In healthcare, patients and members are the drivers behind much of the transformation in the industry. This is a trend we are seeing across industries – a massive shift in influence and power – away from business and institutions and toward customers and consumers. The main enabler of this shift is digital and this disruption is causing organizations to re-evaluate, re-invent and re-align in order to survive.
Central to everything digital is customer experience, or in the case of healthcare, patient and member experience. The experience today constitutes a lifecycle, not just an interaction restricted to the front end of the enterprise. Patient and member experiences are multi-channel and include interactions that are physical, online, word of mouth and mobile just to name a few. The reality is, the amount of time the average person spends in the traditional healthcare setting is 1%, and it is the other 99% of the time that they must be engaged and empowered in order to maintain their health and wellness.
So how is this accomplished? There are 3 critical things to keep in mind:
Patients and members must be the focal point for healthcare technology solutions. Lets take the Meaningful Use patient portal for example. As an industry, we used the Meaningful Use checklist, instead of user insights collected from diverse populations with varying needs, to build a platform. The portals were built, the portals were integrated, and we collectively waited for patients to come. By and large, they did not. The reason is quite simple: the most important decision-making criterion for patient portal implementation under Meaningful Use Stage 2 was ease of integration with EHR – not patient engagement. Developers of technology solutions must understand that it takes more than meeting a list of business requirements (or meaningful use requirements) for a solution to succeed. A solution can have every feature we ask it to have, however, the solution is not successful if it fails the user. It is as simple (and as difficult) as that.
Clinicians are essential to gaining buy-in. Lets be honest, if providers don’t see value in a technology solution or if the effort it takes for them to educate their patients is greater than the proposed benefit, the solution will fail. I remember having conversations with my son’s pediatrician and when we started talking about their patient portal he told me “not to get him started.” Furthermore, we can’t take a cookie-cutter approach to designing portals, websites and other technology solutions because every healthcare organizations patient population, challenges, and goals and objectives are unique and technology should be customized to meet those dynamic needs. If we cannot gain provider adoption of a technology, we will not achieve patient adoption either.
Deliver personalized, seamless and memorable experiences. Connected Health engages patients, members, providers and the health community using technology to deliver quality care outside of the traditional medical setting. Part of this is being able to meet patients and members where they already are – mobile, social and online are great places to start. Healthcare organizations that can create a complete view of their patients/members and deliver a personalized and seamless multi-channel experience will create a journey of engagement and be better positioned to care for the patients and populations they serve.
Perficient has recently been leading the digital transformation journeys for several nationally recognized healthcare organizations including OhioHealth and Presbyterian Healthcare Services.
Reimagining the patient experience with a dynamic new online brand
OhioHealth, a not-for-profit system of hospitals and providers, was looking to enhance the digital experience for their patients and asked Perficient to lead their digital transformation. We began by helping OhioHealth develop a two-year strategic digital roadmap, and we are helping to design and roll out new websites, mobile experiences and enhanced online capabilities. As the lead digital strategy, design, UX and technology partner for OhioHealth’s consumer-facing digital brand, Perficient is helping to transform the patient journey with a connected health experience.
Transforming the patient and member journey with a personalized, digital experience
Presbyterian Healthcare Services, a private not-for-profit health care system and health care provider, wanted to provide a “One PHS” experience for their patients and members. Perficient helped to transform every facet of the digital channel patient and member experience including responsive websites, mobile applications, health plan shopping tools, and an integrated portal. From UX strategy to platform implementation and integrated experience design, the promise of “One PHS” is becoming a reality.
These are just a couple examples of healthcare organizations transforming the patient/member journey with a Connected Health experience. In healthcare, just like every other industry, a premium needs to be placed on “customer experience”. For this reason and many others, we’re excited for the recent launch of Perficient Digital, our full-service digital agency, purpose-built to help companies who believe customer experience is the defining strategic imperative of our day.
With the strategic imagination of an agency, unleashed by the deep technical know-how of a consultancy, we are the ideal partner to lead your organization on its digital transformation journey. For proof of this conviction, look no further than our six core disciplines:
- Strategy and Planning
- Experience Design
- Content Studio
- Digital Marketing
- Mobile and Emerging Technologies
- Experience Platforms
The introduction of Perficient Digital allows us to offer full-service capabilities designed to adapt to your digital transformation and CX challenges. End-to-end is just the beginning.
To learn more about Perficient Digital, visit PerficientDigital.com
