According to an upcoming healthcare survey of more than 6,000 consumers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, face-to-face visits are still rated more positively than virtual visits when it comes to speaking. to the quality, outcomes, convenience and convenience of telehealth. Ireland, Australia and Germany.
The survey was conducted by research and consulting giant EY – and it has a lot to say about the state of healthcare and IT today.
EY gave Healthcare IT News a preview of survey results during an interview with its global health leader, Aloha McBride.
Q. What have consumers been saying about healthcare lately and how do they want telehealth to work for them?
A. In the healthcare industry, it is very important to be mindful of the consumer. In the work of the EY team globally, we see healthcare shifting focus to value-based contract and care, however it seems that the consumer or patient perspective The multiplier is being removed from the equation.
To dive into this and better understand what consumers value in healthcare, in early 2023 we surveyed a total of more than 6,000 consumers in six countries: United States United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Great Britain and Germany.
Our primary focus is on understanding individual preferences and what is most important to consumers regarding their health and care. We look at this through three different lenses of people, processes, and places.
However, with major investments in things like virtual care and AI, we also want to understand how comfortable consumers are with emerging technologies. And so, to achieve this goal, we look at ways to deliver care including face-to-face and virtual care, artificial intelligence, and remote monitoring.
We also cover consumer preferences for telehealth and willingness to pay, medical innovation, and data sharing.
Overall, three valuable health features stand out. It is not surprising that consumers appreciate the ability to access care when needed and reduce pain and anxiety, but they also value having a cost-effective health system. . This may come as a bit of a surprise – even though healthcare is highly personal, consumers also see value in terms of social benefits and economic performance.
With regard to telehealth services, in all markets face-to-face visits are rated more positively than virtual visits in terms of quality, outcome, and convenience. and utilities.
Consumers really like face-to-face visits because they allow medical professionals to check or view health status (84%), develop deeper personal relationships with clinicians ( 77%) and address their care concerns (67%). Nearly three-quarters think the quality of face-to-face care is better than virtual care (71%).
However, 44% of consumers would consider a primary care consultation online instead of in person. Specifically, consumers will try to book a virtual appointment to renew their prescription (67%), get test results (61%), to save time (57%) and for a minor medical condition (56%). ). Consumers are less willing (12%) to use virtual for chronic illness consultations.
These results lead us to examine the experience and integration of virtual care into health and continuum of care. In particular, healthcare organizations may want to rethink the design of the virtual care experience, how it integrates into care pathways, the effectiveness of virtual care training, and doctor selection. clinicians, as well as measures of virtual care outcomes for patients and clinicians (a recent study found that clinicians also prefer to provide face-to-face care).
Perhaps most clearly, our survey results highlight the need for health systems to truly understand their consumers from a psychological perspective of beliefs, values, and goals. Health organizations may need to review their investments in this area to ensure that they are designing products and services that match the needs of the population.
Q. A lot of experts are saying that The future of telehealth is integrative care – a combination of telemedicine and face-to-face treatment. Based on your experience with customers and your knowledge of the industry, what do you think this would look like?
ONE. Care combines digital, virtual, remote monitoring, augmented reality, virtual reality, and face-to-face care, among others, across the entire path of care. These are tools by which care can be decentralized and provided where and when needed, and in ways that make sense for lifestyles, clinical needs, and social preferences one person’s association.
Integrative care models use insights into a person’s life, such as their comfort with technology, activity level, health literacy, and family support as well as their health status, to create integrated care pathways. These services seamlessly blend in-person, digital, virtual, community, and social care in the combinations that make the most sense for the person.
For patients who are tech-savvy, have excellent self-management and enjoy digital communication, this can mean a care experience that optimizes the use of passive remote monitoring and digital based exception. Only when the patient’s clinical risk exceeds a certain threshold is the intervention marked and activated.
In addition to the right experience, integrative care models help ensure patients are transferred to the most appropriate care facility and cared for with the right clinical resources. Hybrid models can provide more efficient staffing models and flexibility for clinicians, increasing accessibility and supporting better utilization of capital infrastructure.
For example, virtual command centers allow clinical teams to manage multiple pathways of care for thousands of patients while integrating and communicating with care teams directly at the point of care. This could include activities as diverse as virtual emergency department triage, monitoring of clinical chatbots, or virtual check-ins of home health prompted by incoming biometric patient data.
Integrated, integrated care models deliver enhanced patient engagement, personalized care, and precision with greater staffing flexibility and operational efficiencies for medical systems economic. However, as we found in our survey, designing and aligning models of integrated care requires a significant understanding of patient populations, health needs, preferences, and behaviors. their behavior and social risks.
Q. You say healthcare must move beyond digital innovation to a world of big data and smart technology infrastructure, centered around the human experience. How can this improve patient and provider experience, improve outcomes, and reduce costs?
ONE. As health systems globally adopt integrated care ecosystems, we believe a new approach to health information architecture is needed to collect, create, connect and share data and insights. For this to be successful, it is essential that the data is suitable for sharing, and this means common or compatible standards, semantics, and constructs.
Data is shaping up to be a major capital asset. All types of data including genomic, clinical, demographic, social and behavioral will be collected and used throughout life and used by a wide range of people for a variety of permitted purposes over time. space and space.
As a result, the information architecture must be fit for purpose. This will take the form of the “information structure” of hybrid cloud digital health platforms to enable data flows. In addition, an important requirement is that the underlying information architecture separates the data layer from the transaction layer and the logic layer.
With so much data available from across the health ecosystem, we can change the way care is delivered to make it truly healthy.
A human-centered approach to healthcare coupled with emerging technologies such as AI and advanced analytics will transform the experience of receiving and delivering care. Administrative tasks can be automated, and technology allows early identification of potential clinical and social risks, and can prevent patients from progressing to a costly and painful crisis.
Care teams can use data insights to design care that reflects the realities of a person’s lifestyle, challenges and preferences, and to create engaging experiences support adherence to the plan of care.
Applying these insights at the population level allows health systems to segment their customers. Segmentation can aid greater accuracy in forecasting needs, investing in targeted care programs and campaigns, and in modeling needed staff, appointment types and supplies.
Finally, such an infrastructure structure aids in cost reduction by enabling prioritized decisions and actions that take full advantage of available data to keep populations healthy, functioning efficiently. and coordinate care across the community.
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Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS Media.
