Although the provision of healthcare is inherently focused on the health, wellbeing, and welfare of the patient, this does not necessarily mean that the healthcare industry more generally is ‘customer focused’.
For many years, this lack of customer focus was reflected in consumer surveys of the healthcare industry, which consistently ranked as among the most disliked industries.
There were, of course, many reasons for this – not least the fact that individuals do not generally like to undergo medical procedures. However, negative patient experiences of healthcare organizations were often exacerbated by excessive red tape, bureaucracy, and a lack of understanding of the processes and procedures in place.
Despite this, change is underway in the healthcare sector, and we are beginning to see a greater organizational focus on being more customer centric.
But how exactly are healthcare organizations, and the healthcare industry more generally, becoming more customer focused? And what can the healthcare sector learn from more consumer-driven industries?
Digital communication tools
Digital communication tools have helped many industries and sectors to become much more customer focused. Every day, customers interact with chatbots and use social media to get in contact with companies and other organizations.
Banks and financial institutions, for example, use video chat tools to provide customer support or to complete customer verification procedures. In other sectors such as education, digital communication tools provide ways of reaching new audiences and increasing student engagement.
In much the same way, the healthcare sector has increasingly looked to digital communication tools to reduce patient backlogs within healthcare organizations and to make healthcare more accessible.
In this context, humans, healthcare professionals and digital tools work together to create a digital environment that meets the needs of all involved.
Digital communication tools became particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic, when healthcare organizations pivoted to using telehealth platforms to deliver healthcare services in line with social distancing requirements. This meant moving from seeing patients primarily in person to treating them virtually – particularly for elective or more routine matters.
While telehealth was touted as the future of medicine for parts of the world where ‘normal’ healthcare delivery was not possible, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that it has a much wider application than previously thought. In particular, it was welcomed by patients for routine or elective matters.
Personalization
Another way that the healthcare sector is becoming more customer focused is through personalization.
As is the case in many other sectors, ‘customers’ – in this case ‘patients’ – are increasingly opting for bespoke service packages rather than generic ones.
In the healthcare setting, this isn’t just born out of a dislike of being treated like everyone else. Rather, it is rooted in an understanding that everyone’s healthcare needs are unique, and the delivery of healthcare should therefore be bespoke to the individual receiving it.
Personalization involves leveraging a wide variety of data to understand patients as individuals and using this information to proactively meet their needs.
We have seen this trend come to the fore of healthcare provision during the COVID-19 pandemic, when healthcare organizations proactively reached out to individuals who were at higher risk or who lived in hot spots.
Personalization can also be made more effective through other technological innovations, such as big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
The healthcare practitioners of tomorrow will be well versed in these diagnostic and treatment methodologies, with accelerated BSN online programs already beginning to incorporate this new focus.
Lessons to be learned
As we emerge from the aftermath of the pandemic, it is undeniable that healthcare systems are undergoing profound changes. Everything from the proliferation of telemedicine to online pharmacies, new digital diagnostic tools, and the emergence of new and exciting healthcare start-ups are changing how we interact with healthcare systems.
We have also seen that healthcare services are increasingly beginning to leverage the benefits of customer-centric perspectives and personalized healthcare.
With that said, the onus is now on healthcare organizations to integrate a customer-focused perspective into their operational practices and use this perspective to guide their future strategy.
A customer-centric approach can be used to change the imbalances that have traditionally characterized healthcare settings by placing greater focus on patients themselves and by more actively involving them in their own care processes.
The benefits of this can be significant. By actively engaging patients in their healthcare processes, you allow them to better understand their own health risks and treatment options. This creates a newfound sense of engagement in their treatment, which ultimately holds the potential to achieve better health outcomes.
The pillars of customer-focused care
In order to make healthcare systems more customer and patient focused, the following five pillars provide a good roadmap for how to bring this about. Professor John Quelch of Harvard University refers to this as the ‘5 Es’:
- Experience: Patients ultimately want experiences that will lead either to a cure for whatever issue they are having, or that will improve their current health.
- Empathy: Patients want to feel that their healthcare providers are trying to truly understand them when providing care.
- Efficiency: Patients desire care that is delivered effectively and efficiently and doesn’t leave them waiting.
- Economy: Patients want to feel that the care they are receiving represents fair value compared to what else is on offer.
- Empowerment: Patients want some degree of choice in the care they receive, as well as the opportunity to directly feedback into their treatment plans.
According to Professor Quelch, all these elements are essential to deliver a customer-centric healthcare experience.
