Healthcare is behind other industries in digital transformation and customer service. Now is a prime time to catch up, according to Lisa Goodlett, CFO of MUSC Health in Charleston, S.C.
Ms. Goodlett joined the "Becker's Healthcare Podcast" to talk about the areas still ripe for technology disruption in healthcare and what systems can do to make the payment process more patient-friendly.
Note: This response is edited lightly for clarity.
Question: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for disruption in healthcare today?
Lisa Goodlett: I've always been a big proponent of learning from other industries. Recently I was interacting with an investment company, and instead of having to prove my identification, they took my voice imprint, and I thought that was amazing. We need that technology as we're talking to people about their care. How can we do these verifications?
You could check in when you register, and all those complicated steps could be done online, and we could have voice authentication. How do we pick up this technology? For patient refunds, other industries are using ways to interact with customers commercially. We want to get into using Zelle and Venmo and really get out of the paper process [for billing].
We've got a push that we call digital transformation and enhancing the patient digital experience. I think consumers are going to demand efficient scheduling like the airlines have. How do we move ourselves from a traditional academic center to this very pliable, consumer -friendly organization that can make change happen? And the benefit is this change increases our price elasticity on some of our services.
In healthcare, it's also sometimes a struggle to gain access. How do we get into the iPhone in a different way? We're an Epic shop, but we're not going to have that be the only way patients can interface with us. It should be what's easiest for the patient. How do we get them information they need from us? How can they self-schedule and move themselves forward? We define success in digital transformation by how many touches we reduce, not only for our internal workforce, but also for our customers and patients. Are six clicks necessary, or can we do it in just one? We also want to streamline those interactions and have transparency in the process.