PATIENT EXPERIENCE

A Personalized Health Care Experience for Every Patient

Companies like Netflix, Spotify and YouTube have grown to be leaders in their field in part because they use consumer data to personalize each user's experience. Now the trend is beginning to catch on in health care.

Hospitals and health systems have learned they are also able to acquire and analyze consumer data to better understand and improve the patient’s overall experience. The strategy to collect, process and then use consumer information, such as patient preferences, in a personalized or "hyperpersonalized" way can lead to better and more appropriate care. It can also greatly improve patient satisfaction, as well as increase institutional loyalty, provide greater value and reduce costs.

Defining Hyperpersonalized Care
The idea behind health care personalization is that every patient should be viewed as an individual rather than as part of a large and homogeneous population. As such, a consumer’s data can help create a comprehensive analysis of their preferences.

This conceptual shift is more important than ever, considering 72% of patients want care that is more tailored to their specific condition, according to a recent study commissioned by Abbott. The report also noted that while 79% of patients have confidence in their physicians' decision making, they believe technology, such as novel diagnostic equipment, can help deliver more personalized care.   

To move in the direction of hyperpersonalized care, providers need to better understand each patient’s motivations, decision-making behavior and how they consume information inside and outside of health care, according to Sonia Singh, vice president, Center for Consumerism, at AVIA. A leader in digital transformation, AVIA has worked to develop the concept of hyperpersonal care orchestration in health care, and has led the effort to promote this approach in partnership with its member health systems. 

"I see it as an N-of-1 health care experience, where a patient's experience is tailored to their unique background, preferences and circumstances," said Singh. "It's the idea of 'know me, connect with me and orchestrate my care (see figure below):' Know me more than my clinical record says; take into consideration my decision-making patterns, my preferences and my behaviors, and then connect with me in a way that's personally meaningful; and then orchestrate my care in a way that's predictive and proactive based on all that you know about me."

The Building Blocks of Hyperpersonalized Care

 - Source: AVIA

However, a lack of personalization could cause some patients to look for care elsewhere. For example, about 7% of consumers have switched health care providers because of a bad customer service experience, which could cause a loss of more than $100 million in annual revenue per hospital, according to research from Accenture. That report also suggests that “as consumers bring their service expectations from other industries into health care, providers are likely to see higher switching rates, on par with the mobile phone industry (9%), cable TV providers (11%) or even retail (30%).”

To learn more, health systems should study industries such as retail, which has been in the hyperpersonalization space for much longer than health care, according to Neil Gomes, MEd, system senior vice president, Digital and Human Experiences, at CommonSpirit Health.

"There are many lessons that we can learn from them … and a really important aspect of hyperpersonalization is a focus on experiences," Gomes said. "Almost every human interaction that we have is an experience, and we need to understand that even in health care that someone will want to be delighted by an experience, and be happy at the end of it because of the way that they were treated. So, I feel as if it's important for us to focus on delivering really great experiences that both heal and delight in health care. That should be one of the goals of hyperpersonalization.”

Implementing Hyperpersonalized Care
Creating a hyperpersonalized experience in health care is the responsibility of everyone within the organization, according to Annie Haarmann, head of strategy and consulting, Healthcare and Life Sciences, at Reputation. 

"What we've seen is that the IT [information technology], patient experience and marketing teams are the best ones to come together and lead the charge," said Haarmann. "In fact, in many of our cases, we're seeing that the ability for the consumer experience is really a combined function between marketing and patient experience. Then they are leveraging the IT to make that journey possible."

It's also critical to use any and all available technology in the process, she added.

"It's interesting that so many health care organizations have tons of technology. There is AI [artificial intelligence] that marketing is using to understand brand sentiment and there's billing software that the billing department is using. We have all these different pieces of technology, and in the past, we've treated them as separate items, but moving forward we really have to look at technology as a single ecosystem," said Haarmann.

“Implementing hyperpersonalized care might be the end goal, but it can't be done overnight. It takes time and requires data,” said Singh. 

"This effort requires both first- and third-party data,” said Singh. “First-party data is data that you own, such as clinical, financial and marketing data. So, not just what care plan are they on, but what does their insurance situation look like, is their prescription too expensive and they’re likely not to take it, do they not have a car, making it difficult to get to their appointment? And then marry that with third-party data about that individual, such as social determinant and psychographic data, things like motivations and perceptions. For example, is this a single mom who is more comfortable with female clinicians? Or another individual whose work schedule only allows them to make appointments after hours?"

Even though achieving true hyperpersonalization in health care takes time and involves a variety of elements, one of the simplest ways to get going is by increasing your online presence, according to Haarmann.

"Whenever we're asked how to start this, we always tell our clients that the best place to see the most return on your investment is to invest in anything that helps you to be more visible on Google, or helps the consumer to take more action on Google,” she said. “Increasingly more frequently, we are seeing that consumers are taking action on mobile [devices] or using the Google Knowledge Panel, and fewer of these consumers are actually taking the initiative to actually go to your website. So, if you can enable that action and that conversion, then you'll be a lot closer to delivering a personalized experience when and where the consumer needs it."

 

The Four Tiers of Hyperpersonalized Care

According to AVIA, for health systems that are looking to integrate hyperpersonalized infrastructure into their consumer experiences, it can be helpful to break it down into four tiers, starting with basic data and moving to advanced, AI-powered insights:

Tier 1. Basic preferences and needs: optimizing communications based on channel, language and location preferences.

Tier 2. Proactive communication: providing customized appointment reminders, personalized marketing outreach, medication management, and scheduling outstanding lab tests and screenings.

Tier 3. Personalized navigation: creating tailored appointments and personalized payment plans based on the needs and preferences of the individual.

Tier 4. Tailored care delivery: using patient data and AI to create personalized care plans and staging predictive care interventions.

 

This article features interviews with: 

Sonia Singh
Vice President, Center for Consumerism
AVIA

Neil Gomes, MEd
System Senior Vice President, Digital and Human Experiences
CommonSpirit Health

Annie Haarmann
Head of Strategy & Consulting, Healthcare and Life Sciences
Reputation

Image credit: istock.com/eggeeggjiew