Great podcast recently on healthcare rap focused on consumer strategy in healthcare.
Thinking about a consumer strategy in healthcare
Was particularly interested in contributions of Craig Kartchner of HonorHealth and his thoughts in his role as AVP Marketing and customer experience.
Patients love their doctors and doctors – from their perspective – have been patient (read ‘patient’ for ‘customer’/ ‘consumer’) focused from the word go. Craig thinks of the patient as a customer (or potential customer) before and after the patient experience – and he wants them to be a repeat customer. The doctor may see a monogamous relationship – the customer will have multiple relationships.
Improving customer experience
Some ideas:
- Research where we are failing – in the before and after experience (We need to accommodate their needs and wants for entire journey – not just sitting in front of physicians)
- Streamline access to care – when, where, how, speed
- Improve care navigation – multiple systems, multiple visits, multiple tests, different sets of instructions
- Simplify patient communication – ability for patient to communicate with clinical, financial, administrative – too complex, too slow, too unpredictable
- Don’t let the tech get in the way of humanity/ empathy – patients want to be there for their kids/ their grandkids – may need a shoulder to cry on
Where can tech help?
Lots of ideas – leverage what you have:
- Online scheduling
- online wait lists – automatically offer appointments as they become available
- eCheckin – avoid queues/ delays
- telemedicine/ telehealth – avoid the trip
- asynchronous care – complete electronic form and provide initial diagnosis
Challenge/ opportunity
Consumers (patients) are not interested in our complexity – they want it to be easier and cost less. Do we really understand what drives consumer thinking and decision making – to select a particular service or no service at all?
If we are to move to a focus on keeping people well we will need to build out better relationships. Intelligent outreach to patients, better care plans, people are more likely to follow treatment plans and in turn this will keep people out of hospital.
