Tech & Innovation in Healthcare

Patients are craving more self-service.

Healthcare professionals have noticed four distinct trends taking shape in the industry. While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated two trends, the others are growing in popularity due to patient experience in other industries, such as retail and banking.

Understand how consumerization could transform healthcare in 2022 and in future years.

Know Who to Call for Virtual Care

Providers in hospitals and clinics used to be some of the few healthcare options in certain geographic regions. If patients needed care, they could only go to a nearby provider located in a physical building.

Virtual care has caused a massive shift in where and when patients receive care for their conditions. During the pandemic, patients have had the ability and decision to choose their providers and can decide when to receive care as it suits their schedule. This healthcare consumerization trend does not appear to be going away anytime soon, and the competition to treat patients may increase.

“If we think about virtualizing care, it means that you can no longer rely on regular boundaries like geography, hours of operation, schedule availability – all of those things go out the window and become highly competitive areas for you as an industry,” said Eric Wixom, CEO of Wixcorp, during the “Bringing the Consumerism to the Patient Financial Experience” session at AAPC’s HEALTHCON 2022 conference.

Understand the Lessons Telehealth Taught During the Pandemic

The use of telehealth was on the rise prior to 2020, and then the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for the technology. Providers had to attend to patients who needed care for a variety of conditions and healthcare professionals needed to be able to deliver that care safely — using video chats was the ideal option.

Patients have been able to launch an app on their smartphone or tablet to receive an examination from a qualified healthcare professional without having to visit an urgent care clinic or emergency department (ED) — and possibly receive an expensive bill in the process. Many would like to continue having telehealth visits as an option going forward, post pandemic. According to Medallia, 61 percent of consumers surveyed said they’ve had at least one telehealth appointment in 2020, and most would like to continue using telehealth.

Whether your practice is currently offering telehealth, remote care, or both, Wixom advised that the channels are in the beginning stages, and you should start preparing for new customer engagement channels to emerge. The channels that will emerge in the next stage will change quickly and drastically.

“Don’t become complacent with the solutions you have in place. [Telehealth] is going to be changing a lot over the next few years and be watching for those updates; be watching for those companies that are helping improve and refine that engagement process for these telehealth solutions,” Wixom says.

Simplify Patient Portals to Accommodate the Entire Family

From banking and shopping to entertainment, consumers have grown accustomed to enjoying an omni-channel platform to manage everything related to their account. For example, when a customer creates an account for Amazon, they can use their singular login to access shopping, video streaming, music streaming, and audiobooks.

On the other hand, in healthcare, each patient requires a separate login for every provider they visit. If you’re a patient with several health conditions that require multiple specialists on top of your existing primary care physician (PCP), you’ll need to create different, unique logins for each patient portal.

Wixom explained the same could be said regarding logins for members of the same family. “[Patients] are looking for simplified solutions that can do everything they need to for the entire family. They don’t want to create a username and password for themselves, another one for their child, and another one for their spouse, all to access the exact same thing for the exact same company.”

Streamlining this process would be a complex and immense undertaking to maintain compliance and security for each family member, but patients are expecting the healthcare industry to figure it out over the coming years.

Patients Want More Control

Patients have the ability to manage their bank accounts, pay bills, and apply for loans from the comfort of their home using their computer, tablet, or smartphone. When it comes to their healthcare, they want to feel empowered about managing it, as well.