Patients are modern consumers. They want flexible, transparent healthcare service that feels personal. That’s good news for healthcare organizations looking for ways to increase efficiency, drive patient loyalty and take stress off overwhelmed staff members.
Similar to other industries—such as travel and retail—healthcare providers can benefit from contemporary engagement solutions that make it easy for consumers to find them, learn about services and pricing, make and change appointments, ask questions, provide feedback and pay their bills.
But purchasing healthcare services is more nuanced and complicated than booking a vacation or buying goods online, and some patients still feel reticent about paying healthcare bills electronically. They don’t always expect emails and texts from their provider, despite the research that supports their preference for it.
Understanding what consumers want—and what they worry about—is the foundation for building consumer-centric patient engagement. Fortunately, engagement solutions created specifically for healthcare offer the convenience and transparency consumers expect, combined with the security and interoperability that healthcare organizations require.
How do healthcare organizations begin to create a consumer-centric patient experience, i.e., one that is easy, flexible and personalized? It starts with simplified and convenient preservice options, such as allowing patients to complete paperwork prior to their visit with electronic forms that can be returned via email, text or in a portal. Leveraging technology like OCR (optical character recognition) is another strategy for making registration work better for busy consumers who find it irritating to write out the same information over and over again.
Making preservice convenient sends a powerful subliminal message that providers understand their patients, just as major retailers remember consumer preferences and make it simple for them to repeat those purchases in an easy-to-navigate online experience.
Extending consumer convenience with other self-service options, such as appointment self-scheduling and mobile check-in, makes interacting with providers easier and more flexible for busy patients. (Efficient contactless self-service also reduces exposure to other patients who may be sick.) Understanding what patients want and need, and making it as simple as possible for them to achieve those expectations, creates a positive consumer-centric healthcare experience for them from the very start.
Prepare Patients for Better Post-Service Experience
In every other consumer experience, people know what things cost before they commit to making a purchase. It’s a fair consumer expectation. Yet in healthcare, where prices are much higher than most consumer purchases, patients often are unaware of their financial responsibility until a statement arrives. Even then, they can be confused about what they owe because of insurance payment unknowns.
Creating a true consumer experience in healthcare means acknowledging that patients—who bear an increasingly large burden for their healthcare costs—deserve to know costs and their financial responsibilities prior to service. Advanced technology solutions make it easy for patients to compare healthcare prices online and to receive personalized price estimates that are accompanied by confidence scores.
Why bother? Research proves that patients who understand their costs before a procedure are much more likely to meet their financial obligation post-service.
Another cornerstone of modern consumerism: convenient payment choices, such as tap-to-pay and deviceless electronic payment options. Providers can make patient payments even easier by storing a card on file. This practice is increasingly common in many consumer experiences and makes payments less time-consuming for everyone.
Providers can build trust with patients through compassionate and personalized interactions and by making sure they understand how a card on file will be used. In this context, patients will quickly come to appreciate the convenience of letting providers store a payment card on file and will gravitate toward such features as text to pay.
Modern Methods Build Patient Trust and More
Understanding how patients prefer to communicate and using those preferred methods is a proven way to show compassion and build trust. When patients know and respond to a consistent phone number, for example, they then trust the communication source. This is especially true with text, which allows patients to quickly ask questions and request appointments without old-fashioned and frustrating telephone tag, or long waits on hold.
Using a mix of automated communication and manual responses creates efficiency for providers while supporting patients’ needs. Not sure your patients want to communicate via text? Consider this: 78% of people say they wish they could have a text communication with a business.
It’s not a surprising statistic when you consider the importance of staying connected—for consumers and providers. This desire to stay connected while saving time and reducing hassle drives expectations for transparent, flexible and convenient consumer interactions.
Providers don’t just provide care; they manage the healthcare journey from preservice through final payment. Healthcare organizations that understand this reality—and embrace the opportunity to engage with patients as modern consumers—not only gain patient trust and loyalty, they decrease pressure on staff, increase efficiency and improve the overall patient experience.