Actionable Mechanisms to Improve Patient Experience during Consultations: Scoping Review and Implications for Virtual Care

Patient experience mechanisms (e.g., safety netting, patient partnership) are routinely used by health care professionals (HCPs) to support high-quality care. However, there is limited synthesis of these mechanisms across studies, and little is known about how they translate to virtual care.This study aimed to conduct a scoping review to (1) identify mechanisms used by HCPs to enhance patient experience during consultations and (2) to consider how these may be adapted for virtual care delivery.A scoping review using narrative synthesis. Studies were obtained from four databases (Ovid [MEDLINE], CINAHL Complete, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest) and gray literature. Three reviewers independently screened studies featuring HCP-patient interactions and discussion of patient experience mechanisms. The NHS Patient Experience Framework guided mechanism identification. Considerations for in-person and virtual care interactions were compared. Virtual care considerations were extracted from eligible studies and mapped to each of the mechanism categories.A total of 49 studies were included, mainly commentaries, guidelines, or executive summaries (20/49, 41%). Five categories of mechanisms were identified: clinician-focused (<i>n</i> = 5), patient-focused (<i>n</i> = 5), relationship/familial (<i>n</i> = 3), organizational (<i>n</i> = 6), and IT and digital (<i>n</i> = 3). The three most frequent actionable mechanisms were patient empowerment and engagement (49%, 24/49), patient education (41%, 20/49), and clinical organization and positive safety culture (41%, 20/49). For virtual care, key considerations included adapting communication and relationship-building mechanisms to virtual formats, supporting patient digital literacy, and maintaining continuity and trust during remote interactions. These mechanisms were supported by both direct, indirect, and inferred evidence.To the best of our knowledge, this review provides the first structured mapping of patient experience mechanisms and considerations to virtual care contexts. Findings support HCPs and health systems in tailoring communication, relational, and digital strategies to enhance care across hybrid models. Continual reflection of what results in positive patient experiences is essential as we continue to transition to hybrid models of care.