Healthcare providers struggle to understand consumer needs, Kaufman Hall says

A new survey of hospital and health system senior executives by Kaufman Hall found that while 96 percent of healthcare organizations say understanding patient needs is important, only 13 percent really understands what those needs are.

Only 15 percent said they were confident in their organization's overall consumerism strategy, while 28 percent said they were minimally or not confident.

"The role of the individual in healthcare is rapidly transforming from passive patient to active consumer," according to a statement issued with the survey. "The shift is being driven by patients' increased financial responsibility for their healthcare costs, the availability of highly convenient and low-cost care delivery options such as retail clinics and virtual care, and the increasing number of tools that consumers can use to compare cost and quality among providers."

A couple of factors are driving healthcare consumerism, said Kaufman Hall Managing Director Mark Grube, including the transition to value-based care, where patient outcomes become more important.

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But there's a bigger issue at play.

"A lot of it is the growth of high-deductible health plans," said Grube. "Consumers have more skin in the game than they used to. People are more prone to start shopping."

That could be bad news, financially, for hospitals and health systems that don't examine how consumers value different services.

"It puts a lot of businesses at risk," said Grube. "If we don't know what people are looking for in the marketplace, we're vulnerable to other organizations that come in that have a better handle on what people want."

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And what people want may skew to cheaper services -- not necessarily better ones.

"Those are the kinds of decisions being made because of high-deductible plans," said Grube.

While there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the disconnect, Grube said it's important for health systems to make investments in turning their operations more consumer-centric. That involves determining in which resources to pour capital.

One possibility is constructing consumer databases. That may help organizations understand people's attitudes and perceptions of the healthcare system, and help them understand what the consumers' ideal experience looks like. A useful model might be Walgreen's, which has constructed huge consumer databases to figure out their customers' preferences and buying patterns.

Improving efficiency and access for consumers are also notable steps an organization can take, said Grube.

"To remain relevant, there's going to have to be a much higher level of consumer-centricity going forward," he said. "Each organization needs to figure out what niche it's going to be and how it's going to differentiate itself."

Twitter: @JELagasse