The three big trends for healthcare leaders to watch today are digital transformation, telehealth and value-based care, according to Amy Compton-Phillips, MD, president and chief clinical officer of Providence in Renton, Wash.
Dr. Compton-Phillips joined the Becker's Healthcare Podcast to talk about her top priorities today and where she sees healthcare headed. Here is an excerpt from the conversation about emerging trends in healthcare.
Click here to hear the full episode.
Note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What three emerging trends should healthcare leaders be keeping an eye on?
Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips: The three trends are digital, distance and holistic.
The digital trend is happening in all aspects of our lives. It is crazy to assume that people are going to be happy with only booking an appointment between nine and five, Monday through Friday, on our terms. We ask them to call today, wait on hold for half an hour to get an appointment that's inconvenient for them a month from now. How rational is that? How do we make sure that the same digital tools that have revolutionized travel and banking apply to healthcare? Then we really have to get our doctors comfortable with ceding authority to book patients online. They have to give away autonomy and their ability to manage their life as a doctor to go digital. But it's absolutely critical.
Then there is a concept of simplifying things for consumers by shortening the digital distance. During COVID-19, we didn't have people come into an office, and in fact, we were able to provide a significant amount of care because of the easing of cross-state restrictions. We could really move knowledge, not people, to provide care. Now we can provide care at a distance, especially if you're in a rural area and the doctors that treat a problem all happen to be in an urban area. That's the 'distance' trend.
The third trend I'm seeing is holistic care, with the push toward value-based care. It flips the model that doctors get paid to take care of sick patients, and instead says doctors get paid to keep people healthy and provide excellent care. I really do think that, depending on where you are in the country, the somewhat nascent trends toward shifting to value-based care is going to dramatically accelerate, ideally in a way that provides capitated primary care and some kind of bundle for specialty care. Then we can have the healthcare workforce join in this journey toward much more holistic value-based care.