Healthcare Consumerism in a Post-reform Health Market

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Posted By: Roberta Mullin August 2, 2012

New Report looks at Customer Experience in Healthcare

PricewaterhouseCooper’s  Health Research Institute (HRI) provides research and analysis on trends impacting health-related industries. Their latest report, Customer experience in healthcare: The moment of truth, kicks off a series focused on healthcare consumerism and its business impact in a post-reform health market.  The report draws on findings from nationwide survey of 6,000 consumers across a dozen industries.  The report compared the experiences of healthcare consumers to banking, hotel and the retail sector.

So what, exactly, makes for a positive experience in healthcare?  According to the report, “consumer perceptions are built across multiple channels — in person, online, on the phone and increasingly through non-traditional settings such as mobile devices and retail health clinics.  Moreover, the ideal experience increasingly is being defined by non-clinical elements, such as convenience, customer service and staff attitude.”

[Related Article: Social Media “Likes” Healthcare]

Paul D’Alessandro of PwC says “Lessons from other industries have slowly made their way into the health industry, but most healthcare companies — whether payer or provider — still have a ways to go before they can match the transparency, convenience, and overall quality of experience individual consumers often demand in other sectors.”

Key findings from the report include:

  • 54 percent of consumer patients tell someone else within a month of having a positive experience compared to 70 percent of retail and 66 percent of banking customers.
  • Six out of ten negative experiences are more likely to be remembered longer in the healthcare industry compared to other industries.
  • Staff attitude was cited as the main contributor to positive moments by 70 percent of consumer patients in the healthcare sector, compared to 38 percent of retail shoppers.
  • Personal experience, not cost, is the top reason for choosing a doctor or hospital.
  • 65 percent consumer patients appreciate the ability to exchange information through online and mobile channels of communication
  • 57 percent of consumer patients place a high value on patient education they receive during a visit.

You can download the full report on PwC’s website.