Banner Health VP of Customer Experience Channels Christen Castellano discusses the development of new digital tools ahead of her presentation at HIMSS22.
Today, patients take the driver's seat of their care. The digitization of the health care system and health plans with high deductibles have further advanced the discussion about the consumerization of care. Coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, this has exposed patients to different treatment modalities.
What's next for the patient experience? Christen Castellano, Banner Health's VP of Customer Experience Channels, was interviewed by MobiHealthNews on the consumerization of healthcare ahead of her presentation at HIMSS22.
MobiHealthNews: How do you think the consumerization of healthcare is changing the expectations of traditional providers?
Castellano: Since I'm not a provider, I asked some of our doctors and that's what I learned. Most of our doctors are in regions where we've always had competition. In this way, consumerism has always been a part of healthcare from the provider's perspective.
Whether it's having a friendly and knowledgeable nurse, earning a reputation as "the best doctor" in town, or building relationships with a referral base, there's always been a rudimentary understanding that patients have, and will make, a choice , if they don't. t. Do you. I don't feel they get value for their dollar. This has only increased with the prominence of high-deductible health plans.
What has most impacted physician expectations is the proliferation of care options. This has come in many forms: employers contracting directly with providers, telehealth capabilities, and care organizations focused on small subsets of the population like Medicare Advantage, etc.
This proliferation of care options has created more options for both patients and physicians/providers. More choice has led to a perception that the doctor-patient relationship, particularly in primary care, is more expendable than ever.
These changes, along with many other digital forces inside and outside of healthcare, have led physicians to redefine what the patient experience means to them. There is now a broader understanding of what patients want: an omnichannel customer experience that is convenient, consistent, coordinated and empathetic, and at a low cost.
Providers need to solve (help heal) patient issues, but they also need to provide a positive experience to ensure patients want to return. Interactions before, during and after the visit must be consumer-centric: be simple, demonstrate care, and exceed customer expectations to support brand loyalty.
MobiHealthNews: Who needs to be at the table when new digital tools emerge?
English: A multidisciplinary approach is required to ensure digital tools are accurate and simple for consumers and accurate and simple for employees.
Physicians Access to care, scheduling accuracy, and patient expectations are impacted by digital tools, so clinicians are critical to developing care pathways before they go digital. Our model is built with our clinical teams, not for our clinical teams, and this approach has worked best.
Contact center and CX leaders. Contact centers are the benefactors of any system confusion, as confusion usually leads to a phone call. To ensure digital tools streamline self-service and reduce call volume, these leaders must engage in the logistics and calls-to-action that the tools enable. Doing the right thing is also different from doing the right thing at scale. ...
Patients with different demographic characteristics (gender, age [and] race). Cultural differences need to be considered when building digital capabilities and designing the omnichannel strategy that best suits an organization and the communities it serves.
Customers at different points in the life cycle. Technology enables the experience, so it's an integral part of development. Sometimes patients are too ill or too tired and simply need agent assisted service.
