At the Spring 2024 Consumer Co-Lab, The Health Management Academy + Cedar gathered health system and industry leaders to explore how we can continue to advance consumerism across and beyond their organizations. Our Co-Lab members continued discussions on the importance of measuring and benchmarking key touchpoints (e.g., the patient financial experience), explored working across silos to scale consumer-centric strategies, and dove into the challenge of how to measure ROI of consumerism tactics.
Four Takeaways from the Spring 2024 Consumer Collaborative
1. Defining, measuring, and benchmarking ‘moments that matter’ are critical components to creating a better consumer experience in a world of scarce resources.
“Health systems spend comparatively a fraction of what other industries spend to understand their consumers, their desires, and what drive their actions. There is a huge opportunity to do better and design products accordingly." - Health System EVP
For healthcare, defining, measuring, and benchmarking moments that matter are indispensable for crafting an enhanced consumer experience. Mapping out the consumer journey isn't just beneficial; it's a necessity in understanding patients' needs and preferences. However, health systems must also prioritize genuine moments that align with their strategies, ensuring meaningful interactions that drive patient satisfaction and loyalty. Despite the critical importance of this endeavor, health systems face significant challenges in effectively defining, measuring, and benchmarking these moments. Factors such as the complexity of healthcare processes and diverse patient demographics make it challenging to pinpoint which moments truly resonate with patients.
Additionally, the inherent variability in healthcare encounters poses further obstacles to standardization and measurement. However, by leveraging data analytics, patient feedback mechanisms, and innovative technologies, health systems can navigate these challenges and pave the way for a more personalized, empathetic, and impactful patient journey.
2. Prioritizing the patient financial experience should be embraced to realize a holistic application of Do No Harm.
"The financial industry works to minimally educate customers on how a credit card works. Health systems don’t educate consumers on what to expect financially and we need to think about the impact that’s having on both us and the consumer.” - Health System VP
The increasing patient financial burden in health care underscores the importance for health systems to prioritize the patient financial journey. As healthcare costs continue to rise and patients shoulder a larger share of expenses, navigating the financial aspects of care becomes increasingly daunting for individuals and families. Prioritizing the patient financial journey is essential to alleviate this burden by ensuring transparency, affordability, and accessibility throughout the billing and payment process.
Additionally, it is critical to improve the financial health care literacy of consumers, which will create more empowered, informed, and engaged consumer. Education in conjunction with existing health system strategies for transparent communication about costs, cost estimates, and flexible payment options enables consumers to better navigate the complex health care billing environment. This in turns builds their trust in the health system.
3. Demonstrating ROI on consumer strategies is a key roadblock and limits resource allocations for consumer-centric strategies.
Demonstrating ROI on consumer-centric strategies presents a formidable challenge for systems due to the complex nature of health care. Unlike traditional business models, where ROI is more straightforward to quantify through revenue generation or cost savings, the benefits of consumer-centric strategies in healthcare often extend beyond financial metrics to encompass factors like satisfaction, loyalty, and long-term health outcomes.
Moreover, the timeframe for realizing ROI in healthcare initiatives can be prolonged, making it challenging to attribute specific outcomes directly to consumer-centric efforts. However, health systems can begin to overcome these challenges by adopting a multifaceted approach. This includes leveraging advanced analytics to track, measure, and benchmark moments that matter, implementing robust patient feedback mechanisms and voice of the consumer research to gather insights into consumer preferences and satisfaction levels, and conducting comprehensive assessments of the impact of consumer-centric initiatives on clinical outcomes and operational efficiency.
4. Aligning incentives among health system leaders will help prioritize consumer-centric strategies and support effective change management.
Aligning incentives among health systems leaders is paramount to prioritize consumer-centric strategies and facilitate effective change management within the organization. When leaders are incentivized to prioritize patient satisfaction, outcomes, and experiences, it creates a unified focus on delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. This alignment fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement, where all stakeholders are motivated to work towards common goals.
Beyond compensatory incentives for leadership roles, one effective approach for aligning incentives is through the implementation of dyad models, pairing clinical leaders with administrative counterparts. By bringing together individuals from diverse backgrounds and skill sets, dyad models promote shared decision-making, bridge the gap between clinical and operational perspectives, and ensure that consumer-centric strategies are integrated into every aspect of healthcare delivery. Through this collaborative approach, health systems can align incentives, break down silos, and drive meaningful change that ultimately benefits patients and enhances the overall healthcare experience.
Click the link at the top of the page to download a PDF of this recap.