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Navigating the New Age of Consumerism After COVID-19

By The SHSMD Team posted 02-23-2021 11:11 AM

  


The latest trends in consumerism are the primary reason that health economist and author Jane Sarasohn-Kahn believes hospitals and health systems need to rethink their current models of service delivery. “Health care needs to become more like the hospitality or consumer packaged-goods industries,” she says. “To engage and retain loyal customers, we need to design services and experiences similar to what they encounter every day in the real world. It is no longer about the patient’s medical journey — it’s about the whole consumer experience.”

The Consumer Health Care Landscape in the Wake of the Pandemic

Although Sarasohn-Kahn says hospitals and health systems demonstrated profound responsiveness to the pandemic, the crisis also revealed some key weaknesses in the health care system overall. “The need for testing and treatment of the coronavirus highlighted a stronger demand for health care access, patient safety, cost transparency, and new delivery models and sites,” she states.

The pandemic also had a dramatic impact on hospital and physician office workflow, resource allocation and finances. According to a Crowe RCA benchmarking analysis released in May 2020, the country’s health systems experienced an average decline in patient volume of 56 percent between March 1, 2020, and April 15, 2020, equating to an estimated $1.44 billion decrease in net revenue per day for all hospitals with more than 100 beds.

Implications for Health Care Leaders

How the pandemic will permanently alter the way hospitals and health systems deliver care is difficult to predict, but Sarasohn-Kahn believes one new trend is here to stay: The post-COVID-19 health care consumer will seek safety, convenience and value even more insistently than before the coronavirus became a household word.

Frictionless customer experience. In the quest for creating a seamless continuum of care in the landscape, Sarasohn-Kahn advises health care leaders to map the entire patient journey — from the first inquiry through discharge and aftercare — with the goal of streamlining the process and ensuring safety, security and infection control. “Addressing points of friction within the health care system will help deliver a ‘wow’ or comforting experience that some patients will be eager to share on a social network or via word of mouth,” she says.

Retail health. Consumers embraced retail health services long before the COVID-19 outbreak. “CVS and Walgreens now administer more vaccinations than legacy health care providers do,” says Sarasohn-Kahn. “Primary care visits to family medicine physicians are down and urgent care visits are up as more care is being delivered outside the four walls of the hospital or medical office.” In a post-pandemic value-based care environment, these collaborations can mean fewer office visits, resulting in cost savings and improved patient outcomes.

Self-care and digital health. One of the biggest trends Sarasohn-Kahn sees is the convergence of consumer technology and health care. The shelter-in-place directives during the height of the coronavirus outbreak created an unprecedented emphasis on staying healthy at home, which accelerated consumers’ use of smartphones, tablets and computers to access a variety of wellness-related apps and websites. The pandemic also further ignited the trend toward wearable technology for self-care. Broadband connectivity is essential for telehealth, virtual visits and other modes of care, as well as for in-home monitoring programs that track patients’ weight, blood pressure and glucose levels in the growing Internet of Medical Things. The green shoots of the hospital-to-home movement seen in late 2019 were accelerated in 2020, now building on Medicare’s Hospitals Without Walls initiative. This will become even more important for older people seeking to safely age at home and increasingly engaging with virtual platforms during the pandemic.

Action Steps for Health Care Leaders

Sarasohn-Kahn’s key takeaways for health care executives include the following:
  • Know your customers. Sarasohn-Kahn advises working with local community members and finding champions in consumer-facing businesses and local organizations, such as the YMCA and faith-based institutions, that can share what they know about the market. “They can help cocreate and deliver services that people need, where and when they want them,” she explains.
  • Build collaborations. Hospital and health system leaders should consider finding partners who are already engaged in delivering medical and wellness services in the community. “These services don’t have to be built from the ground up,” she notes. “But it is important to be a good partner by learning to listen and being willing to collaborate.”
  • Support social determinants of health. Some communities may have a high degree of food insecurity or domestic violence; others may lack clean water, safe places for children to play or internet connectivity. Sarasohn-Kahn urges health system executives to get involved and be advocates in addressing societal issues that may impede access to good health and self-care. 
  • Enable self-care. As health care reimbursement continues to shift to value-based payments, enabling self-care among patients will be key. Digital applications are the most popular way to deliver this capability to people where they live, work, play and learn.

Conclusion

All of these trends are pointing to a shift toward individuals staying out of the hospital and enhancing their health and wellness at home, especially after the coronavirus pandemic. “Health care can now be found everywhere consumers are. If health systems are not investing in replacing hospital beds and moving care into the community and home, they may become irrelevant or even obsolete,” Sarasohn-Kahn predicts.

Learning More

SHSMD members can read much more about health care and consumerism in Sarasohn-Kahn’s article in Futurescan 2021-2026: Health Care Trends and Implications, the annual publication that explores key forces transforming the future of health care. Nonmembers, learn more about SHSMD and join. SHSMD members can also share resources, ideas and questions with peers in the MySHSMD community.

The Consumer Experience Scan is a collection of news and resources available to SHSMD members about consumerism in the new health care environment.

Strategies to Reach the Active and Passive Consumer is a webinar recording about designing engagement strategies to reach and activate these two types of consumers and nudge them to take the best next action when and where they need it.

SHSMD members can read Building Loyalty Is Key in New Age of Consumerism, an article about how health care providers can meet the needs and expectation of consumers around transparency, convenience and personalization.

Psychographic segmentation and its application in the health care setting to drive patient traffic, loyalty and market share are the focus of the Using Consumer Industry Science to Turbocharge Your Hospital Marketing webinar recording.
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