Healthcare watchers and participants, including myself, often talk about the consumerism of healthcare.
Our CEO Jon Schepke recently wrote in Street Fight about how hospitals can and are becoming more responsive by applying healthcare practices. One point Jon made that especially resonated with me was the way healthcare providers are teaming with technology firms such as Apple to give patients more control over their personal data.
In fact, addressing lack of patient control is one of the most important ways healthcare providers can adapt to the consumerism of healthcare – and doing so starts with the right educational content at the right time.
This reality really hit home as I read a recent Quora thread that was excerpted in Forbes. The thread, “Where can innovation occur in hospital care?” zeroed in on the one major way patients differ from consumers in other industries: lack of control over their experience.
As Nitin Goyal, MD, founder and CEO at Pulse Platform, wrote,
When people walk into a hospital or doctor’s office, they think of themselves as a patient—a position lacking control. They’re in a foreign environment, and that makes them uncomfortable. Something is likely wrong. So wrong that they need help from a professional. In many ways, that unease is due to their lack of knowledge and education about what’s going on. The disease, the costs, the time frames—they’re all very opaque to the patient.
And although patients are consumers, there’s a disparity between the two.
Why?
Because being a consumer is incredibly different from being a patient. As a patient, you lack true control, which increases fear and vulnerability.
How do hospitals and physicians address this disparity? Dr. Goyal urges hospitals to adopt empathetic consumerism, or using digital tools to educate patients about their personal health. The use of digital to inform patients every step of the way, especially when they are likely stressed about their personal health, “can give patients back some control they experience as consumers, without taking away the meaningful relationships between patients and physicians,” in Dr. Goyal’s words
What does empathetic consumerism look like? Dr. Goyal does not elaborate in the Quora thread, but I thought of some examples. They look something like this:
● Providers using their websites and location pages to educate patients before they need care. Providers and physicians are getting more sophisticated about using deep content and visual storytelling to answer common questions that patients have about healthcare. For instance, as we have discussed on our blog, Resurgens Orthopaedics has an excellent patient education section on its website that uses a striking image of a human skeleton overlaid with hot links that explain topics that patients often have questions about, such as neck pain and spinal care. And Mayo Clinic does an excellent job using Facebook livestreams to give people an opportunity to ask its physicians questions about topics such as childcare.
● Empowering patients with wellness data. As Jon Schepke discussed in Street Fight, Apple is among the technology firms partnering with hospitals to launch programs in which patients are given 24/7 access to their personal health data. The use of smartphones and apps makes it possible for patients to track their own vital data, such as patients’ cholesterol levels.
● Providing a better patient stay. A number of hospitals are helping ease the stress of a hospital stay by increasing their feelings of control and confidence through a more pleasant stay that keeps the focus of care on the patient. For instance, Intermountain Medical Center has launched patient centered rooms focused on different needs, such as moms and their newborns rooming together. Oviedo Medical Center uses electronic communications boards (“MyCare” boards) to keep patients up to date on who their medical teams are, upcoming tests, and discharge dates – and this kind of information is crucial to helping patients feel less powerless during their stays.
The future of empathetic consumerism consists of using digital to:
● Inform and comfort patients before, during, and after patients receive care.
● Empower patients with knowledge via wearables to keep patients healthy and reduce the need for a hospital stay.
● Check in with patients about their personal health remotely, using tools such as telemedicine. Doing so takes care and education closer to the patient.
The heathcare industry is just scratching the surface of what’s possible with empathetic consumerism. I’m excited about what the future holds. For more insight into how to apply technology, consulting, and business intelligence to improve patient acquisition and retention, contact SIM Partners. We’re here to help.