Things are changing quickly in the healthcare marketplace. It wasn’t long ago that patients were willing to abide by providers’ schedules to receive information and care, but paradigms have shifted. 

Increased connected technology and rethought retail experiences have contributed to the expectation that anytime, anywhere access should be the norm. Consumers now expect easier scheduling of visits. More access to clinical staff. Quickly referenceable information. Integration of digital/mobile tools to suit their lifestyles—and that’s just the beginning.

Accelerating this shift in consumer expectations are a few important factors:

1. Non-traditional players are changing the game in healthcare. CVS and Walmart are buying insurers. Amazon, J.P. Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway are collaborating to transform the healthcare system. Uber is even allowing doctors to hail rides for patients. 

What does it mean? Consumers are encouraged to question the status quo of healthcare service delivery.

2. Telemedicine is taking off. Telemedicine is on the rise and is now offered by 75 percent of institutions. Roughly 80 percent of U.S. states enable providers to offer and be reimbursed for telehealth technology, and hospitals now generate 47 percent of their revenue from outpatient care.

What does it mean? Consumers expect more from you based on what they’re seeing from others.

3. Pay-for-performance is here to stay. There is a progressive shift among regulators, payers and others to reimburse providers based on their quality of care, not just the quantity. Health costs are high in the U.S., but outcomes lag… and providers are now being held accountable.

What does it mean? If consumer frustrations with providers’ slowness to embrace new norms affect their ratings toward hospitals, revenues could suffer.

Give the People What They Want. And Tell Them About It.
Competition for patients (and revenue) is beginning to center on the quality of care provided, as well as the quality of the patient experience. And that doesn’t just mean in the clinical setting. Today’s consumers want a certain level of communication and accessibility from your organization. If they aren’t receiving that, they’ll go elsewhere.  

At akhia communications, we’re not experts in telemedicine integration. We’re not going to tell you how to make same-day appointment scheduling work for your organization. We’re not medical professionals.

But we are communication professionals. We will tell you how to craft strong messaging campaigns that demonstrate the value your organization places on clear communication with patients. How to utilize paid, earned, shared and owned media assets to get your story in front of information-hungry consumers, so they’ll understand why your healthcare system takes their experience seriously. And, we’ll tell you how to stand out from increasingly stiff competition by using your words, as well as your actions.

We believe that communication drives business and should be a central pillar of everything you do. It’s a mantra we’ve helped a variety of organizations adopt (including many in the healthcare space), and it’s something we want to help you with, too.

Don’t let today’s tech-driven, always-on society intimidate you. See this shift in communication and accessibility expectations as an opportunity, not a challenge. 

We’ll show you how.

Find out how to use communications to drive your business today. Contact me to get started.

Related:  Building Value in an Age of Value-Based Reimbursement.