The Future of Patient Experience in 2026: What Healthcare Consumers Expect

In today’s healthcare economy, patients don’t always tell you when something goes wrong. They simply disappear.

According to Avaya’s Signals of Connection study, 74% of healthcare consumers have quietly abandoned a brand after a single bad experience, never complaining, never explaining, and just gone.

This silent churn isn’t just a customer service issue. It’s a patient trust issue. And in 2026, trust is built not only in the exam room, but in every conversation before and after.  For healthcare organizations, this is a patient experience and healthcare customer experience problem that shows up in the contact center and every patient communication moment.

The question isn’t whether healthcare organizations are delivering clinical care. It’s whether they’re delivering connected care across channels, departments, and moments that matter.

The answer for many leading providers is Avaya Infinity™.  Avaya Infinity is a patient communication and journey orchestration platform that unifies voice, digital channels, and AI so patients can move seamlessly from one moment to the next with context intact.

Direct Answer

In 2026, patients expect fast access, seamless channel switching, and human empathy supported by AI. Healthcare providers that orchestrate the full patient communication journey across voice, chat, SMS, and portals reduce repeat contacts, prevent silent churn, and strengthen trust.

Patients Expect More Than Answers. They Expect Connection.

Healthcare used to be measured by outcomes alone. Now it’s measured by experiences.  Patients expect healthcare interactions to feel as smooth and responsive as everything else in their lives, even when the stakes are higher.

And the numbers prove it:

• 83% say it’s “very or extremely important” to talk to a human when issues arise
• 60% expect a live agent in under six minutes
• 96% say it’s important to switch channels without repeating themselves
• 92% value personalized support tailored to their journey
• 76% have chosen one brand over another because of the customer experience

These aren’t wish-list features. They’re now the foundation of patient loyalty.  And they’re the baseline for modern patient experience in healthcare in 2026.

Why the Contact Center Model Is No Longer Enough

The traditional contact center was designed for transactions, not relationships. It can manage calls. It can log tickets. But it can’t anticipate urgency, follow emotional cues, or remember what was said yesterday, let alone across channels like SMS, chat, portal, and phone.

What patients experience today is often fragmented:

• They explain their issue three times to three different people
• AI tools handle easy questions but fail when emotion and nuance show up
• Systems don’t share memory across channels
• The healthcare provider never sees the silent churn coming

And when the experience breaks, patients don’t always file complaints. They find another provider.

What patients expect from healthcare experiences in 2026

Patients want the experience to feel connected, even when the organization behind it is complex.

They expect:

• Faster access to help, especially when they’re stressed or confused
• The ability to start in one channel and finish in another
• Personalization that reflects their history, preferences, and context
• Empathy that feels human, even when AI is involved
• Confidence that their data is protected

Together, these expectations define modern patient communication and patient loyalty.

The New Patient Journey Is a Communication Journey

The patient journey is not just appointments and outcomes. It’s a sequence of conversations

• Scheduling
• Questions before a visit
• Navigation and reminders
• Billing and insurance confusion
• Follow-up care
• Medication and chronic support
• Escalations and emergencies

Each of these moments carries emotion, urgency, and trust. And each one requires communication that is seamless, personal, and responsive.

That’s why the future of patient experience depends on orchestrating the patient communication journey.

Avaya Infinity isn’t just a communications platform. It’s a journey orchestration engine built to unify every patient interaction from pre-visit scheduling to post-discharge support.

Here's how it changes the game:

 1. Start the Journey with Intelligence

Whether a patient calls, clicks, or chats, Infinity captures contextual signals, urgency, location, prior interactions, sentiment, and uses them to route the interaction to the best resource: a nurse, a billing advocate, or a virtual agent.

It’s not just about getting to someone. It’s about getting to the right someone, fast.

2. Maintain Continuity Across Every Touchpoint

Patients move fluidly between devices and modes of communication. Infinity moves with them, preserving memory, emotion, and history at every step.

• Call started in the app? The agent on the phone already knows.
• Issue began with an AI assistant? The human picks up with full context.
• Patient bounced from chatbot to portal to SMS? Infinity keeps the thread alive.

Every moment feels like part of a single, coherent story.

Empower Humans with Context and Compassion

Infinity arms human agents with real-time insight: not just past tickets, but tone, timing, and emotional cues. That means faster resolution and more meaningful conversations.

No more “Can I get your account number again?” No more “Let me transfer you, and you can start over.”

Instead: "Thanks for continuing the conversation. I see you're following up on your billing question from this morning. Let me help."

That’s orchestration. That’s connection.

4. Blend Automation and Empathy with Precision

Infinity doesn’t force patients to choose between AI and humans; it blends both.

Low-emotion tasks, such as appointment scheduling or refills, are handled by bots.
Complex, emotional, or urgent needs are instantly escalated to the right people, with the full context in hand.

It’s not just faster. It’s smarter. And it feels like care, not code.

5. Detect Disengagement Before It Happens

Patients don’t always complain. But Infinity can detect the signals:

• Long hold times
• Repeated contacts
• Frustration in tone or behavior
• Channel switching without resolution

These are early warning signs of silent churn. And they trigger re-engagement before the patient walks away.

In a world where 74% of patients leave without saying a word, that kind of insight is priceless.

Why This Matters in 2026

Healthcare organizations face growing pressure:

• Higher consumer expectations
• Staffing shortages
• Rising costs
• Increasing complexity
• AI adoption without a unified experience layer

Many providers have added AI tools. But disconnected AI increases fragmentation.
Infinity avoids that by providing orchestration first, then AI wherever it fits.

In 2026, the battle for patient trust is won or lost before the clinical encounter begins.

A seamless communication journey builds confidence, comfort, and loyalty. A broken one erodes it instantly.

Avaya Infinity gives healthcare systems the tools to:

• Design care journeys that are fluid and flexible
• Integrate voice, digital, and AI across one orchestrated platform
• Preserve human empathy in every interaction—at scale

It’s more than a platform. It’s a commitment to continuity. And it’s the foundation of what modern patients now expect.

Final Word for Healthcare Leaders

When patients say "I don’t like dealing with healthcare," they rarely mean the care itself.

They mean the forms. The wait. The bots that forget them. The phone systems that drop them. The feeling of being a stranger in every interaction.

With Avaya Infinity, they feel remembered. Heard. Known.

Because true connection in healthcare doesn’t begin in the exam room. It begins with the very first hello.

Explore how Avaya Infinity transforms patient journeys

Download the report: Signals of Connection:  What Patients Reveal About the Future of Care Experience

Final Takeaways 

Patient loyalty is no longer earned solely by excellent clinical outcomes. It’s shaped by every text, every call, and every digital interaction before and after the appointment.

Avaya Infinity is built for this new healthcare reality.

It’s how leading providers turn fragmented contact centers into fluid Connection Centers.

 It’s how they prevent silent churn, earn trust at scale, and ensure no patient is ever left repeating themselves.

Because the future of healthcare isn’t just about treatment. It’s about how you treat the conversation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is Avaya Infinity in the context of Healthcare?

For healthcare providers, Avaya Infinity is a next-generation patient experience and communication orchestration platform that helps healthcare providers unify voice, digital, and AI-powered support across the entire patient journey. It transforms contact centers into Connection Centers that are proactive, empathetic, and intelligent.

How does Avaya Infinity improve the patient experience?

• Offers seamless transitions between AI and live agents
• Provides persistent memory across channels (no repetition required)
• Personalizes each interaction based on history, preferences, and real-time signals
• Accelerates resolution through AI-guided routing and decisioning
• Builds trust by blending speed with emotional intelligence

Why are patients leaving without complaining?

Because silence doesn’t mean satisfaction, it means surrender. The Signals of Connection study shows that 74% of patients abandon a healthcare brand after a single poor interaction, usually without feedback. Most systems don’t detect these moments, but Avaya Infinity does.

Can Avaya Infinity replace our current contact center platform?

Avaya Infinity is designed to integrate with or evolve beyond traditional contact centers. It supports cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments and works with existing EHR, CRM, and communication systems. It’s not a rip-and-replace—it’s a future-ready orchestration layer.

What makes Avaya Infinity different from other AI or CX tools?

Most tools solve for one slice of the journey: chat, voice, AI, or scheduling. Avaya Infinity solves for the whole patient journey:

• It connects humans and AI in real time.
• It personalizes based on emotional and behavioral context.
• And it turns every service interaction into a moment of trust and connection.
  

What is patient journey orchestration in healthcare?

Patient journey orchestration is the coordination of every patient communication moment across channels and systems so the experience feels continuous. It ensures context carries forward between voice, digital, AI, and human support, reducing friction and improving trust.

How does AI improve healthcare contact center performance without losing empathy?

AI can reduce wait times, route interactions faster, and assist agents with real-time guidance. When orchestration preserves context and hands off smoothly to humans, AI supports empathy instead of replacing it, keeping speed and trust in balance.