Consumerism is reshaping healthcare. With greater access to information, patients are becoming increasingly active and empowered in their healthcare decisions, as well as selective in where and how they receive care. This shift is prompting health systems to use proactive, intentional and data-driven programs that foster patient engagement and loyalty.
To learn more about the strategies driving such programs, Becker's Healthcare recently spoke with three managing directors from Huron — Gregg Loughman, Rich Phillips and Lindsay Rubin — about patient loyalty, understanding the consumer journey and precision marketing.
Strong patient loyalty programs are grounded in trust, influence + data
Loyalty programs are all about creating memorable experiences and cultivating influence. The foundation of influence is trust which is earned by delivering on the brand promise and by providing value within each interaction. To drive patient satisfaction and retention, healthcare organizations must assess the current state of patient experience (beyond CAHPS), the ability to earn patient trust and determine what it will take to deliver meaningful improvements.
"Until you gain a trusting relationship with a patient, you won't earn real influence," Mr. Phillips said. "And without influence, you won't have loyalty. To cultivate trust, influence and loyalty, you must invest over time in creating differentiated experiences and delivering value as defined by the patient. Cultivating these capabilities is a multi-year journey, so organizations can't afford to wait. "
Data is another critical element of effective patient loyalty and retention. It's imperative, however, that health systems look beyond just clinical data; additional data is necessary for a more robust, holistic view.
"We're on a mission to quickly close the gap between how healthcare organizations and consumer-centric organizations think about loyalty and engagement," Mr. Phillips said. "Data is at the center of that. We focus on 'share of care,' which is an indicator of whether a patient is likely to stay with a health system based on previous patterns and behaviors."
Huron helps health systems develop a data-driven, fact-based understanding of the current patient loyalty and engagement landscape and then employs technologies to make these data-driven insights actionable.
"We unpack things like 'off ramps,' which are places where patients leave healthcare organizations, sometimes for good," Mr. Phillips said.
In the struggle to retain healthcare talent, employee loyalty is equally critical
Commonalities exist between the patient and employee experience. One such commonality is the importance of convenience. As many clinicians face burnout and mental health issues in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations must make it easier for people to do their jobs.
"As our customers introduce new technologies to improve care delivery, we must evaluate the impact they create on clinicians." Mr. Loughman said. "Are we reducing burden, eliminating friction, and giving back staff time? Using data about staff’s current experience in conjunction with design thinking principles, we have an opportunity to use technology to solve problems and give people back time to spend with patients or receive respite themselves. This is the power of ‘and’ to increase the loyalty of patients and staff through an intentional approach to analytics and innovation. If we cannot stem staff leaving our institutions and the industry at large, improving patient loyalty will remain an uphill battle."
Some health systems are focusing on both ends of the employee lifecycle — looking at how to recruit as well as retain employees once they're on board.
"How can organizations be known in their market as the place where people want to work?" Ms. Rubin said. "On the other end, how do they retain people by giving them a career path and creating loyalty? It's a difficult challenge."
Consumer journey mapping provides invaluable insights into the unvarnished reality of the patient experience
When processes aren't patient-centered, it's likely that those processes — and the programs built on them — will be inherently flawed. Huron brings patients into consumer journey mapping to serve as the voice of truth.
"We worked with a health system where it took 48 hours between the time a patient received a breast cancer diagnosis and when they saw a physician. The organization justifiably felt great about that," Mr. Phillips said. "However, when we talked to patients during customer journey mapping, one said, 'It wasn't 48 hours, it was 10,000 moments of terror.' If you don't incorporate the patient voice into the process, you might really miss the mark."
Each touchpoint in the patient experience is an opportunity to alleviate anxiety, fear and friction. The goal is to make it easier for people to navigate the healthcare system.
"Something that's very different in healthcare compared to other industries is that end users are often disenfranchised and told what to do in their care pathway," Mr. Loughman said. "Choice isn't always given. Yet, people want to know they are active participants in their care."
Precision marketing and data-enabled growth can bolster health system finances
Precision marketing uses data and technology to identify individual consumers based on a specific set of criteria and then communicate with them about relevant topics. Innovative health systems are using this approach to reach patients, measure what's working, and align demand with capacity.
"As healthcare organizations come out of COVID, this is the highest-ROI approach to growth," Mr. Phillips said. "Data-enabled growth utilizes information and technology as an infrastructure to activate precision audience selection, outreach, and measurement."
Huron’s breakthrough methodology leverages a robust data platform that draws on the industry’s leading database, data science, and advanced relationship management technology to personalize the patient experience, highlight areas where patient attrition is occurring, and support smart and precise market outreach to communicate health system services to patients who may benefit from their use. This approach is equally important in value-based care settings to help patients improve their health while managing the cost of care.
“We see leading healthcare organizations developing a more holistic understanding of patients,” Mr. Loughman said. “They create a total view of individuals based on past consumption, as well as emotional and clinical needs. That shapes community engagement.”
To create more personalized care pathways and patient communications, organizations must break down data silos and reimagine how to use their existing information.
“There’s an incredible amount of information already within hospitals and health systems,” Mr. Loughman said. “If you can link that with novel data sources and connect the dots, you can look at patients over the lifecycle of their experience. You can evaluate not only their clinical interactions but also their interactions with the access center, health and wellness assets and more.”
One approach to precision marketing is to identify what processes should happen in different disease states. “Look at the most prevalent diagnoses in your market and rethink the patient journey from front to back,” Ms. Rubin said. “Much of the data is already there, but it requires a change to the operating model.”
Turning data into transformative, growth-oriented programs
Once healthcare organizations can unlock the power of their data, their ability to generate powerful insights and make them actionable grows dramatically.
"Health systems are sitting on a gold mine of information," Ms. Rubin said. "Turning that data into an asset is the key to getting closer to the people who matter. For some organizations, working with a partner is the fastest way to figure how, where and when to improve patient and employee loyalty."