41.7% of Healthcare Workers Cite "Staff Shortages" as the Main Obstacle to Improving Patient Experience

APOSTRO Inc. has previously conducted surveys among general consumers regarding the selection of medical institutions and their clinical visit experiences. Results showed that 45.6% were unable to adequately compare medical institutions when needing urgent care, and 39.7% cited not knowing if they could be seen immediately as a major difficulty.

Investigations into clinical visits, accounting, and payment also highlighted challenges throughout the patient journey, such as stress from waiting times, lack of clear information, and inconvenient payment experiences.

In a recent survey of 400 healthcare workers, 49.61% perceived that patients feel dissatisfied with waiting times, and 46.19% felt that medical institution information is not sufficiently communicated. This suggests that the challenges identified by consumers are also well-recognized on the front lines.

Meanwhile, when asked why improvements are difficult despite the recognized need, "staff shortages" (41.73%) and "cost constraints" (39.63%) emerged as the top reasons. This indicates that while there is a consensus on the problems,現場 constraints make progress difficult.

Combined with previous survey results, it is suggested that challenges exist across various phases—information acquisition, clinic visits, accounting, and payment—indicating that patient experience issues are structural and span multiple phases.

Key Highlights of the Survey

● Approximately half recognize patient dissatisfaction with waiting times (49.61%) 49.61% responded that they recognize patients are dissatisfied with waiting times. Other widely recognized issues include insufficient communication of information (46.19%) and a high volume of urgent care seekers (42.26%).

● Operational efficiency leads to reduced burden (66.14%) 66.14% of respondents agreed that streamlining accounting and payment processes leads to reduced operational burden. There is a clear consensus on the direction of necessary improvements.

● Staff shortages are the biggest barrier to improvement (41.73%) Reasons cited for difficulties in implementation include staff shortages (41.73%), cost constraints (39.63%), and medical system rules (25.72%), suggesting a gap between problem recognition and execution.

About the Survey This report presents a preliminary summary of the findings. Detailed results for each question are available in the simultaneously published note article.

[Survey Overview] Target: Healthcare workers aged 20 to 80 nationwide Method: Internet survey Period: April 6–7, 2026 Valid responses: 400 Conducted by: APOSTRO Inc.