Customer Engagement

I'm the Patient, Remember Me?

Lou Simon

You slip, fall, and your leg is injured. You don’t know how serious it is, but you know something is very wrong. What to do? The urgent care place is miles away. Your spouse wants you to go to the Emergency Room, but that will take hours and may lead to more doctor visits. Getting your leg fixed isn’t like driving through a McDonald's because you’re hungry and ordering a cheeseburger. But why not?

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Bringing Patients Back to the Center

In recent years, patients have been depersonalized. Healthcare providers seem more interested in a patient’s paperwork—healthcare insurance, MRI scans, past medical history, family medical history, allergies and more—than the actual person. Doctors and hospitals have an administrative burden that’s not necessarily in-line with focusing on the patient.

However, new technologies are helping to make a difference. Healthcare systems now talk to each other across providers, there are now telemedicine technologies that help with flexible scheduling and urgent care. The information collected can be used to enhance the patient experience as well as improve provider information on care. Connected systems, coupled with design thinking and newer mobile concepts can help benefit all parties involved.

Let’s go back to the McDonald’s experience. The drive-through itself was an invention to enhance the customer experience from a convenience standpoint. Healthcare too can innovate to understand and engage its customers and create experiences that are less cumbersome and inconvenient but more personal. To set the stage for engagement, top management needs to set a culture that focuses on the patient experience and take some risks to help patients. That’s what creates trust and that trust translates into better business results for the providers. More on customer engagement starting at the top .

What Do Patients Want?

Patients typically are limited to engage with providers via a phone call or an office visit. Patients, however, want to use all of the technologies available. Patients now have the control to choose which technologies best suit them, similar to retail customers. They want to schedule appointments online and get immediate access to care, even without visiting the doctor’s office.

Providers recognize that Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media (maybe other mobile applications) give a path for the provider to post information. They may not have realized that these media also allow the patient to return the favor. The recent surge in the telehealth industry and the success that companies like Teladoc and Americanwell are experiencing are a testament to how technology can be used for ways to enable the experience patients are expecting.

With greater patient control comes higher expectations of the patient experience and the rationale for greater engagement. This has implications for the business side:

  • A  2% increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%. *
  • 55% of consumers say they would pay more for a better experience with companies they interact with.*
  • eVisits to healthcare workers have increased by 400% over the last few years.**  

A better experience, more revenue, and less cost in onboarding new patients all seem like a good start to thinking differently in healthcare.

Making It Happen

Patients (your customers) who are engaged are not only willing to help businesses get better at what they do, they typically want to be active in the process. Patient experience is often described through four factors: Interactions, Culture, Perceptions and Continuum of Care. The act of practicing medicine is a constant learning experience. Understanding the process and asking patients to help establishes trust that all parties are participating in the experience. 

While working to improve the continuum of care, asking the questions, “How does your particular population of users want to interact with you” and “What are other people doing” can help align patients needs to the healthcare provided. As Adam Menzies states in a blog article, “A good starting point is to investigate where your partners and customers are already engaged in co-creation.”

The first step to having a better connection to patients is to work with a partner who has had experience understanding how customers utilize current tools, someone that’s versed in healthcare (its unique regulations) and can utilize design tools. Work with them to understand the technologies that can make the experience fluid while improving intake and retention.

Over the years, Summa has worked with a variety of healthcare providers employing a wide range of healthcare delivery models and healthcare technologies. Our interdisciplinary approach that takes into account the patient needs as well our clients’ technology requirements and the business strategies deliver high value to the patients when and where they need it. For more about Customer Engagement and Co-Creation with your customers, patients in this case, Summa has a number of related articles in the Customer Engagement section of our blog.

Sources:
* 44 facts defining the future of customer engagement
** Almost one in six doctor visits will be virtual this year

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Lou Simon
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lou Simon, Summa

Solutions Architect, CSPO