What Healthcare Can Steal from Chick-fil-A’s Drive-Thru Playbook

By Suzie Sfarra

A 10-car line that moves in minutes. A three-lane drive-thru that never gets an order wrong. An attendant who greets you and uses mobile technology to quickly get your order (if you didn’t order online already) and quickly gets you on your way.

You may well be asking yourself why you’re reading about a Chik-fil-A drive thru line in a healthcare publication, and it’s a valid question.

But as far apart as healthcare and fast food may be on the spectrum of nutritional priority and strategy, they share a common truth: no one likes friction.

And while some fast food establishments have customer experience down to a science (Chik-fil-A has ranked highest in satisfaction for over a decade and leads in order accuracy, food quality, and courtesy), healthcare is lagging by comparison.

In healthcare, long waits and poor communication too often leave patients frustrated. One in six emergency room visits that results in admission has a wait of four or more hours, and when wait times go up, satisfaction goes down. One large multicenter survey found that patient satisfaction scores drop sharply when wait times exceed 20 minutes.

Of course, the services we deliver as healthcare providers are a bit more nuanced and complicated than frying chicken. But still, are there lessons we can be learning from customer experience leaders in other sectors?

Really, the question I’m asking is this: How can we put the “hospital” in “hospitality?”

The answer is operational excellence paired with patient‑centered communication. Health systems can adapt proven service tactics to eliminate errors, reduce confusion, and dramatically improve the experience. For leaders, that means building a coordinated, technology‑enabled through‑line across key moments of the journey:

Before the visit: Make it effortless to start

Borrow the “order‑ahead” mindset. Let patients schedule or reschedule appointments on their own, through digital channels, without ever having to make a phone call, unless they want to.
Pre-visit communications can include directions, parking tips, prep steps, language and accessibility options so people arrive ready, not reactive. Proactively bundle care‑gap closures (labs, imaging, screenings) into a single plan to prevent back‑and‑forth later. Self‑service has transformed fast food and retail, and it’s proving its value in healthcare when designed around patient preference and simplicity.

At the bedside: Personalize and recover in the moment

Great experiences are about more than speed. They are about accuracy and compassion. Equip frontline teams with digital rounding that captures needs once and automatically triggers the right follow‑up—environmental services, dietary, interpreter services, or transport—without rekeying.
Better yet, put rounding tools directly in the hands of the patient and allow them an opportunity to self-serve. We know that timeliness and proactivity mean the most in terms of both care quality and care experiences. When issues do arise, closed‑loop workflows route them to an owner and confirm resolution, turning potential detractors into promoters.
Meanwhile, AI-generated summaries of a patient’s preferences, history, and stated goals, available at the point of care, can reduce time spent digging through charts, help clinicians address patients’ issues proactively before discharge, and make connections feel more personal. Recognize staff for compliments captured during rounding to reinforce a hospitality mindset where empathy and clarity are the norm, not the exception.

After the visit: Close the loop with purpose

Replace one‑way discharge with proactive, two‑way outreach. Automated check‑ins ask about symptoms, medications, equipment, or social needs and escalate to a clinician when risk signals appear. Make it effortless to schedule follow‑ups, request refills, or reach a human. Go a step further on medication access: cost and coverage barriers often derail adherence, so provide alternatives or savings information up front and follow up to confirm pickup and use. These simple, timely touches reduce complications and signal to patients that care continues after the door closes.

Between visits: Keep the conversation going

Patients don’t think in episodes. Use preference‑driven outreach to support chronic condition management, vaccination campaigns, preventive screenings, and care‑plan adherence. Offer concise, multilingual education tailored to health literacy. When patients reply, route messages to the right team and capture the interaction so the next clinician sees the full picture. Include caregivers (with consent) where appropriate. Over time, these sustained, two‑way conversations build trust and reduce the “start‑from‑scratch” feeling at every encounter.

This playbook is about orchestration. The most effective solutions unify consistent patient experiences and staff workflows across the care journey so context follows the patient and every step has an owner. When we reduce guesswork for patients and clinicians, we create the conditions for better outcomes and higher satisfaction without asking people to work harder.

The payoff comes through fewer missed appointments, safer transitions, clearer expectations, and more time for clinicians to practice at the top of their license. Most importantly, it’s a brand promise patients can feel: “This organization sees me, communicates with me, and gets things right.”

Chick‑fil‑A didn’t earn its loyalty by accident. It aligned processes, people, and technology around a simple goal, to remove friction and add courtesy at every step. Healthcare’s goal is harder. But the playbook translates. If we build the same orchestration and hospitality into care, we can deliver experiences worthy of the outcomes we strive to achieve.

Suzie Sfarra is Chief Product Officer of CipherHealth.