Health systems need to give patients an outstanding and consistent patient experience
One of the first steps taken by Banner was to think about future patients as customers.
Valerie Monet of Banner Health and Kristi Roe of Medallia speak during the Patient Experience Forum at HIMSS 21 in Las Vegas.
Photo: Susan Morse
In 2016, Banner Health decided to reimagine the care model for a better patient experience in a model that could compete with all of the other choices consumers have for providers in its market area.
The nonprofit Banner Health, headquartered in Phoenix, operates 30 hospitals, including three academic medical centers. There's a lot of competition, said Valerie Monet, senior director for customer experience strategy and insight at Banner Health.
Monet and Kristi Roe, head of healthcare experience for Medallia, spoke before a full house on how to "Improve the Patient Experience in the Age of Consumerism," during the Patient Experience Forum Monday at HIMSS21 in Las Vegas.
In 2016, the Banner board funded support for a large-scale digital front door journey.
One of the first steps taken by Banner was to think about future patients as customers, Monet said.
"We were trying to tackle it from a different approach," Monet said. "It did take some time to align the viewpoint."
Customers are looking for an outstanding experience, she said. In healthcare, this means having a consistent experience.
They mapped out about 25 patient journeys. They wanted feedback that would be faster than HCAHPS, which is the traditional way to capture patient opinion.
"We needed information faster," Monet said.
Instead, they used real-time surveys and last year began natural language processing of consumer comments.
They integrated customer feedback into C-Suite meetings.
Each year they began a new initiative. One year they increased appointments through traffic on the website. In 2018, they deployed text analytics algorithms to capture learnings from unstructured data.
For 2021, Monet and team are deploying surveys in telehealth and in a mobile billing mobile app.
The results have been a 40% increase in engagement with the survey platform compared to 2019.
Net Promoter Scores for Banner imaging are 86 for 2021, when most NPS scores hover in the low 80s, according to Monet.
The brand impact has improved, with those citing a total positive feeling in the market increasing more than six points since 2017.
People have a choice in healthcare. Engagement works.
"They're not just coming in," Monet said, "because they're down the street."
Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: susan.morse@himssmedia.com
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