Encompass Health Receives NRC Health Award for Excellence in Patient Experience for Second Consecutive Year
Encompass Health has once again been recognized for its dedication to providing an exceptional patient experience, earning the Excellence in Patient Experience Award from NRC Health for the second consecutive year. The recognition highlights the company’s ongoing efforts to deliver compassionate, high-quality rehabilitation care while ensuring that patients and their families feel supported throughout every stage of the recovery process.
The award places Encompass Health among the top three large health systems nationwide recognized by NRC Health for their commitment to improving the patient care experience. This achievement reflects the importance the company places on listening to patients, understanding their needs and continuously improving the services and interactions that shape their rehabilitation journey.
For healthcare organizations, patient experience has become an important measure of care quality. While clinical outcomes remain central to treatment, patients and their families also value communication, respect, comfort, professionalism and the confidence that healthcare teams understand their individual circumstances. Encompass Health’s latest recognition demonstrates its continued focus on these elements and its efforts to create a positive and supportive environment for patients receiving rehabilitation services.
The consecutive-year achievement also underscores the role of employees across the company’s hospital network. From clinical professionals and rehabilitation specialists to support staff and administrative teams, every interaction can influence how patients experience their care. By reinforcing consistent service standards and encouraging employees to respond to patient feedback, Encompass Health aims to strengthen the relationship between patients, families and healthcare professionals.
Patient Feedback Plays a Central Role in Recognition
NRC Health determined the Excellence in Patient Experience Award recipients using patient feedback on areas considered most important to the quality of care. For the latest award period, the organization evaluated each health system’s Real-Time Net Promoter Score associated with the question, “Would Recommend Facility.”
The assessment covered the period from April 1, 2025, through March 31, 2026. By focusing on patients’ willingness to recommend a healthcare facility, the evaluation provides insight into how individuals perceive their overall care experience.
A patient’s willingness to recommend a facility can be influenced by several factors, including the quality of communication, the responsiveness of staff, the level of trust established during treatment and the degree to which patients feel respected. In rehabilitation settings, these factors can be particularly important because patients may require ongoing support as they work toward recovery, regain independence and adjust to changes in their health.
For Encompass Health, the award reflects the value of collecting feedback directly from patients and using it to understand where the organization is meeting expectations and where further improvements may be possible.
Rather than relying exclusively on internal assessments, patient feedback allows healthcare providers to consider the experience from the perspective of the people receiving care. It can help identify strengths in service delivery, reveal opportunities to improve communication and encourage teams to address concerns that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Mary Ellen DeBardeleben, national director of quality for Encompass Health, emphasized the importance of patient feedback in the company’s approach to care.
“Our patients are at the center of everything we do, and their feedback is one of the most meaningful measures of the experience we provide,” DeBardeleben said.
She added that the recognition reflects the commitment of teams throughout the company to listen to patients, understand what matters most to them and provide compassionate, high-quality care throughout the rehabilitation journey.
Her comments highlight the relationship between patient feedback and organizational improvement. When healthcare teams understand how patients experience their services, they can better identify the practices that contribute to positive interactions and use those insights to strengthen care across the organization.
Encompass Health Emphasizes Compassionate Rehabilitation Care
Rehabilitation care often involves more than addressing a medical condition or helping a patient complete a specific treatment plan. Patients may need assistance rebuilding strength, improving mobility, developing daily living skills and adjusting to new physical limitations. Depending on their circumstances, they may also rely on family members or caregivers for emotional and practical support.
These circumstances make the overall patient experience an important consideration throughout rehabilitation.
Patients may have questions about their progress, their treatment plans or the next steps in their recovery. Clear communication can help them understand their care and participate more confidently in decisions about their health. Similarly, respectful interactions can help patients feel heard and supported during what may be a challenging period.
Encompass Health’s recognition from NRC Health reflects its focus on creating an environment in which patients are treated with compassion and professionalism. The company’s approach emphasizes the importance of considering the individual behind each treatment plan and recognizing that every patient has different needs, expectations and recovery goals.
A positive rehabilitation experience can also involve the patient’s family. Loved ones may need information about care arrangements, recovery expectations and how to support the patient after discharge. When healthcare teams communicate effectively and respond to questions, families can feel more informed and better prepared to participate in the recovery process.
Although each patient’s experience is unique, consistent standards of communication, comfort and respect can help establish a reliable foundation for care. Encompass Health continues to emphasize these principles across its hospital network as part of its broader commitment to improving the patient experience.
CPR Program Reinforces Comfort, Professionalism and Respect
A central component of Encompass Health’s patient experience strategy is its Comfort, Professionalism and Respect program, commonly known as the CPR program. The initiative provides employees with a consistent framework for creating positive interactions with patients and their families.
The program focuses on three key principles: ensuring patient comfort, demonstrating professionalism and treating every individual with respect. Together, these principles establish behavioral expectations intended to support a welcoming and compassionate care environment.
The CPR program celebrated its 15th anniversary in 2025, marking 15 years of emphasizing the importance of patient-centered interactions throughout the company.
The program’s longevity reflects the role that established service principles can play in healthcare organizations. Clinical expertise is essential to delivering effective care, but patients also experience healthcare through everyday interactions with the people responsible for their treatment and support. How employees communicate, respond to questions and address concerns can influence whether patients feel comfortable and confident in their care.
The comfort component of the CPR program highlights the importance of helping patients feel supported in their care environment. Rehabilitation may involve unfamiliar routines, repeated therapy sessions and periods of physical or emotional difficulty. Attentiveness to patient needs can help create an environment where individuals feel more at ease.
Professionalism reinforces the importance of appropriate conduct, clear communication and reliable interactions. Patients and families need to understand that their concerns are taken seriously and that healthcare professionals are committed to providing appropriate support. Professional behavior can help strengthen trust between patients and their care teams.
Respect emphasizes the importance of recognizing each patient’s dignity, preferences and individual circumstances. Patients should feel that their questions are welcome and that their concerns are heard. Respectful interactions also acknowledge the role that family members and caregivers may play in supporting recovery.
By bringing these principles together, the CPR program offers employees a shared approach to patient interactions. It also reinforces the idea that patient experience is not the responsibility of one department alone. Instead, it is shaped by the collective actions of employees across different roles and functions.
NRC Health has also highlighted the program’s development in a 2025 blog article titled “Encompass Health’s CPR Program: 15 Years of Elevating Patient Experience Through Comfort, Professionalism and Respect.” The article provides additional context on the program’s origin and evolution.
Consistent Standards Across the Hospital Network
Maintaining a high-quality patient experience across a large healthcare organization requires more than individual commitment. It also depends on the ability to communicate expectations, share effective practices and encourage consistent standards across different facilities.
Encompass Health’s approach includes reinforcing patient-centered behaviors throughout its hospital network. A common framework such as the CPR program can help employees understand how the organization expects them to interact with patients and families, regardless of their particular role.
Consistency is particularly important for patients and families who may be navigating unfamiliar healthcare services. They need to feel that their concerns will be addressed and that they can expect respectful treatment throughout their care journey.
Sharing patient feedback and best practices across hospitals can help teams identify approaches that contribute to stronger experiences. When one facility discovers an effective way to improve communication or respond to a common concern, those insights may provide useful lessons for other teams.
At the same time, healthcare organizations must recognize that patient needs can vary. Feedback can help individual facilities understand the concerns most relevant to their patients and determine where local improvements may be needed. Combining consistent organizational principles with attention to individual circumstances can support a more responsive approach to care.
Encompass Health has indicated that it will continue using patient and family feedback to identify opportunities to strengthen the experience across the company. This ongoing process is intended to help the organization build on existing strengths while addressing areas where patients may need additional support.
The recognition from NRC Health therefore represents both an acknowledgment of the company’s performance during the assessment period and an opportunity to continue advancing its patient experience efforts.
Why Patient Experience Matters in Rehabilitation
Patient experience is an important consideration throughout healthcare, but it has particular significance in rehabilitation. Recovery often requires sustained participation, cooperation between patients and clinical teams, and an understanding of the goals that guide treatment.
Patients may experience uncertainty about how quickly they will progress or what their recovery will involve. They may also face practical challenges related to mobility, independence and the transition from hospital care to their next stage of recovery.
In this setting, clear explanations and respectful communication can help patients understand what to expect. Staff members who listen carefully and respond thoughtfully can help patients feel that their concerns are being taken seriously.
Family members and caregivers may also require guidance as they prepare to support patients beyond the hospital. Providing information in an understandable and considerate manner can help them feel better equipped to participate in the recovery process.
Patient experience should not be viewed as separate from the delivery of healthcare services. Instead, it is one dimension of how care is delivered and perceived. While a positive experience does not by itself establish clinical effectiveness, it can reflect important aspects of communication, responsiveness and the relationship between patients and healthcare teams.
By focusing on feedback and reinforcing behaviors through its CPR program, Encompass Health seeks to make these aspects a consistent part of rehabilitation care.
Listening and Continuous Improvement Remain Priorities
For Encompass Health, receiving the Excellence in Patient Experience Award for a second consecutive year does not mark the end of its improvement efforts. The company has emphasized that it will continue listening to patients and their families and using their feedback to guide changes across its hospitals.
This approach recognizes that patient expectations and needs can evolve over time. Healthcare organizations must remain attentive to new concerns, evaluate how patients experience their services and determine where existing processes can be improved.
Patient feedback can help teams identify both successful practices and areas requiring attention. Positive feedback may reveal behaviors that should be reinforced or shared more widely, while concerns can help organizations identify communication gaps or aspects of the care experience that require a closer review.
Continuous improvement also requires employees to understand that every interaction presents an opportunity to learn. A conversation with a patient, an explanation of a treatment plan or a response to a family member’s question can provide insight into how care is experienced.
DeBardeleben reinforced this point when discussing the company’s plans following the recognition.
“Recognition like this is meaningful, but our work doesn’t stop here,” she said. “We will continue listening to our patients and using their feedback to guide how we improve the care experience across our hospitals. Every patient interaction is an opportunity to learn, improve and ensure we are delivering the experience our patients and their families deserve.”
Her statement underscores the company’s intention to treat the award as encouragement to continue improving rather than as a final measure of success.
By examining feedback, sharing lessons and reinforcing patient-centered behaviors, Encompass Health aims to maintain attention on the everyday experiences that shape patients’ perceptions of care.
Recognition Reflects an Organization-Wide Commitment
The second consecutive Excellence in Patient Experience Award from NRC Health highlights Encompass Health’s continued commitment to patient-centered rehabilitation services. Being named among the top three large health systems nationwide recognized for patient experience represents a notable achievement for the company and its teams.
The recognition is based on patient feedback collected over a defined 12-month assessment period, with the Real-Time Net Promoter Score for the “Would Recommend Facility” question serving as the key measure. This methodology places patients’ perspectives at the center of the evaluation.
Encompass Health’s CPR program provides a complementary foundation by reinforcing comfort, professionalism and respect in interactions with patients and their families. Now beyond its 15th anniversary, the program remains an important part of the company’s approach to creating positive care experiences.
Moving forward, the company plans to continue listening to patients, sharing best practices across its hospital network and identifying opportunities to strengthen the rehabilitation journey. These efforts reflect the understanding that a strong patient experience depends on consistent attention to communication, compassion and individual needs.
Ultimately, Encompass Health’s recognition highlights the role of its teams in creating a supportive care environment. As the company builds on this achievement, its continued focus on patient feedback and respectful interactions will remain central to its efforts to deliver the experience patients and their families deserve.
Source link: https://www.encompasshealth.com/
