After the Pandemic - Surviving in Healthcare 3.0. - Five Essential Strategies for Hospitals

The last 20 or so months have seen an unprecedented wave of change in healthcare. The way patients search for information, access care, and its delivery due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Direction image by Kalhh from Pixabay

The patient is more in charge with the adaption of telehealth, new entrants stepping into areas that were previously the domain of the hospital, and other care delivered in more convenient, affordable, and accessible locations. Add on top of all of this access to pricing information, and you can see why I call it Healthcare 3.0

Healthcare 3.0

Healthcare 3.0 is an entirely different market animal from anything hospital leadership has ever had to contend with.  The competitive animal has teeth with little regard for whether a hospital or health system survives. Highly competitive, innovative, and retail, the sole focus is on understanding and meeting patients' needs. 

Most hospital marketing by focusing on features of the hospital- facilities, technology, services, diagnostic capabilities, and then telling people we care more, is more about marketing to senior management and physicians than it is to patients. That is not a brand promise, nor is it any sustainable value proposition.

Target audience image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Healthcare 3.0 is where the hospital or health system evolves from being in the hospital business forever searching for a revenue stream to the healthcare business focused on the patient's needs.  That means creating a meaningful and substantive brand promise and value proposition. All of which is delivered through meaningful engagement and experience.

What is healthcare marketing's role? Here are five areas for consideration. 

Thinking image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

1.       Voice of the Customer. VoC is far more important now in healthcare.  There are over 147 patient touchpoints in the typical hospital.  Each interaction is the opportunity to hear about organizational performance.  Then most importantly, the ability to use that information in an actionable way to identify and meet healthcare consumer needs.  

2.       Proactively managing the patient experience. Patient experience means just that- not one isolated clinical or administrative service experience but understanding what that patient experience is at all touchpoints.  Next is the challenge of managing that experience to its fullest potential to benefit the patient. Patient experience is an integrative process across the entire organization internally and externally.  The challenge is one patient to the hospital and one hospital to the patient. It is not another quality program or flavor of the day. 

3.       From demand generation to demand management.The hospital is no longer the center of the healthcare universe.   Marketing needs to understand the demand for healthcare services when required and manage service demand in making sure that the hospital or health system has the right resources, in the right place, at the right time to meet demand.  View the hospital as a distributive computer network. Each site is a care node that allows the hospital to move demand from node to node that best meets the patient's needs in a convenient, accessible, and affordable perspective. 

4.       Preparing the hospital for enhanced competition. Hospitals continue to fall behind non-traditional providers and new entrants into the market and losing share and revenue to others.  There are many reasons for this, but the most striking is the inability of traditional providers to connect the dots through technology, data, and a deep understanding of the patient to meet their needs. It's about market research and internal data to draw actionable insights to meet the patient's needs and answer the competition.  

5.       From outbound features and interruptive marketing to inbound value solutions marketing. Value marketing is making the case to the healthcare consumer how you are solving their medical problem, offering a solution, giving results, and even making them happy.  Value marketing is a creative exchange between people and organizations in the marketplace.  It is a dynamic transaction that continually changes based on the patient's needs compared to what the hospital offers. 

In the end, it's all about giving the patient what they need, communicated in the channels they occupy, not what the hospital's senior management or medical staff want to see from marketing. That is Healthcare 3.0. - engagement, experience, choice, convenience, and affordability on the patient terms.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow American College of Healthcare Executives. Michael is a thought leader and influencer in healthcare marketing strategy, communications, digital marketing, and social media in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. 

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The opinions expressed are my own.