Increasingly, health systems are recognizing that patient outcomes do not happen independently of a positive patient experience. The ability to engage patients, guide them through recovery, and keep them connected to their care team has become a measurable driver of operational and clinical performance. In this context, one metric that deserves more attention in patient engagement is Net Promoter Score (NPS).
For organizations considering implementing digital patient engagement platforms, NPS is not just a customer satisfaction metric. In musculoskeletal care, it can serve as a leading indicator of patient engagement, adherence, and trust. Those factors directly influence key strategic priorities such as PROMs compliance, readmission reduction, timely patient payments, and overall care quality.
Understanding NPS in Healthcare Technology
NPS measures how likely a patient is to recommend a product or service to others. While many industries use NPS, healthcare technology presents a uniquely difficult environment for achieving high scores. Unlike consumer applications, digital care platforms operate within high-stakes clinical workflows that involve surgical anxiety and recovery challenges, complex care coordination, longitudinal patient engagement, compliance requirements, and operational pressure on care teams.
Because of this complexity, healthcare technology NPS scores tend to cluster in a much narrower range than consumer brands:
- Scores below 0 are considering negative
- Scores below 20 often indicate friction or weak patient engagement
- Scores between 30-45 align with average healthcare technology performance, indicating some value
- Scores between 45-55 represent strong differentiation and substantial value
- Scores above 55 are considered top-tier and relatively rare
At Force Therapeutics, our current patient NPS score is 52. Within the healthtech industry, where workflows are complex and operational stakes are high, that score places Force in a high-performing category and well above typical industry benchmarks. But more importantly, it reflects something that health systems care deeply about: patients are actively engaging with their recovery journey and feeling supported throughout the episode of care.
Why Health Systems Are Caring More About Patient Sentiment
Hospital leaders are increasingly being asked to improve outcomes while simultaneously reducing operational burden and controlling costs. Patient engagement is a really critical component of that challenge. When patients understand their care plan and remain connected throughout recovery, they are more likely to have positive care experiences. Organizations that succeed in this regard are better positioned to ensure compliance with burdensome regulatory requirements, reduce preventable adverse events like readmissions and complications, and increase the likelihood that patients will pay their medical bills on time, all while gaining high visibility into patient progress and improving staff efficiency.
The Link Between Engagement and Clinical Performance
With healthcare organizations under mounting pressure from value-based care initiatives and CMS quality mandates, active patient engagement and participation in the care journey is central to strong outcomes and directly impacts financial sustainability.
For example, the CMS THA/TKA PRO-PM mandate requires hospitals to submit matched pre-operative and post-operative PROMs data for at least 50% of eligible joint replacement patients. Failure to meet thresholds can result in significant financial penalties. This PRO-PM is mandated across virtually all hospitals in the country, and is also used as a quality measure in the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM) bundled payment program. Additionally, CMS recently proposed CJR-X, a nationwide expansion of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model; if finalized, this model will also utilize this PRO-PM as a quality benchmark, meaning nearly all hospitals in the country will have reimbursement directly affected by patient-reported outcomes.
The challenge with such PRO-PMs is not simply collecting data. It is sustaining engagement over an extended recovery period, often up to one year post-operatively. But when patients consistently feel informed and supported, engagement rises, which better positions organizations to meet both quality and financial objectives.
How Force Achieves a High Patient NPS
A 52 NPS score is meaningful because it represents more than satisfaction. It reflects patient trust, sustained engagement, effective communication, reduced recovery friction, and strong care coordination.
For healthcare leaders navigating CMS mandates, workforce strain, and value-based reimbursement pressure, those capabilities are increasingly critical for both clinical and financial success. By incorporating NPS into vendor evaluation processes, organizations can tell which platforms are helping patients recover successfully and which are adding more work for no value.
Force Therapeutics was designed specifically to address the gaps common in MSK recovery: patients often leave appointments overwhelmed, are underprepared for surgery and recovery, and feel disconnected from their care team once they return home.
Force helps solve this by creating a continuous digital recovery experience that complements in-person care and keeps patients informed, supported, and engaged throughout the episode of care. Patients receive clinically validated education, provider-prescribed exercises, reminders, and recovery milestones directly within the platform, ensuring they know what to expect before and after surgery. Rather than relying on paper instructions or fragmented communication, patients have ongoing access to personalized guidance tailored to their procedure and recovery stage.
At the same time, Force enables care teams to proactively monitor patient progress, collect outcomes data, and identify potential issues earlier through remote engagement and communication tools. This creates a more connected experience for patients while reducing administrative burden for staff.
Importantly, the platform is designed to support the operational realities of health systems, not disrupt them. Force integrates into existing workflows and is backed by dedicated client success and patient support teams, helping organizations continuously optimize engagement strategies over time.
The result is a recovery experience that feels coordinated, responsive, and supportive for patients while helping providers improve adherence, streamline workflows, and drive stronger clinical and operational outcomes.
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