Many businesses are stuck in a data conundrum. The potential for applying data to do good is great, but getting it right is complex. However, compared to other industries and companies that set the gold standard for data-driven digital experiences – we’re looking at Apple, Nordstrom and Amazon – healthcare is using data to create unique, impactful consumers significantly lag behind in experience.
Healthcare organizations need to find a way to adapt their in-person interactions and digital experiences. From a patient’s perspective, interacting with a healthcare provider is no longer just an in-person experience. It now covers searching for care online, using apps to find new doctors, a mix of in-person and telehealth appointments, and the emergence of new care environments such as ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care and home care services. It’s time for the healthcare industry to catch up and build the same type of curated consumer experience that is now commonplace and part of everyday interactions between consumers and organizations they trust.
No one expects the transformation to happen overnight, but now more than ever, it’s critical to focus on the consumer experience. I challenge healthcare organizations to find ways to optimize data while building the appropriate infrastructure needed to meet rapidly changing consumer expectations. I strongly believe that the successful use of data and analytics will enable healthcare organizations to create curated consumer experiences that meet current consumer expectations.
Let’s step back and discuss today’s industry. The pandemic has rapidly accelerated consumer expectations for the convenience of healthcare — including how people want to interact with healthcare providers. In healthcare, the kind of seamless interaction consumers experience with their preferred retailer is required. We need to emphasize the entire experience as healthcare organizations find new ways to engage with patients and consumers.
In addition, consumers have come to understand and even expect that organizations are using data to better personalize experiences—and they are willing to provide data if it helps to achieve that goal. Take, for example, companies like Nordstrom, Apple, and Amazon that excel in the digital consumer experience. All three companies set the standard for how consumers interact with brands—from email communications, recommendations for new products and services, a seamless experience from search to purchase, and the instant gratification that experience brings. But it starts with a deep understanding of the customer, gained through trust and history.
The simplicity of the healthcare and retail experience is so different, it’s hard to compare. Unlike retail, which is often a pleasurable experience designed to make people’s lives easier, doctor visits are often associated with stress, anxiety, and sometimes distress, and can bring bad news. It can also include unexpected purchases and doesn’t lend itself to Amazon’s appealing simplicity of buying from a smartphone. However, there is still a lot to learn and adjust from a focus on ongoing customer engagement.
Recently, our team looked at various datasets showing low patient retention rates in healthcare facilities, Average 5-year retention rate across the health system is 43% (By comparison, banks have an average retention rate of 75%, telcos 78% and retail companies 63%). If healthcare organizations can replicate these retail interactions and understand the right cadence of interactions with consumers, our data shows that patients with ongoing relationships with healthcare providers are more likely to visit in the future. Specifically, patients were 69% and 54% likely to utilize the tissue for care in the third and fifth years, respectively, if they had repeated contact with the patient in the first year.
Additionally, healthcare organizations like retail giants have access to millions of data points that, in theory, should make it easier to create curated consumer experiences. However, healthcare is a highly regulated industry, which often makes it harder to use data and analytics to drive the consumer experience. This raises an important question for all healthcare organizations to consider: How can you leverage data to create unique, personalized experiences?
Knowing that consumers have high expectations, if healthcare organizations try to make the patient experience as intuitive as the consumer experience, they will have to do a lot of work to catch up. Here are some basic steps healthcare organizations can take to better meet current consumer expectations.
First, healthcare organizations need to view every interaction with consumers/patients as a moment that impacts their experience. This means going beyond the in-person provider experience and understanding all the ways patients interact with the organization—for example, virtual care visits, email communications for additional services and care options, and follow-up care appointments.
Additionally, healthcare organizations need to continue to challenge themselves to scale and structure data to reflect every type of patient interaction. This does not mean that every organization needs to conduct a comprehensive inspection of its data. The underlying challenge will be how organizations build data and insights that can be turned into curated unique experiences that consumers are looking for. Healthcare organizations can expertly build these unique experiences and then replicate and scale their programs over time. As patients become more willing to trust their data to healthcare organizations, they also need to see the value of their data put to use to curate a positive digital experience across the board. Going forward, as healthcare organizations invest in creating a more comprehensive view of patient interactions, it will lead to more data-driven decisions to improve and create curated digital and in-person experiences.
Once the baseline is set and the organization has a structured data program, additional data and insights can be layered to further impact consumer health over time. For example, health systems can use social determinants of health, information from other providers and experts, and other factors that affect health equity to communicate and support patients more appropriately in underserved communities.
I predict that over the next 5 years, these incremental steps taken now will add up and change the way consumers experience healthcare. His challenge is to expand and use data in informative ways to build curated consumer experiences and build lasting relationships with current patients, communicating with them when they expect you, reaching them when they need you, and help them get the care they need.
About Nik Green, Chief Data Officer, Mercury Healthcare
Nik Green, MS, is Chief Data Officer Mercury Healthcare, a data and technology enabled participating company. He joined Mercury Healthcare, formerly Healthgrades, in August 2021. Previously, Nik worked at Amazon, where he expanded their data science capabilities to meet the analytical needs of the Amazon Transportation Authority network. During his tenure, he was responsible for the data and analytics platform that supports Amazon’s mid-mile shipping network that affects all customer orders. Before joining Amazon, Nik worked at Johnson & Johnson, Ascena Retail Group, and Delhaize America, where he led multiple data transformations and drove organizations through cloud transformation. Nik holds a master’s degree in scientific predictive analytics from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Notre Dame.
Photo: elenabs, Getty Images
