Consumer Experience Design during COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 08-11-2020 03:44 PM

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COVID-19, like most pandemics, features all the elements for a horror novel or movie. It is fundamentally unfair in who it strikes, including the most vulnerable and the heroic workers on the front lines. As fast as we are learning, there are still so many unknowns. It infects invisibly. Things that people do on any normal day, like touching a door handle, are now risky. It brings people together but it also divides them – it damages not just bodies but communities.

People, including those with serious health conditions, are avoiding hospitals. While the reasons include fear of contracting COVID-19 and fear of unmanageable costs, some are afraid of being alone in a hospital. Facing an enemy alone is another one of the basic human fears and during COVID-19, hospitals often have to limit visitors.

Many hospitals and health systems have adopted approaches that help their patients feel less alone and isolated. These include helping patients use technology to stay in touch with their families and providing staff with playbooks for language that conveys empathy and explains the situation clearly.

While it’s too early to assess the impact of virtual presence on clinical outcomes, hospitals are reporting at least anecdotal benefits for both patients and care providers. For example, Lawrence Memorial Healthcare in Lawrence, Kansas, set up a Zoom call for one of their patients with COVID-19 so that he could talk to his wife. Seeing the patient smile “gave us all hope and brightened a dark situation,” one of the physicians said.

Empathy, the Patient Journey and Experience Design

No hospital physician, nurses or other caregivers get up in the morning and say, “I want to make patients feel alone and scared today.” None approach their work by commenting on their work, “I’m only here to provide technically correct care, I don’t care if the patient has a bad experience and never wants to come here again.” Bad experiences happen when there’s a disconnect between expectations and how an organization meets those expectations. With high-tech companies constantly raising the bar for consumer expectations, hospitals and health systems need to keep up.

Adopting a widespread approach from the high-tech sector, UC Health in Cincinnati used agile methodology to understand and improve the patient experience for its bariatrics program. Navicent Health in central and southern Georgia also applied journey mapping to understand the patient journey and identify the points where the experience could be improved. They saw significant improvements in the percent of patients who chose Navicent for elective joint replacement.

Good experience happens consistently when planners apply the principles of experience design and find ways to integrate empathy into patient interactions at all the important touchpoints. That’s why Bridging Worlds: The Future Role of the Health Care Strategist includes experience design and design thinking as key skills and empathetic as a key attribute for health care strategists.

SHSMD membership includes SHSMD ADVANCE, a tool for confidential self-assessment in these skills and attributes. You can also participate in SHSMD ADVANCE for Teams, to learn about strengths and gaps in a team.

More Resources on Consumer Experience

Creating Communications and Engagement Guidelines for Transgender Care describes ways to be inclusive of consumers who are transgender.

Health Care Customer Experience: Managing Customer Convergence shares resources and approaches to meet the new expectations for consumer experience. (SHSMD members only.)

Creating a Hospitality-Influenced Reputation Management Strategy in Health Care shares ideas and approaches for adopting consumer-centric reputation management practices from the hospitality field. (SHSMD members only.)

Reinventing to Improve Patient Experience is an AHA podcast on telehealth and integrated care.

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