Patient Experience' is the new service motto of healthcare service providers. This maps a journey from a focus on patient satisfaction to a focus on meeting patient expectations on the overall outcomes of clinical and non-clinical quality standards. This is an important factor for attracting and retaining patients. But is this all?
The healthcare services sector has seen unprecedented growth over the last few years. There has been a rush - in acquiring more beds, setting up differential models of care, introducing better technology – all towards reaching out to the patient, filling in the gaps in care provision, doorstep delivery of care, reach out, or bettering care provision through technology. This has been seen across primary, secondary and tertiary care models, all alike. In this trajectory, the subsidiary sectors have also gotten a big boost – the education sector, the IT sector, the travel sector, manufacturing, research, BPO outsourcing and more. A host of new payor models have also evolved through all of these – specialised insurance schemes, government welfare schemes, loans etc. The key buzzwords for almost all of these are patient care, patient experience, service delivery and most of all efficiency. The first two are focused on standards of delivery, and the latter two are focussed on resource utilisation – keys to a good business growth proposition with an eye on the business’s health. My last article a few issues back was on more tactical ways of handling these. Today I will focus on the strategic reasons of why this is a necessary today and not just an option.
To drive Patient Experience, efficiency is a twin as well as a subset to achieve the right outcomes. It is no longer simply a matter of healthcare professionals’ soft skills alone. The efficiency of how the backend workings flow out to the patient-facing mechanisms with transparency and continuous communication, plays a major role in the final service delivery, delivery outcomes as well as perceptions of staff and patients alike. Many studies have shown a consistent positive association between clinical effectiveness and patient experience.
How we enable the patient’s and family’s journey through the healthcare system not only underlines their service experience, but also showcases the efficiency with which the desired objectives are executed. Looking at this closely, these terminologies are the two ends of a tunnel. One end of this tunnel faces the industry segment, the other faces the consumer segment of these services. How what does happens inside this tunnel impact the industry and consumer segment?
Consumers today have various vehicles to spread the word about their experiences – especially in circumstances where the experience is very poor or very good. Social media has simply enhanced this reach multiple times, the ease with which a review can be shared, a point of view spread is indeed immense. And since Google is our dictionary today, the reviews get researched more than what any advertisement may say. Healthcare is most susceptible to this as well as the generic flow of word of mouth, because of the very nature of the industry – health being a very personal and sensitive domain. This sensitivity also brings into focus the need for specificity and quality outcomes – be these clinical or non-clinical dealings. The total of this spread of small reviews and views can impact the business growth and the brand name. Therefore, managing patient experience well is a major handle on how the target market will perceive the brand over a period of time.
The resultant efficient use of resources has an impeccable impact on the bottom line of the business. Most leaders mistake efficient to be ‘cheap’ however it is not so. Be it a budget facility or a luxury one, there always needs to be a balance between the revenue and the spending. Efficiency is all about finding the best balance, it is not about being stingy on expense but rather taking a reasonable approach. Many a business are today suffering from the loss of business and opportunity because of the lack of spending on infrastructure upgrades, maintenance that did not seem necessary and human resource development. Most times they realise this mistake too late while being on a brink of major losses. As a healthy business strategy, it is important to ensure a healthy spend on infra development (physical or digital) as well as human resources. All the big brands that have survived over the years have had to rehaul their business processes at critical junctures, keeping in line with the business dynamics. In healthcare, this becomes all the more critical. There are a host of organisations that have fallen prey to easy credit business and with unhealthy internal systems run into major cash flow issues.
Experience and efficiency also drive a solid market value, be in terms of attracting investment, especially in today’s private equity driven businesses, and in terms of driving expansion opportunities. With investors happy to service such businesses with good funding to fill the need gaps in the market or even to create new concepts that help in creating new service lines that can be accepted well, it is a win-win for all stakeholders.
On the other side of the tunnel are the industry stakeholders – employees, good candidates seeking employment, suppliers, vendors, partners etc. This is the segment that feeds the various needs of a business to make everything happen, we may want to call them business enablers. These enablers will have a pride in their work when the interactions are good. Any efficient organisation values contributions of these stakeholders, building a strong internal branding, thus attracting the right workforce and the right enablers. These stakeholders, even when they leave the organisation subsequently, retain this pride of work and carry this strong positive message, enhancing the overall brand value and market recognition. What better advertising can any organisation get?
At a more tactical level, given the need for driving value based and budget healthcare, especially with the varying government schemes offering medical coverage for the community at large, efficient delivery of healthcare services and a healthy business mix can define an organisation’s survival during tough times. Driving a low budget, largely credit business, with long payment cycles, demands a very narrow bottom line with smart spending. Given the growth of such schemes in India especially, with coverage now reaching almost 90% of many state populations, it is imperative for the businesses to have a keen eye on the efficiency of the organisation and the experience of the patients and their families.
To drive these twin-dual initiatives, the change always needs to start at the top. It is the senior business managers who need to first understand what needs to change at the top to be able to drive changes on the shop floor. Contrary to what most business leaders think, change has to start from how they run their own offices – which is always the most challenging part for any change management. Experience and efficiency are a paradigm and need a major paradigm shift in those who are driving the business, in adopting new ways of driving it.
