Providers struggle to meet rising consumer demand for digital healthcare
There's plenty of opportunity in the area of real-time appointment availability, which is highly desired by consumers, the report says.
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As care demand rebounds, healthcare organizations have the opportunity to differentiate themselves by creating increasingly flexible, patient-centric digital access, but many top providers are still struggling to provide effective tools.
These were the findings of a report from Kyruus, which assessed the nation's top 20 hospitals, according to the most recent U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Kyruus evaluated providers based on four key categories representing the main stages of the digital patient access journey: Consumer engagement tools; easy, modern search experiences; consumer-centric filtering options; and self-service booking capabilities.
The study found just a quarter of health systems assessed had a virtual assistant live to assist consumers, and just one of the top 20 health systems had a find-a-provider search function with sorting and/or filtering options for location, availability, and virtual care options.
The report indicated that plenty of opportunity remains in the area of real-time appointment availability, which is highly desired by consumers.
In addition, less than half (40%) of the top 20 providers offer online scheduling for new patients within their find-a-provider – another major gap in online patient access, according to the report.
The report recommended providers increase online conversion by providing seamless, integrated online consumer scheduling and by offering online access to virtual care.
WHY THIS MATTERS
As providers facing the growing demands of digital, patient focused experiences akin to what they get from banking or retail, they're finding a sound digital strategy is all about synergy, from the operations team to technologists and marketing.
Technology can enhance the patient experience, but it requires organizational buy-in and an infrastructure that scales, ensuring all constituents are working together toward a common goal.
According to a recent Forrester report measuring healthcare satisfaction, consumers found website and mobile app experiences to be more important than premiums, rates and fees.
In addition, insurance providers that cover telehealth had a higher trust score from their members than providers that do not.
However, a Kaufman Hall report indicated healthcare executives have yet to fully commit to digital, consumer-centric care, with just 7% of the 100 healthcare organizations surveyed having a dedicated focus and the resources for building a consumer-centric infrastructure.
THE LARGER TREND
At NYU Langone, where the digital push is well underway, the plan to improve the consumer healthcare journey is called the Patient Digital Experience (PDX). It deploys technologies such as AI and telehealth to improve the patient experience.
The provider's application saw more than 700,000 installs and first launches in 2020. The app averages more than 500,000 visits per month.
ON THE RECORD
"The race to keep up with changing patient access preferences continues to present major opportunities for improvement in the digital landscape," the report concluded. "Many of the nation's top hospitals and health systems excel at engaging patients with effective on-site CTAs, but lack consumer-centric tools like virtual assistants and mobile apps."
Twitter: @dropdeaded209
Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com
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