.

“It’s a testament to our academic excellence and how our researchers, educators, providers, nurses and care teams work together to give high-quality care and experiences for our patients and their families every day.”

‘Humanizing’ rank

UI Health Care — including its expanding hospitals and clinics operation, which employ more than 11,200 people and racked up more than 1.3 million patient visits in 2022 — also ranked third on the consultant Monigle’s “2023 humanizing brand experience” list.

Those rankings — looking at a health care brand’s ability to connect with its patients’ humanity, based “entirely on consumer opinion” and weighted by health care engagement in each market — put the Valley Health System in New Jersey at No. 1 and Ohio Health in Columbus at No. 2.

UIHC topped Johns Hopkins Medicine at No. 4 and University of Rochester Medical Center at No. 5 in that category.

This was the first year UIHC provided data to Denver-based Monigle — calling itself the largest independent brand consultant in the United States, with 50 years experience working across an array of industries like retail, food and beverage, energy, sports and health care.

The company’s sixth annual “Humanizing Brand Experience” report looked at consumer trends, needs and behaviors across the U.S. health care landscape — identifying challenges and room for improvement nationally and in Iowa.

UIHC’s top ranking in some of the report’s categories comes as the $2.3 billion enterprise searches for a new vice president for medical affairs and CEO atop its hospitals and clinics operation.

It comes as UIHC enters a construction boom, compelled by overwhelming patient demand that has emergency rooms crowded and appointment wait times growing.

And it also comes at a time when hospitals and health care systems are struggling nationally, making consumer engagement and brand trust increasingly important to hospitals trying to stay afloat.

Pandemic fatigue

The Monigle report, in assessing the import of a hospital and health care system’s brand, looked at health care engagement trends nationally — finding consumer engagement in health care is lower than pre-COVID levels, with fewer people reading about health and wellness, trying new health approaches and thinking about health generally.

“The main reason might not be all that surprising to any of us,” according to the report. “Everyone is exhausted by the overabundance of noise in the market. Pandemic fatigue has demotivated consumers and tamped down their interest to reengage, making the return to pre-COVID levels even more challenging.”

When looking regionally at health care engagement, Iowa ranks third from the bottom on Monigle’s list of 59 markets — earning a score of 96, compared with some of the most engaged communities like Miami, Columbus, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, all earning scores at or over 120.

Other communities or states with low marks in health care engagement were in Maine, Green Bay, Wis., and Seattle.

‘Doctor dodgers’

Digging deeper into the question of consumer trust and implications for overall engagement, the study found distrust is up — especially among 25- to 34-year-olds, with 42 percent affirming the statement, “I don’t always trust my health care provider to make the right decisions for me.”

Although UIHC ranked as the second-most trusted health care brand, the state of Iowa had among the most “doctor dodgers” in the country.

That group — defined as people avoiding the doctor even when they know they need to visit — has spiked nationally from 11 percent of respondents in 2022 to 17 percent this year.

Iowa has the third highest rate of doctor dodgers at 18 percent, tying other markets like St. Louis and New Orleans and well above those with the lowest dodger rates like San Francisco, Miami and Boston at 11 percent.

Behind some of the consumer avoidance is lack of staff — with three out of four respondents saying health care operations need more workers. About 72 percent said health care organizations need to treat their workforce better.

“We see that 54 percent of U.S. consumers believe that it’s harder to get an appointment because of staffing shortages, while 52 percent believe the quality of care is worsening because of them,” according to the report, which did not rank UIHC among the top 10 brands for staffing.

The University of Iowa did receive top national and regional scores for the quality of its people, medical outcomes, reputation, innovation and freedom to make independent health care choices.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com