MANIC MERGERS AND CONTENTIOUS consolidations describe much of today's medical marketplace. When the dust finally settles, what will the health care delivery system look like in the next century? More importantly, where will the patient stand?
Admittedly, all this scrambling to build networks of care has taken its toll on patients, who are increasingly disillusioned and dissatisfied with the level of service they receive. But relief is in sight. Health care organizations that focus on the patient, by making patient satisfaction a top priority, will corner market share.
In the future, the profitability of these large health care organizations will depend on serving, and serving well, large numbers of patients. And like the evolution of the banking service industry, which today offers people access to their money anywhere and anytime through automated teller machines, health care in the next century will become increasingly consumer-driven.
Patients stand to gain significant improvements in access, service and convenience. Zero barriers to care and zero wait time are on the health care horizon revolutionary concepts for most physician groups, hospitals and health care networks today, but coming with certainty in the 21st century. More specifically, patients can expect:
- less waiting time to get an appointment;
- quicker response to office phone calls;
- shorter turnaround time for prescription refills;
- faster notification of test results, and in writing;
- new rapid response systems for critical patient care; proactive management of patient health to prevent disease;
- a return to convenient community-based care for minor aches and pains;
- new regional center of excellence for advanced treatment of major illness and disease;
- a seamless continuum of care; that is, an integrated delivery system that delivers by addressing patient need immediately and by guiding people automatically to next level of care; that is integrated delivery system that delivers by addressing patient need immediately and by people to the next level of care;
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- minimal cultural barriers, from issues of translation to acceptance of alternative treatments such as acupuncture and hypnosis; and
- advanced information systems linking patient information/databases to doctors, hospitals, insurers, and others in the health care delivery network.
Service guarantees will become a way of business, and consumer report cards as routine as direct mail newsletters to keep patients posted on how well a physician practice or managed care organization hits performance benchmarks and targets and delivers on quality.
In the end, it will boil down to the mechanisms, systems, processes and interactions that practices and managed care organizations put into place to reduce patient anxiety by rapid, high-quality response.
Not unlike the overnight package delivery services of today, patient customers will demand real-time response to nagging as well as life-threatening health issues. That means a real emphasis on triage by knowledgeable clinical staff who can prioritize medical treatment on the basis of urgency. It means putting more information into patients' hands about the kind of illness or disease they are facing, and what role they can play to mitigate symptoms. And it means streamlined efficiency to connect patients with helpful Websites, support groups or other services that can take the edge off the anxiety by putting patients in the driver's seat of their own care.
In the next century, the vision will be realized. The patchwork quilt of health services that exists today will coalesce into a true and seamless continuum of care. Access, service and convenience will be the watchwords, greatly reducing patient anxiety and immeasurably improving not only responsiveness to patient needs and concerns, but the efficient delivery of health care and in the end, the health of an entire nation.
Jayne Oliva is a principal with The Croes Oliva Group in Burlington, a team of practice management professionals working to put business into practice and serving physicians and organizations.
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