How healthcare should respond to the Uber effect

The healthcare industry has consistently prided itself in being "always on." Now, thanks to the Uber effect, healthcare systems also need to be always responsive and always transparent.

We're living in an on-demand age in which people get what they want -- and they want it now. This expectation for businesses to meet the needs of our on-demand lives is the Uber effect. When Uber launched in 2009, the ride-sharing service did a lot more than disrupt the transportation industry. Uber, like Amazon before it, raised levels of expectations across multiple industries, including healthcare.

Amazon made consumers ask, "How come my healthcare experience can't be as user friendly as what I get on Amazon?" Uber is now making us ask, "Why can't I schedule an appointment with my doctor as easily as I can order an Uber?" and "Why can't my healthcare provider be as transparent about its costs and service ratings as Uber is on its app?"

These questions are becoming even more pointed as other industries quickly respond to the Uber effect by introducing on-demand functions such as drone deliveries and buy buttons, which close the gap between searching for products and buying them. Businesses ranging from Taco Bell to 7-11 are finding ways (usually through mobile) to order services and products and have them delivered on-demand (and some of those businesses are partnering with Uber).

And healthcare needs to catch up.

Uber is not the single reason for our shift to an on-demand economy. What Uber did was successfully tap into our increased reliance on mobile phones and apps to navigate the world, especially for local services. The launch of the iPhone radically shifted the relationship between brand and consumer from one of pushing ads to responding to consumers with the right information at the right time and place. As a result, businesses are learning how to be found during micro-moments, which Google defines as times when people use their mobile phones to figure out what to do, where to go, and what to buy.

Those micro-moments have been occurring increasingly at the local level: Google reports that since 2011, we've seen a 34x increase in near me searches, with 80-percent of those occurring on mobile phones.

The increased use of mobile is significant. Mobile radically accelerates the time from research to decision, including the research of healthcare options. Uber successfully anticipated and responded to this behavior.

So where does the Uber effect leave healthcare? Consider some telling statistics:

80 percent of patients look online first for health information. And you know what going online means: an expectation for speed and transparency.

86 percent of physicians believe that mobile apps and devices will play a major role in a doctor's practice.

77 percent of patients think that the ability to book, change, or cancel appointments online is important.

Patients, using mobile devices, are acting like empowered consumers. Healthcare systems need to up their game in a few key ways:

Be responsive during the near me micro-moments when patients are looking for healthcare options close by. Being responsive means a number of things. It means being visible with accurate location data, such as the name, address, and phone number of your physicians, which patients need to find you during a near me micro-moment. It also means providing a useful physician directory on your website. About 40 percent of your site visitors are looking for physicians -- so give them what they need. But being responsive also means making it easy for patients to undertake the next moment, or the action that occurs after they find you. For instance, encouraging a next moment means providing easy physician scheduling tools on your profile pages, or a physician directory navigational experience that works even better than Google.

Be transparent. One of the ways healthcare systems are responding to patients' increased need for transparency is by sharing the results of patient satisfaction surveys more proactively, in the same consumer-friendly star format you see on websites such as Amazon, TripAdvisor, and Yelp. After all, 45 percent of consumers look at online reviews before scheduling an appointment. Being transparent also means sharing more information about physicians, especially make-or-break details such as insurance plans they honor and their areas of specialty. Your physicians are the public face of your healthcare system. Are you humanizing the physician page by being transparent?

Be mobile. Consumers are probably not conducting sensitive, complex research on their mobile phones, but they're certainly looking for your physicians and essential services such as urgent care. Your physician pages need to be visible on mobile devices, especially as Google continues to penalize sites that are not mobile-friendly (as is happening in May 2016). Solving for mobile moments also means surfacing content that people are most likely to be looking for on mobile devices, such as emergency medical care. Ensure that your content prominently lists emergency services and payment options for emergencies, among other details.

Bottom line: consumers are going to get what they want, and when they want it. And mobile is just one catalyst for change. Smart objects in the home are accelerating the Uber effect. Recently, Boston Children's Hospital launched an app that gives medical advice through voice-activated Amazon home devices such as Echo. Being responsive to patients now means making friends with Siri. How are you responding to the Uber effect?

The views, opinions and positions expressed within these guest posts are those of the author alone and do not represent those of Becker's Hospital Review/Becker's Healthcare. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to the author and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with them.​

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