The Erosion of Trust in Healthcare

Healthcare institutions that deliver “good medicine” and demonstrate the ability to engender trust will have far better market and clinical outcomes. Historically trust has been assumed in the health care marketplace; however, as the COVID vaccine situation makes abundantly clear, trust is not inherent to the patient-provider relationship. This paper seeks to describe the micro and macro factors partially responsible for the eroding physician and healthcare system influence as well as a set of recommendations for rebuilding trust. The nature of the factors varies widely, some bold and obvious to laypeople, others barely distinguishable in healthcare settings and easy to forget when strategic planning.