The CEO’s Golden Question

[This is my second guest post on HospitalImpact.org. Thankfully, the first one only received very positive comments.]

I have been going through an unexpected process while revisiting our hospital’s online strategy. I should have seen it coming since it’s at the core of what we do in the health care practice. Still, it evaded my thoughts until our forward-thinking CEO shed some light on it.

I refer to the process of thinking about every detail of our business from the perspective that matters most: the patient’s. The context that brought about my awareness may seem trite, but it likely will stick with me for a long time. Over a three-month period, I had been working with our marketing and IS directors to lay the foundation for a Web content redesign. We started by brainstorming ways to engage users more meaningfully. We were throwing mud on the wall, and a lot of it was sticking. We had some true epiphanies in those moments, and the future for our little Web site seemed bright.

I got right to work creating a site blueprint, but soon I became bogged down in the details. Necessary details, mind you. Anyone with a drop of tech blood in their veins will tell you that you can’t go live without considering a host of things like browser compatibility, back-end functionality, security risks, validation, aesthetics, etc., etc., etc. After several weeks of project planning, our CEO requested a status update meeting in the board room. I readied the new design template, the content plan and a host of other technical data to woo and impress him.

But I was the one who was impressed. We had scarcely fired up the projector when our CEO scanned over the new design and asked,

“What would the patient want?”

The question hung in the air as he elaborated. What information and functions would the patients want that would improve their experience at the hospital? How could we possibly make their lives easier and more pleasant? Why can’t we let them start the pre-admission process early by posting the forms online? Wouldn’t that save them some time when they arrive? Why couldn’t we list our staff oncologists on the cancer care page? Wouldn’t that help them find a physician in a time of need?

In that short meeting, I understood why our CEO is who and where he is. He had been humanizing something that is not normally regarded as personable, to make it another part of the patient’s experience. That fits every definition of hospital leadership I’ve ever read.

I’m pleased to say that we incorporated more than a dozen new ideas that came out of that meeting. When our new public-facing site goes live a month from now, patients and potential patients will be able to schedule outpatient tests, download a personal medication card, fill out pre-admission forms and much more. And I made sure to add a note in my strategic planning process to ask that patient question throughout the entire process next time.
The full meaning of “What would the patient want?” is unclear to me. Maybe it means that sometimes we get buried in the processes, the scores and the data and forget to think as if we’re the ones being admitted. Or maybe it serves as a reminder that “patient-centric” is more than just a buzzword. Implementing change is no easy thing, but it can start with small instances. Things like adding the words “Your Hospital Visit” and “Patient Care” to our Web navigation. Will it translate to higher patient satisfaction scores? Will it drive volume? I’ll let you know, but I have a feeling you already know the answer.

Gearing Up for 2007

[This was my first guest post on HospitalImpact.org, one of the most widely-read health care blogs. If they like what I have to say, they may keep me on as a guest blogger. Wish me luck!]

2007 is shaping up to be one of those line-in-the-sand years – one that is predicted to demarcate the winners and losers of the consumer-driven health care movement more than ever before. As Exhibit A, I submit PricewaterhouseCoopers' recent report titled The Top Seven Health Industry Trends of '07. In short, PwC predicts 2007 to be a tipping point for state policymaking, pricing transparency, technology upgrades, consumer-directed health plans, drug pricing, obesity awareness and specialized healthcare facilities.

As a hospital administrator, I admit I find myself a bit anxious. I see how this whole consumer-driven health care wave could improve our patients' experiences. I see the potential for my hospital to emerge as a market leader without major strategy shifts. I also see such a drastic disconnect between the health industry and consumers that makes any hope for sustained growth short-lived, at best.

As the father of two young children, I resonate with health care from the consumer perspective as well. Because I am a user of health care first and an administrator second, I cannot ignore the nagging questions about pricing and quality of patient care. I thought I knew my own health plan until a stay in the emergency room took about twice as long and cost about twice as much as I was expecting. It's a funny feeling when you spend your days elevating grievances about your hospital and one day find yourself on the verge of filing one yourself. In times like those, it's crystal clear that calls for transparency are firmly rooted.

A couple of comments from the PwC report point to ways that hospitals can emerge as leaders and consumer advocates in this time of historic industry shifts. One of its key findings is this troubling statistic:

"Nine out of ten Americans (90 percent) believe that greed is a major reason that U.S. healthcare costs are rising, a greater number than those citing drug prices, care for the uninsured, business inefficiencies or malpractice costs."

Sandy Lutz, president of PwC's Health Research Institute, explained it this way:

"There are a myriad of issues facing health organizations and opportunities for executives to address them, but they need to also focus on closing the gap between how consumers view the industry and how the industry views itself."

If we take her recommendation as gospel, that makes every individual healthcare professional a reputation manager and PR specialist. Each of us becomes charged with answering those calls for transparency, for explaining perceived gaps in pricing and patient care. We cannot sweep under the rug an e-mail, a blog or phone call that demands recourse for an unpleasant hospital experience. We are to relinquish our role as gatekeepers and instead put more effort into explaining our business to our consumers. That is one way we can reverse public opinion about our industry, one satisfied patient at a time.

The report further suggests that government, insurers and employers ought to be the ones educating consumers on the benefits of transparency. But what if we, at the hospital level, become the first ones to do it on a national scale? What if we are the ones who drive the amount of transparency data that is made available to the public? Suppose, for instance, that consumers can locate a manageable amount of pricing and quality indicators on a hospital's own Web site rather than wading through a cumbersome third-party site that contains reams of data. Think how a patient's experience can begin days or weeks before he or she sets foot on your campus. It's the entitlement of consumers to more data about our hospitals that is changing our industry.

It appears that consumer-drive health care is here to stay. As it takes hold, transparency will continue to be an issue. We as hospital administrators can adopt the movement and find ourselves at the forefront of consumer demand, or we can fight it tooth and nail. I suspect we'll see some progress a year from now, when we're reading the 2008 industry report.