Healthcare

Build a trustful health system while focusing on delivering value to your customers.

Introduction

Improving the patient experience is a hot topic within the healthcare industry as patients demand to be seen as customers, not just as the next appointment.

More than three-quarters of consumers have a negative view of healthcare experience. Unfortunately, most healthcare providers and receivers didn’t always pay attention to the “customer service experience”, instead they focused on the transactional aspect of the encounter. It’s no wonder that healthcare has consistently ranked near the bottom of industry-wide NPS Scores (a scoring-based measurement that gauges customer satisfaction) year-after-year.

According to Consumer survey findings from PwC’s Health Research Institute 2020:

- 23% percent of survey respondents mentioned that they had already made or were planning adjustments to their spending on healthcare visits as a result of COVID-19.

- 78% percent of these consumers said they would skip at least one visit such as a well visit, maintenance visit for a chronic illness, elective procedure or recommended lab test or screening.

- 30% predicted that their spending on healthcare visits would increase overall.

Healthcare organizations just recently realized that patients want and expect the same level of personalization in healthcare such as in their everyday life. Providers are starting to think about patient experience holistically; focusing on people, investing in technology and expanding the ways and places in which they deliver care. However, there is still a gap in perception between providers and consumers on the quality of experience currently being provided.

Key Challenges in Adopting a Patient Centered Mindset

Lack of Service

Despite the best intentions to deliver a better patient experience, providers struggle to make it a priority among competing initiatives. They also underestimate the degree to which patient experience fails to meet consumer expectations. Meanwhile, on the list of hospital CEOs’ top concerns, patient satisfaction does not make the top five.

Lack of Consumer-Grade Technology Platform

One major obstacle that inhibits collaboration and communication between payers, providers, specialists, caregivers, and most importantly, patients, is the lack of a consumer-grade technology platform that can provide a comprehensive view of the patient by collecting ALL data in one source. Today, most patient data is siloed, which makes it difficult for doctors to get the full picture of a patient’s history to properly diagnose, treat, or provide the best medical care.

Inability to Access Data and Information

Personal health data that are stored safely behind encryption and authentication layers provide patients with a peace of mind that the information isn’t getting into the wrong hands. The same layers of security, however, can be a roadblock that inhibits the exchange of data which can be critical to the outcome of the health of the patient.

Ability to Provide the Right Tools for Employees

There are much more than a competitive salary and the potential of career advancement opportunities, which is needed in order to build an effective and lasting employer-employee relationship. Healthcare organizations need to think how they can empower their employees with the proper training and technologies to best serve customers.

Planned Budgeted Healthcare Marketing Plan

In order to achieve brand awareness, foster customer’s engagement, keep the brand at the forefront of people’s minds, healthcare organizations need to understand the importance of a planned budgeted marketing plan.

Opportunities

Getting a 360 View of the Customer

According to the “COVID-19 Benefits Survey-Willis Towers Watson”, about 2 in 5 employers are planning to revise their 2021 health care strategy, putting at their top priorities to:

provide access to high quality mental solutions and affordable health care
address work from home challenges such as employee loneliness and care giving needs

Hospitals will need to invest in an integration platform that allows developers to connect systems rapidly, which will give to healthcare enterprises the ability to bring together CRM and EMR data. In order to improve customer experience, hospitals need to invest in:

data and interoperability capabilities
virtual health and digital solutions
offerings to enable the shift of patients out of the hospital

Providing Consistent Service

Building a trustful health system requires the following elements that prioritize the patient’s experience:

a courteous and respectful bedside manner
the understanding to properly document and resolve complaints
the ability to be attentive and receptive to patients needs, no matter what the circumstance the ability to treat patients like they’re your own family members

Employers focus on promoting virtual medical care by raising awareness and reducing point of care costs. Disjointed systems and a lack of consistent tools to assist in provider-patient communication prevent healthcare workers from accessing the relevant and needed information in a timely manner.

Planning your Healthcare Marketing Strategies

Healthcare marketing is a strategy for doctors, hospitals, healthcare networks, health practitioners, caregivers, healthcare providers, and healthcare marketing executives. Rapid changes in the healthcare industry markets require agility and focus. With so much information available online, patients no longer feel the need to visit the closest hospital, a medical practice closest to their location, or even healthcare practices with multiple locations in the community. That’s why it’s so important to have a planned, budgeted healthcare marketing plan to reach new and returning patients.

Digital Transformation of Antiquated Systems and Data Security

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the tech trends already in motion, such as digital care delivery and interactive patient experiences. Data security within the healthcare industry must adapt and evolve to strike the right balance of protection and access that’s beneficial to all parties involved. Digital reality—AR/VR—will be mandatory and pervasive for procedures, data visualization, pain/dependence management, behavioral/mental health, and even medical training. The benefits of 5G will be felt by each of the key participants in the healthcare value chain.

Employee Value Preposition

The experience people have with healthcare staff has a very strong impact on the overall experience. People—staff and employees—need to feel empowered since they play a critical role with customers. By arming employees with the latest tools, whether it’s a tablet to use in the field, or software that enables seamless communication between them, patients, and patient families, you’re giving employees the resources they need to be more efficient with their time and more successful at their jobs. It also projects an aura that they are an asset worth investing in, which is good for employee retention.

Solutions

Amid uncertainty and change, the health care sector is looking for new ways to transform the journey of care. By focusing on the differentiated needs of health care stakeholders, our unique solutions help clients transform uncertainty into possibility, and rapid change into lasting progress.

VCL recommends the following solutions to overcome above stated challenges based on described needs

Solution to Enhance a Passionate Patient Service Environment

Patient intimate service ability& Consumer lifetime management
Emotional intelligence & Agility
Managing change & complexities Solutions to Enhance digital strategy transformation
From vision to cohesion-transforming managed care business model
Digital leadership-sustaining accelerated transformation toward the future