A Race for the Cure: Considering the Patient Experience in an Ailing U.S. Healthcare System

Among key industry trends taking center stage at recent healthcare conferences around the world, both presenters and attendees are increasingly focused on finding ways to succeed in value-based care models and patient engagement. And it’s about time. With the current model based on ‘fee-for-service’ and prioritizing insurance providers and pharmaceutical companies first, patients continue to find themselves at the bottom of a soaring $3.4 trillion industry in the United States alone.

With the U.S. spending more on healthcare than any other country in the world at $10,348 per person—which amounts to nearly 18 percent of gross domestic product—it is indisputable that patients continue to pay more while receiving less. In addition to an increasing number of post-mortem reports highlighting this troubling predicament, Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care released by the Commonwealth Fund puts into harsh perspective just how far America’s healthcare system has plummeted. So rather than leading the world, the U.S. has fallen to last place on a list of the top 11 countries with similar high-income populations, scoring poorly in nearly every category, including administrative efficiency and healthcare outcomes, and reinforcing the notion that high spend is no guarantee for high quality.

A Deadly Waiting Game

Even as Americans come to terms with and resign to healthcare costs that have reached an all-time high, it still takes, on average, 50% longer to see a family medicine doctor and 30% longer (24 days or more) for a patient to get an appointment with a new doctor in comparison to just three years ago, according to a 2017 Merritt Hawkins survey. With the present deadly flu season, which began in October 2017 and has claimed the lives of 119 children as of March 2018, the waiting game has become a matter of life and death.

Undoubtedly, the healthcare mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A) epidemic that in 2017 accounted for $723.7 billion in deals out of the global $5 trillion M&A total for all industries has contributed significantly in preventing doctors from delivering the care patients need and deserve. So, too, have ever-changing government regulations and higher-premium insurance policies with high deductibles, cumbersome prior-authorization requirements and unreasonably limited coverage. Either way, there is a dire need for change, and one that places the ultimate consumer—the patient—at the forefront, particularly as on-demand applications create a growing population of on-demand consumers.

Adapting to an On-Demand Society

In order to meet critical patient expectations, the healthcare industry must strive to deliver the same kind of consumer-centric experience that retail, real estate, utilities and travel sectors have successfully achieved. Yet, up until now, no technology has been able to offer the features and tools patients value most. Consider the recent research findings released at HIMSS 2018 by NTT DATA Services, a recognized leader in global technology services that surveyed 1,000 patients. In addition to a majority (59%) revealing their desire for doctors and care facilities to use advanced digital technologies to improve the overall patient experience, 81% expressed a need for a faster and easier way to search for a doctor or a specialist, while 79% hoped new technology would improve the process of making or changing an appointment.

Like retail, real estate, utilities and travel, healthcare is changing at a rapid speed, with digital tools fast becoming the favorite in the race to transform an ailing healthcare system. Simplifying everything from filling out paperwork to visiting a doctor—with minimal to no wait times—new mobile technologies are offering a promising cure that not only puts consumers at the center of the healthcare experience, but also holds the key to enabling doctors to practice at their highest potential.