Wind and Solar Power Versus Gas

A World Economic Forum report at the beginning of this year announced that wind and solar generated more power than gas in 2022 for Europe. One of the key factors was Europe’s energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a swift pivot to ramp up its energy transition efforts, Europe was able to continue functioning with severely limited access to fossil fuels. Despite many experts believing this situation would revive coal power, Europe stood strong in its commitment to alternative energy instead. 

If that news wasn’t enough of a surprise for the renewable energy industry, it doesn’t stop there. In June, the UK saw a record number of residential solar panel installations, and heavily populated cities with a high cost of living benefitted from a decade-long effort to invest in alternative energy sources. As well as the reduced access to gas, Greece and the Netherlands both generated more solar power than gas power for the first time, and Greece is expected to achieve its 2030 target for solar power at the end of this year. Overall the total, twenty EU countries exceeded the goals for solar capacity. 

European consumers have made it clear that environmental considerations are top of mind despite the uphill battle they face in utilizing alternative energy sources.  

Focusing on Energy Transitions

In recent years, energy and utility companies have made an effort to focus on energy transition. As part of their initiatives, they’ve committed to setting, tracking, and reporting their goals to reduce environmental impact. Energy transition initiatives, especially ones that focus on answering consumer preferences, are now top of mind for leading companies in the energy industry. A good example of this leadership is Shell, who champions transparency and ambitious Net Zero goals. They report that they’ve reduced their emissions by 30% from 2016 to 2022 and more than doubled their capacity for renewable energy generation in only one year. 

Following Shell’s lead, companies can become trusted advisors and partner with customers in their sustainable energy goals. Priorities like renewable energy capacity, EV charging services, emissions reductions, and natural gas offerings show consumers that energy companies have a place in a brighter future and can forge their own path. Opportunities abound to partner with consumers in their goals, such as helping them to track their energy usage from their devices and educating them about improving their usage and lowering their energy bills. In one successful digital innovation project, an interactive home 3D web experience immersed customers in personalized energy-saving recommendations. 

Making their Mark

Energy companies can make their mark and stand strong in the face of the changing energy landscape by playing an active role. Investing in alternative energy sources and making sustainable choices more accessible to customers is essential to staying valuable and relevant in the market.  

It is especially important to pay attention to other companies in the space that present partnership opportunities, such as solar panel companies or EV manufacturers. New programs and incentives in conjunction with rising demand for solar and EV – right when Europe is about to overcome China to become a global leader in EV penetration – can improve customer experience and loyalty.  

Customer Programs and Education

A digital solutions partner, like Perficient, should be able to further assist with the energy transition by providing customer education, emissions management, renewable energy integration, and charging programs. 

Learn more about our energy and utility expertise and how we were recently recognised for our outstanding capabilities in the US and UK.  

Once healthcare consumers make it through your digital front door, are they experiencing your organization and care at the level you aspire to deliver?

To improve consumer experience, healthcare organizations are heavily investing in digital. Increasingly though, payers, providers, and healthcare service leaders are evaluating broader strategies to improve patient experience and build brand loyalty.

One fundamental question we are exploring with our healthcare clients is how the digital patient journey transcends the reality of the physical patient care experience. After all, it is the end-to-end experience with the brand – everything from finding and scheduling care to visiting your doctor and paying your bill – that fosters brand loyalty, high patient survey ratings, and improved net promotor scores.

The Digital to Physical Crosswalk in Healthcare

To this end we help our clients explore the crosswalk from digital to physical domains of engagement. This process evaluates how a brand achieves its promise and desired experience across digital and physical touch points, giving a nod to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and its many ‘Strategies for Improving Patient Experience with Ambulatory Care’ across five key domains:

1. Access to care and information
2. Communication with patients
3. Coordination of care
4. Customer service
5. Health promotion/education

Shortsighted Focus

Strategies that only focus on the digital front door services, while robust, are seemingly incomplete. Consumer expectations center on personalized, integrated experiences across the spectrum of care.

Since experience is really a product of emotion, we recognize the impact of numerous touch points in a health consumer’s journey. And those experience can be affected during a variety of digital, marketing, clinical, and operational interactions.

We see opportunities for healthcare organizations to influence patient perception across the continuum of care in areas such as:

• Online scheduling and scheduling optimization
• Virtual triage to the right care at the right time
• On-demand transportation coordination
• Navigating a newly diagnosed medical condition
• Timely reminders and interventions through a variety of modalities
• Help with care in the home, post discharge

…the list goes on.

Clarity Across the Full Healthcare Journey

As a digital innovator, Perficient plans and executes strategies that drive end-to-end, intentional health consumer experiences, in an environment where empowered consumers call the shots and increasingly make choices based on experience. Are you ready to meet their needs?

Contact us today to discuss your consumer experience vision and goals.

References:

• The Beryl Institute defines the patient experience as “the sum of all interactions, shaped by an organization’s culture, that influence patient perceptions across the continuum of care” (The Beryl Institute, 2019).
• Alkire (née Nasr), L., O’Connor, G. E., Myrden, S., & Köcher, S. (2020). Patient experience in the digital age: An investigation into the effect of generational cohorts. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 57, 102221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102221
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Ambulatory Care Improvement Guide: Section 6 – Strategies for Improving Patient Experience with Ambulatory Care. https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/quality-improvement/improvement-guide/6-strategies-for-improving/index.html

My last blog analyzed the five key points for designing and implementing a practical, patient-centered website. The final blog in this series provides examples of how to innovate a healthcare website, and boost credibility.

Healthcare organizations can provide the bare minimum features of a patient-centered website, but the true innovators will level-up to accommodate advanced needs.

Financial Tools

The cost per capita for healthcare is higher in the US than anywhere else in the world, so improving the patient’s financial experience should be a top priority. Of course, reducing the cost of care tops the list; but beyond that, organizations can ease financial stress with offerings such as online cost, coverage, and co-pay calculators.

Symptom Checkers

Patients also want to know the cause of their aches and pains. Provide a symptom checker and tie it into the find-a-doctor and appointment tools. They want to explore these symptoms more deeply, so offer a comprehensive health library with videos explaining conditions and the devices that treat them. Also provide a calendar of live events hosted by the hospital or clinic, searchable by condition and topic.

Up-to-Date Content

After investing the time and resources to create an exceptional online experience, commit to keeping it current. Too many organizations invest in their websites, only to quickly divert resources elsewhere once the site is live. In reality, a website’s transformation is never complete. Innovation occurs constantly in healthcare with medical breakthroughs, new drugs, new devices, and new treatments. This requires a constant review of a site for outdated content or ideas. It’s disconcerting to read about “state-of-the-art technology” that’s been around for 10 or 15 years. Finding the perfect doctor only to find that she has long since moved elsewhere is downright frustrating.

It’s More Than a Website

This guide exposes just the tip of the iceberg for creating a positive online patient experience; each of these fundamental practices deserves a deeper dive. But the bottom line is that the patient experience begins well before any face-to-face engagement. Improving the online experience will have a trickle-down effect through every interaction a patient has with their healthcare provider.

To learn how to break through the clutter with these 5 tips for building a patient-centered website, you can click here, or submit the form below.

Previously, I discussed the demand for a digital experience in healthcare. This post analyzes the five key points for designing and implementing a practical, patient-centered website.

Given the cluttered healthcare content landscape, it’s more important than ever to innovate and consistently deliver a gold standard website experience that provides the content that patients want and need. Check out these five building blocks of the practical, patient-centered website.

1. Design for ease of access

Fifteen seconds. That’s the average time users spend on a website, though it may be longer for healthcare content. Regardless, minimize the clicks, taps, and swipes required for a user to reach their destination. Intuitive site architecture is the product of designing around user feedback, subject matter expert input, and design best practices.

2. Design for look and feel

Digital content, even for more complex healthcare information, should be brief, with options for the consumer to read more detailed content if desired. A picture paints a thousand words, as do custom-designed icons and infographics, so be sure to strike the right balance between text and visuals.

3. Integrate a reliable internal search function

There’s nothing more frustrating to a user than searching a website and getting pages of search results that have nothing to do with the keyword being searched. Worse yet is receiving zero results when it’s a known specialty of the hospital or clinic. Invest in a proven search engine and optimize all content for search.

4. Promote the right features

Patients expect certain mainstay content from a hospital or clinic website, including these features:

• Find a doctor
• Request an appointment
• Patient portal
• Directions, parking, and wayfinding
• Patient journey information
• Pay a bill
• Messaging – two-way messaging between patients and providers
• Virtual appointments/ e-visits

5. Design responsively

All features should conform to responsive design standards for all devices (laptops, widescreen desktops, tablets, wearables) and be optimized for smartphones. Everyone knows the frustration of using a mobile device to view content designed only for desktop.

To learn how to break through the clutter with these 5 tips for building a patient-centered website, you can click here, or submit the form below.

What are the symptoms of tennis elbow? Where’s the nearest urgent care clinic? Who’s the best dermatologist in town? Is she in network? Why am I winded after a short walk? What will an X-ray cost me? How do I pay my bill?

Consumers approach healthcare from multiple angles, which drives the need for delivering comprehensive and utilitarian content.

According to McKinsey’s Consumer Health Insights Survey, 70% of consumers prefer digital healthcare solutions over traditional offerings such as in person or by phone. Though the use of digital solutions isn’t formally measured as part of the patient experience, it’s really where the experience journey begins.

Healthcare can learn a lot from the retail market. A report from ForeSee, a company that develops insights from customer experience data, found that consumers who had a good digital experience were:

• 78% more likely to recommend the company
• 75% more likely to recommend the site
• 53% more likely to return to the site 2

These sentiments have come to apply to healthcare organizations, as patients seek the same digital experiences from their providers as they have in other areas of their lives.

Most healthcare systems recognize the importance of optimizing the patient experience; it’s a key quality measure. But they often focus on clinical processes and struggle with some of the tools and tactics required to improve in the para-clinical area of patient information and education.

With the majority of healthcare consumers now going online for information, a healthcare organization’s offerings, including web and mobile, are critical to making a positive impact on patients.

To learn how to break through the clutter with these 5 tips for building a patient-centered website, you can click here, or submit the form below.

Rising consumer expectations impact all industries. This has been especially true in the healthcare industry. As Perficient’s Chief Strategist aligned to Healthcare, I’ve seen how digital transformation has pushed the boundaries of traditional industry models with the goals of:

• driving affordable care
• providing better access
• delivering personalized experiences
• improving clinical quality and health outcomes
• meeting the patient/member where they are
• innovating new products and channels to serve them

By 2022, we predict that 25 percent of healthcare consumer interactions will happen digitally and outside of traditional care settings. The remaining 75 percent will gravitate to digitally coordinated, real-time health systems.

Digital health is at the heart of every major strategic imperative facing healthcare. The industry will transform to meet evolving consumer expectations, which are influenced by experiences outside of the industry. The response is one for all industries to watch and learn from.

3 Ways to Respond to Rising Consumer Demands: 

1. Break Down Silos

Employee engagement and organizational change management are critical to the digital transformation journey. These aspects reduce the risks associated with the rate of change. Breaking down the silos within your organization is the secret to success. One catalyst to support this change is the chief digital officer (CDO). In the healthcare arena, CDOs are aware that enhancing engagement and improving care delivery is possible through a sustainable, flexible technology portfolio. It must be integrated and innovative while enabling visibility across discrete, daily interactions with patients and members. CDOs recognize the importance of changing culture, governance, priorities, and focus to meet consumer expectations and needs. They understand it takes this and more to deliver on the promise of digital health.

2. Meet Consumers Where They Are

The healthcare industry is navigating uncharted waters. Change is partially driven by the quest for value-based care and by consumerism. The industry as a whole is grappling with consumer expectations shaped by experiences occurring outside of healthcare, and there is significant catch-up to be done compared to other industries. Factors such as regulatory reform, increased competition, and market conversions all pose opportunities and challenges to digital transformation. Digital health is coming of age, bringing new capabilities for interactions and care delivery for consumers, patients, members and the ecosystem that supports them.

3. Institute an Actionable Strategy

Strategy is important because it creates the framework to take action and make change. It also provides the tactical ability to act on the strategy and measure results. In today’s healthcare market, strategy must evolve to remain competitive. Important questions to consider::

• Where are we now?
• Where are we going?
• How will we get there?

Focus on the goals, benefits, and value to prioritize an actionable strategy. Then, bring your organization along. Ensure stakeholder input, buy-in, and execution of a measurable roadmap.

Want More Digital Transformation Advice?

The digital transformation strategies I share in this blog post draw from Perficient’s e-book, “How to Make Digital Transformation Gains in 2019.” In it, my fellow Perficient Chief Strategists and I share real-world examples from conversations with today’s leading brands at various stages of digital transformation. Our 10-chapter e-book features our business insights, actions to take now, and client success stories. Download it here or via the form below.

Next in the Series

This blog series is part of a special series inspired by our e-book. In the next post, Perficient Chief Strategist Allison Fries will share go-to-marketing insights.

Subscribe to our Digital Transformation weekly digest here to get the blog posts automatically delivered to your inbox every week. Or, follow our Digital Transformation blog for this series and advice on the topic from all of our thought leaders.

About the Author

Juliet Silver leads the Health Sciences Strategy practice for Perficient and provides thought leadership on developing and implementing delivery frameworks for our clients. She provided advisory services to Northwestern Medicine that enable its Value Based Care program. Juliet also supported our IBM Watson team as a Healthcare Advisor to BayCare Health System, which allowed the client leverage AI to improve care for high-risk patients.

Connect with Juliet Silver on LinkedIn.

Previously, I discussed implementing a mobile wayfinding program into a medical center. In my final post of this blog series, I look at three options to start a wayfinding program.

Depending upon your organization’s goals and the level of internal resources you have to dedicate to development and maintenance, you may consider the following options.

1. Turnkey mobile platform – Out-of-the-box applications offer ease of implementation and can deliver a complete solution from mapping and installation to data uploads and maintenance, content management, and turn-by-turn navigation.
2. Combined print digital solution – A combined solution will ensure consistency across both printed maps and digital solutions using a multi-channel approach with both print and digital applications. However, this route tends to offer less-comprehensive content management and data/analytics dashboards.
3. Custom solution – Building a custom solution allows tailored content and a unique user interface that aligns completely with brand strategy. This approach requires a total hands-on approach, but there are app developers that specialize in this.

To learn more about how mobile wayfinding can enhance the patient experience at your site and increase your ROI, you can click here or download the complete guide below.

We Can Help

Our digital health service line combines the healthcare and life sciences industry expertise of Perficient with the end-to-end digital experience vision of our Perficient Digital agency to deliver award winning strategic design thinking and storytelling integrated with world-class technology platform and systems integration expertise.

My last blog examined what wayfinding truly is. This blog will highlight the benefits of implementing mobile wayfinding.

With advanced wayfinding options, medical facilities are better positioned to enhance the patient experience, decrease the number of late or missed appointments, reduce patient frustration and anxiety, integrate with appointment scheduling, and reduce staff interruptions from lost patients.

Mobile wayfinding is a powerful tool to help patients and visitors – as well as staff – get where they need to go and find the information they need quickly.

Additional benefits of mobile wayfinding include:

• Reduce visitor frustration and improve satisfaction
• Reinforce branding
• Provide access to online directory information
• Capture data and analytics to provide insights on visitor flow, navigation, and other calls to action
• Share emergency notifications
• Easily update changes to locations
• Highlight promotions and offers
• Announce important updates or changes

While static signage and kiosks has been the predominant means of wayfinding in hospital settings, providing consumers a comprehensive location service solution can lead to efficiencies. Examples include:

A wayfinding experience can also support other on-site services to improve efficiency and enhance the patient experience with expanded applications such as:

To learn more about how mobile wayfinding can enhance the patient experience at your site and increase your ROI, you can click here or download the complete guide below.

Previously, I discussed mobile wayfinding for medical centers. Today, I want to examine what mobile wayfinding truly is.

Wayfinding describes enabling navigation through a building or campus. Historically, wayfinding consisted of static directional signage, design, and typography to enable clear pathfinding to get from point A to point B.

Technology has redefined wayfinding to include using digital tools to satisfy today’s consumer expectations. This is commonly called “mobile wayfinding.” In the context of healthcare, modern-day wayfinding offers a digital gateway to navigating a hospital’s buildings and grounds, including inter-campus navigation. Given the ubiquity of smartphones, tablets, and laptops, it is now easier than ever for people to explore their surroundings.

The demand for mobile wayfinding is driven by the adoption of mobile devices. In 2017, 67% of the US population used a smartphone. That number is expected to increase to 72% by 2021.

Mobile wayfinding offers expanded solutions to provide people with customized, up-to-date, interactive information. Wayfinding application options are now available that help with on-demand navigation (think Google Maps, which so many people have come to rely on), and have become the norm in the eyes of consumers.

To learn more about how mobile wayfinding can enhance the patient experience at your site and increase your ROI, you can click here or download the complete guide below.

Healthcare consumers increasingly expect the same digital experiences they have in other settings to also be available in their healthcare environment. When it comes to mobile wayfinding – or helping people navigate to their destination – it has become critical to providing a positive patient experience, as well as a way to improve ROI.

Patients finding their way through massive medical facilities often experience stress and frustration, sometimes resulting in late or missed appointments. This is a problem that costs hospitals more than $150 billion annually in the United States.

Today’s technology compliments mobile wayfinding, which empowers healthcare campuses with innovative, attractive, and cutting-edge options to provide visitors personalized, up-to-date, interactive information.

To learn more about how mobile wayfinding can enhance the patient experience at your site and increase your ROI, you can click here or download the complete guide below.

Previously, I examined the system integrations around cloud in healthcare. In the final installment of this blog series, I highlight how to prepare for a cloud migration.

Healthcare organizations migrating applications to the cloud must be prepared for major changes to existing technology support models. A component of the cost savings associated with a cloud deployment is related to a reduction in a company’s need for IT support personnel. The care and maintenance of the cloud infrastructure – and, depending on how it is implemented, much of the application support itself – is provided by cloud resources. Not only will the size of the technology support group be reduced, but different skills will be required to direct the cloud resources and fully leverage the cloud’s capabilities.

Moving to the cloud requires changes that can be disruptive and difficult across the organization. It is crucial to begin any major change with full alignment at the executive level, first and foremost. It is also essential for the rest of the organization to understand why the change is necessary, and the benefits – for the company, for the customer, and for the individual employee. Gaining employee buy-in will help make the transition both smoother in the short term and more successful in the long run, allowing the organization to reap the desired benefits as quickly as possible. To increase the effectiveness of a move to the cloud, consider creating and deploying a change management strategy that consists of defining, communicating, enabling, and sustaining the change.

Given the disruptive paradigm shift in migrating core systems from on premises to the cloud, it is prudent to have a trusted partner and advisor involved from the inception.

Learn why cloud is prevailing in healthcare, along with key considerations and preparations to take when looking at cloud migration. You can download our guide here, or fill out the form below.

In my last post, I answered why cloud migration is a benefit for healthcare companies. Today, I am discussing system integrations and cloud adoption.

As an organization migrates applications to the cloud, systems integration becomes of paramount importance. Many healthcare organizations began their journey to cloud using a hybrid and private cloud approach. When some applications remain on premises while others are housed in the cloud, data must seamlessly and securely be transferred bi-directionally, and in a timeframe consistent with operational requirements.

Some of the integration techniques used when all applications are within the same environment will no longer be possible, necessitating the creation of new interfaces with which in-house technology resources may be unfamiliar. Additionally, care must be taken to encrypt all data being transmitted over public networks to ensure compliance with privacy and security standards.

Although security, governance, and compliance in the cloud was a big concern in the past, it is now a major focus for vendors, who have large teams dedicated entirely to the area. Many of the major cloud providers now have a more robust security infrastructure and possess greater monitoring and response capabilities than what exists in-house for most healthcare organizations.

A recent report on cybersecurity in healthcare indicates that less than 10% of respondents could point to a security incident involving cloud in the past 12 months and that two out of three trust the security of public cloud solutions.

Access to core applications can be secured through VPN connections and whitelisted IP addresses, with all data encrypted throughout. The methods and controls available within the cloud provider’s security framework need to be evaluated and the specific means of securing access to the systems and data.

Learn why cloud adoption is prevailing in healthcare, along with key considerations and preparations to take when looking at cloud migration. You can download our guide here, or fill out the form below.