Customer Experience and Healthcare Consumerism: Are Providers Meeting Customer Expectations?

August 29, 2018

Despite all the talk about healthcare consumerism in our industry, how well are providers actually meeting the expectations of healthcare consumers?

Two recent surveys shed some light on the issue.

Doctor.com surveyed 1,718 patients in 2018 to assess their needs and preferences regarding the customer experience of healthcare.

The latest survey from Kaufman Hall, on the other hand, focuses on consumerism from the provider side, and offers an analysis of where 425 respondents from 200 healthcare organizations rate.

Matt Gove, chief consumer experience officer at Piedmont Health

Matt Gove, chief consumer experience officer at Piedmont Healthcare

“We don’t pay attention as closely as we should to what [healthcare consumers] want from us, and because of it, we risk losing control of our fate. And that’s a dangerous place to be,” says Matt Gove, chief consumer experience officer at Piedmont Healthcare and member of the Editorial Advisory Board of eHealthcare Strategy & Trends.

But, he allows, some health organizations are living up to standards set by other industries.

Doctor.com’s Customer Experience Trends in Healthcare 2018 report confirms that customer experience, online and offline, is a major factor in selecting and staying with a provider. Even when patients are referred to specialists by their own doctors, they go through a thorough vetting process, checking physician profiles and online reviews and star ratings, and this may cause them to change their minds and choose a different provider — one with better reviews and more stars.

Kaufman Hall’s 2018 Consumerism in Healthcare survey focuses on four key areas: access, consumer experience, pricing, and “The Foundation” (data-driven analytics and insights). Overall, the survey finds that there has been positive movement year over year, but most health systems still lag behind.

In our new article, we share highlights from both surveys, along with additional insights from Gove.

Read it now: Research Update: Looking at Consumer Expectations from Both Sides

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President

Start Your Online Access Today

Not a member yet?
Sign up for a FREE trial membership »

And don't forget: Once you've signed up as a member, you can add up to 9 colleagues for no additional charge with our Group Membership Upgrade. It's an incredible value.