The following is a guest article by Janelle Estes, Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, a video-based human insight platform.
In a world that runs at lightning speed and thrives on instant gratification, getting in to see a doctor tends to be a painfully slow exception.
On average, it takes 26 days to schedule a new patient appointment in-office in large U.S. cities, according to a recent study by medical staffing firm AMN Healthcare. And that number is rising, up from 24 days five years ago.
No wonder telehealth adoption is surging.
Development and innovation in telehealth was already underway in recent years, but usage skyrocketed during the pandemic as people sought alternatives to in-person visits and it remains high today. According to a McKinsey report, telehealth utilization is 38 times higher than before COVID-19.
The result: healthcare consumerization that is transforming the industry in much the same way that digitization has shaken up retail and so many other sectors. The balance of power has shifted to individuals rather than bureaucracies as a whole as choices and expectations grow.
Truth is, in an on-demand world where people can order almost anything on Amazon and have it show up on their doorstep a day or two later, being forced to wait 26 days for a doctor appointment feels archaic.
Consumers want access to healthcare with the same ease and speed they have become accustomed to in the rest of their lives. That dynamic encompasses not only telemedicine but a range of other digital experiences like health apps and wearable devices.
“Virtual healthcare models and business models are evolving and proliferating,” McKinsey said, “moving from purely virtual urgent care to a range of services” that could “improve consumer experience/convenience, access, outcomes, and affordability.”
Doctors also understand the new environment. A survey by the American Medical Association (AMA) showed that physicians, like their patients, have responded very positively to the telehealth spike. Eighty-five percent feel telehealth has increased timeliness of care, 75 percent said it allows them to deliver high-quality care, and 70 percent are motivated to increase telehealth use.
Further fueling telehealth’s momentum, the federal government and many states have taken action to require that healthcare providers be reimbursed the same amount for telehealth visits as those in person.
Digitally enabled care is here to stay, and the healthcare industry must step up its game to deliver not just a high-quality patient experience but an easy, enjoyable customer one.
Let’s dive deeper into four specific areas that matter to healthcare consumers and the questions industry players must address.
- Medical Sites, Portals, and Apps
So many of people’s interactions with physicians have moved online. Patient portals, for example, have become a preferred platform for asking questions, getting prescriptions refilled, and receiving test results.
Given the growing importance of these access points, healthcare providers should go the extra mile in making sure they are as simple to use as possible. Sites and apps don’t necessarily need to be elegant in design, but they should at least be straightforward to navigate and use, especially given that healthcare consumers tend to skew older and are less tech-savvy.
Is our portal easy or frustratingly clunky? Would someone with motor impairment have trouble using it? Our site offers a way to book appointments online, but does it really work? Are patients confident that we’re as responsive online as in person or on the phone, or are they afraid something may fall through the cracks? Is access to electronic health records immediate, and are they clear to read? These are the kinds of questions healthcare providers should ask.
- Delivery of Care Instructions, Reminders, and more
Healthcare providers now are obligated to think like consumer brands and consider the mechanisms by which they communicate with their “customers.”
Do we enable every patient to choose how they receive information, appointment reminders, etc. (email, text, phone call)? Do we bombard patients with more general outreach (health tips, etc.) than the individual cares to see? Do we let them opt in for certain communications and opt out of others.
Again, these are the sorts of questions consumer brands ask themselves all the time and healthcare providers must do the same in assessing their overall “brand” experience.
- Long-Term Care Experiences
Meg Barron, the AMA’s vice president of digital health innovations, has said, “It’s not whether telehealth will be offered, but how best to offer telehealth services as we move toward what we’re terming digitally enabled care—which is not just hybrid care, but more so fully integrated in-person and virtual care based on clinical appropriateness.”
That’s spot on. The digital transformation that healthcare providers are undergoing isn’t about this or that technology in isolation, or about one mode of delivery or another, but rather a holistic upleveling of the entire consumer experience. With everything they do, physicians and other providers should think, as consumer brands do, in terms of the buyer journey.
- Wearable Devices
While healthcare is shifting to digital experiences, there’s also a proliferation of wearable devices and trackers tied to overall wellness. Wearable technology includes electronic devices worn on or close to the body that monitor health or physical activity and can even send data to a physician or other healthcare professional in real time.
The global wearable devices market is projected to grow to $30.1 billion by 2026 from $16.2 billion in 2021, according to Markets and Markets. Research from Insider Intelligence shows that more than 80 percent of consumers are willing to wear such technology.
However, the makers of these devices and the physicians who recommend them must carefully assess how well patients can interact with them in their own natural settings. Plain and simple, they have to be easy to use or they’ll just end up collecting dust in a drawer.
It’s really important that manufacturers and healthcare pros reach a thorough understanding of devices’ real-world effectiveness.
By keeping these four areas in mind, healthcare providers can meet the challenge that digitization presents and offer their patients/customers the best-in-class digital experiences they have come to expect in other parts of their lives.
It’s a historic challenge, but if the industry maintains the right focus, the prognosis is good for meeting it.
