Whether You Like it or Not, We're Already a Consumer-Centric System

According to this article in The McKinsey Quarterly, titled "A Better Hospital Experience:"

• Remember K.I.S.S.: We want hospitals that talk to us like we're more than bodies for cutting and keep us up to date on treatments, wait times, etc.

• A slim 20% of a patient's hospital choice is based on clinical reputation (transparency, transparency, quality outcomes, error data, and more transparency)...While just under half (41%) is based on softer, 'nonclinical' experiences (accomodations, design, patient satisfaction, etc). Still feel like laughing at Cleveland Clinic's other CEO Dr. Duffy or United Airlines new Managing Director for Customer Experience?
  

• As an industry, we've got bigger problems than arguing over whether concierge care is a passing fad or the next hospital best practice - few hospitals have "the marketing skills, the organizational structure, or the operating approach needed to deliver a distinctive experience in the way that retailing and hospitality companies do." Start looking at which hotel/hospitality chain hire you want to recruit for your next VP opening. And why they would want to come to your hospital.

• The biggest "duh" finding: "Hospitals can segment customer groups in the same way that marketers segment them in retailing." Gee, really? And don't forget to segment w/in service line structures as well. There are multiple 'archetypes' among 'cardiac' patients...how are you appealing to your top 2-5?

• And finally, whose job is it anyway? Hospital C-levels can't forget it's our calling to germinate a cultural and operational model that grows and nurtures a "distinctive patient experience."