Healthcare decision-makers unequivocally agree that the way healthcare providers deliver care is rapidly changing, as is the way patients interact with their health. These changes are driven by cost pressures, changing consumer expectations and the rapid pace of technological innovation.
Glen Tullman – CEO of Care Navigation Company Transparentas well as the former CEO of All Scripts And Livongo – discussed what he thinks the future of health care will look like during a presentation Tuesday at the HIMSS conference in Chicago. He presented five predictions.
“Consumers are responsible.”
The industry must understand that patients have a choice when it comes to the type of health care they want and how they want it delivered, Tullman stressed. This is not always the case — in an emergency, sometimes the only choice is to call an ambulance. But for things like primary care, prescriptions, and mental health services, health care consumers face an array of options.
“Our task as an industry is to build a new and different relationship with these health consumers. And not just by treating patients with compassion — that is no longer enough. It’s really about taking care of them as consumers. This is where we need to go,” Tullman said.
He called on healthcare companies to empower their consumers “in the same way that we empower every other aspect of our economy.”
“AI will inform experience.”
Any mistrust from healthcare organizations about AI is quickly disappearing, Tullman said. The benefits of AI are so crucial that healthcare players have no choice but to bank on the technology, he argued.
For starters, Tullman pointed out that AI can eliminate the large amounts of paperwork and clinical documentation issues that plague the healthcare field. AI can also perform analytics to optimize staffing levels during the workforce crisis, and it can improve care by enabling real-time data to influence clinician decisions, a- he explained.
“Healing will occur in 60 seconds.”
Calling your doctor’s receptionist to schedule an in-person appointment was the method of choice for obtaining care for many years, but the industry has moved beyond that and realized that it is not not a very good way to meet patient needs, Tullman explained.
As the world increasingly turns to on-demand services like Uber and DoorDash, patients also want their health issues addressed quickly and easily. This is especially true for patients with chronic conditions that can become dangerous at any time, such as diabetes or asthma, Tullman pointed out.
If patients don’t have access to on-demand, convenient care, three things could happen, and none of them are the desired outcome, Tullman explained. Patients will avoid care, wait until their condition is so bad that their healthcare costs become much higher, or go to the emergency room.
“Health systems will be the hub…maybe.”
Healthcare systems have always been major hubs for patient care. Tullman doesn’t think that will change, but he does think the role of the healthcare system will evolve in the near future.
“My message to you as a health system is very simple. And that’s that you have to own the relationship – you have to own the health consumer experience,” he said. “The good news is that in most of your markets, you’re well known, you’re local, and you’re trusted. But the challenge remains that you need to communicate that message to health consumers who make decisions every day. »
In order to keep pace, health systems will need to change their payment model, Tullman argued. Healthcare is the only sector where consumers don’t know what they owe until months after receiving the service, he pointed out.
“Risk is not a risk.”
Tullman called on health systems to “lead the way” towards value-based care. He argued that health systems are the entities best suited to determine how well cost matches quality of care and what appropriate care plans should look like.
“[Health systems] you have to drive it. It only works if [they’re] ready to drive it, because if someone else drives it, then someone else will own it,” Tullman said.
Photo: Feodora Chiosea, Getty Images