As patient experience becomes more important, technology can help healthcare focus on the consumer

Photo: Jeff Lagasse/Healthcare Finance News

LAS VEGAS – The healthcare industry was already trending in a more consumer-centric direction before the COVID-19 pandemic took root in the U.S., but the public health emergency acted as an accelerant in some ways, with hospitals and health systems now more focused than ever on patient experience. Technologies such as telehealth have helped to move the needle. 

In a panel moderated by Colin Hung, cofounder and editor of Healthcare Leadership, Tania Elliott, chief medical officer for virtual care, clinical and network services at Ascension, and Chris Marsh, vice president of engineering at SR Health, took to the HIMSS21 conference in Las Vegas to talk about how a consumer-centric mindset is changing and evolving the healthcare industry.

"I realized very early on, seeing thousands of patients through telehealth, there was something special about that patient-doctor relationship through video," said Elliott. "It's intimate. You're seeing into a patient's home, so it's that sort of modern-day house call. This really is great for patients, and from a patient access perspective. From an equity perspective, you level the playing field because someone living in a rural area can see a top specialist at the tap of a button."

Newer technologies of all stripes, whether they be remote monitoring tech or even simple mobile and text communications, have been a boon for patients. According to Marsh, this affects healthcare organizations as well, as governance has moved much more quickly than has been the case historically – allowing hospitals, health systems and other institutions to move much more nimbly in a rapidly changing environment.

"A lot of times in the past, it's felt more governance-led and not as much patient-led," said Marsh. "I think the challenge for our industry is how do we capture that and sustain it?"

Elliott came to Ascension because the organization needed clinical leadership to oversee its programs and sustain the momentum that it had built. A light bulb had turned on in physician's minds: Telehealth and other technologies can be enormously beneficial in treating things such as substance abuse disorders and behavioral health, to name just two examples.

"Doctors can sometimes have a bad relationship with technology," said Elliott. "But now we've actually made it easier. The technology actually faded to the background, and once the doctors really accepted it, people are just springing up with ideas. It's just a matter of sharing all of that across Ascension, and then building it into broader programs. So that's the work we need to do."

Patient experience has grown in importance, said Marsh, because consumers are empowered and able to act and use self-service they couldn't use previously. It has also grown in importance in the minds of many in the industry, because outcomes are increasingly correlated with expenses.

"Having more patients engaged … is increasingly showing that the more we engage them the better the outcomes and the lower the cost of care," he said.

The rollout of technologies and the shift to a more consumer-focused mindset haven't been perfect. According to Elliott, Ascension could have done better in terms of communication with its patients and being upfront about what was going on in certain situations. But the organization also stepped up its palliative services and other services, with nurses connecting with patients in real time – minimizing the impact of social isolation.

It's all about continuous improvement, said Marsh.

"You have to create an on-ramp to processing this information and turning it actionable," he said. "And it has to include the patient voice.

"Sometimes there's so much uncertainty in what the outcome is going to be," said Marsh of implementing digital consumer-centric programs. "You have to be willing to make that investment. Unifying it can be difficult for organizations. It's not understood in the same way we understand other investments we can make in the hospital."