Hospital stakeholders and providers are learning that patients have health care options and want improvements to the delivery of services.
Some hospitals are stepping up while others are in denial, says a report from Kaufman Hall and Cadent Consulting Group. Their State of Consumerism in Healthcare study concluded “a growing number of health care professionals understand that a wave of consumerism is taking hold of the industry.” However, few have strategic insights about their patients.
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According to MedCityNews.com, two-thirds of respondents believe that developing insights into patient behaviors and expectations is crucial. Still, the post says fewer than one-quarter of health care organizations have the means to gather and analyze significant patient data. That website reports:
It seems like a simple semantics game, recharacterizing patients as consumers. But as individuals have more control over their health care, and more health care decisions continue to shift to individuals in the wake of nationwide health care reform passed into law in 2010, health organizations will have to adapt to keep patients.
“Providers of care are starting to realize that they need to compete in the marketplace just like any other business does,” said Paul Crnkovich, managing director at Kaufman Hall.
What do customers want and appreciate? Convenience, customer service, “the royal treatment” and a feeling that they are valued. These factors drive home the importance of understanding patient behaviors and preferences. The New York Times reported:
At the Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital outside Detroit, patients arrive to uniformed valets and professional greeters. Wi-Fi is free and patient meals are available on demand 24 hours a day. Members of the spa staff give in-room massages and other treatments.
While clinical care is the focus of any medical center, hospitals have many incentives to move toward hotel-inspired features, services and staff training. Medical researchers say such amenities can improve health outcomes by reducing stress and anxiety among patients, while private rooms can cut down on the transfer of disease.
But a big driver of the trend may be hospitals’ interest in marketing—attracting patients with private insurance who have a choice in where they receive care, and encouraging word-of-mouth recommendations.
The article also said:
“It’s a way for hospitals to compete with each other,” said Zig Wu, a senior program manager at Stanford Health Care and one of the authors of an article on hospitality in the medical field for the Journal of Healthcare Management.
In the absence of hard data on cancer treatment or surgery success, he said, “patients look to the quality of the hospital’s environment.”
However, hospital executives contend that the atmospherics have a medical purpose, too. Robert Riney, CEO of the Henry Ford Health System, says the hospitality helps patients feel a little more control over their environment and “focus on getting better.”
Outside the U.S., the term “medical tourists” is bantered about when hospital stakeholders discuss the delivery of services.
“Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, for example, offers luxurious accommodations, chauffeured airport pickups and visa extension services,” the Times reported. According to its website, the hospital had served more than 500,000 international patients.
Convenience counts
The transformation of health care is also shifting based on location. The rise of retail urgent care centers—and the decline of shopping malls in communities—brings a new dynamic to providers and patients. Bloomberg recently covered a plan by Cedars-Sinai Health System in California to locate a 32,000-square-foot medical practice in an older shopping center.
While urgent-care centers have been strip-mall staples for decades, the chance to catch dinner, a movie, and a surgical procedure under the same roof is new—and coming soon to a mall near you. The reason is commerce: Mall operators are looking for tenants that trade in entertainment and services to replace the brick-and-mortar retailers slowly being strangled by Amazon.com and its online competitors. Rents, particularly at older malls, are a bargain.
The health-care industry, meanwhile, is moving away from centralized campuses to bring services closer to patients at a time when two key demographics are entering prime years for consumption. Boomers are hitting an age when they can expect to use more health care services; millennials are starting families and beginning to make doctor appointments for their kids.
Other hospitals changing their location model—and branding—include Prime Healthcare, which operates a 23,500-square-foot ambulatory care facility at Plymouth Meeting Mall near Philadelphia. Bloomberg also said: “UCLA Health put a dozen doctors in a new medical office at the Village at Westfield Topanga, a high-end mall in Woodland Hills, California.”
Yes, PR and marketing opportunities exist within the pockets of change. Consider a story you might create about Vanderbilt University Medical Group’s new location in the entire second level of 100 Oaks Mall in Nashville.
According to Bloomberg, patients can pick up a pager when they check in at a clinic and browse the outlet shops on the lower level while they wait. “It used to be that only restaurants would give you a pager to let you know when your table was ready. Now it means the results of your CT scan are in,” the post said.
from PR Daily News Feed http://ift.tt/2fGWiJx
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