The healthcare industry is a $2.9 trillion business in the United States and providers account for more than 70% of the spend. Healthcare reform is looking to transform the traditional system to improve 
access and quality while tackling the skyrocketing costs. In addition to federal mandates, the healthcare industry is seeing a shift driven by a younger consumer. Healthcare organizations need to pay close attention to this consumer shift and realize age does matter.
Traditionally, healthcare consumers were a passive participant in their care and relied on caregivers to make decisions for them. Doctors were chosen based on qualitative measures such as education, rather than on how they performed in relation to patient outcomes and satisfaction. Today, however, if healthcare providers want to create loyal consumers, they must adjust their business and marketing models to adapt to the new healthcare consumer.
#1. Think Digital: To engage with patients, you have to think like a marketer. You define your target market and find out where they live, work and play. You position yourself to interact at those important moments when they are thinking about their health and wellness. Only 1% of a healthcare consumer’s time is spent in the clinical care setting, so, instead of just handing out instructions to sign up for the patient portal at the registration desk, there are other options that are more effective. To engage patients you must reach them where they are and that requires you to think digitally and to have a solid digital strategy.
#2. Mobile is a Must: With over 50,000 health apps and growing and more than 90% of the adult population adopting mobile technology it is clear to see that mobile health is shifting into the mainstream. Healthcare organizations that continue to ignore the mobile train are going to be left in the dust. A mobile strategy that integrates both external and internal components is key. A bring-your-own-device and a shared device strategy within your organization should be incorporated. Facilitating the use of mHealth enhances outcomes and communication and is more efficient and convenient for healthcare consumers and providers.
#3. Consumer Insights are Vital: Healthcare organizations by nature are filled with information and data that is collected from a variety of disjointed sources within and outside of the organization. But collecting information is pointless unless you can manage it. Data that is useful, operationally relevant, insightful and secure provides key insights about your consumers, but it can be overwhelming. It is important to focus on what decision-makers must understand and to only scale your analytics strategy to the capacity of your business. Too often organizations purchase and try to implement complex tools and they do not have the sophistication or resources to make them work.
#4. Convenience & the Experience: Last, but certainly not least, is perhaps the most important of them all: Consumer experience should be the umbrella for everything that you do as a service provider and it is critical to your success. Healthcare consumers use the Internet to shop for providers and treatments by reading online reviews and looking up doctor quality information. Social media, the web and word of mouth can help your business just as much as they can hurt it. Look for ways to enhance the consumer experience, offering telehealth is a great way to engage healthcare consumers by bringing the provider to them. It provides convenience and easy accessibility, two things today’s healthcare consumers are seeking. With more and more healthcare consumers turning towards retail medicine it is essential that you create a top-notch, cohesive, multi-channel experience to compete with the convenience of a CVS or Walgreens.
