3 Components of Retail Healthcare

Intuitive Health is 100 percent committed to providing exceptional service to every single patient every single time they visit.  We do this by implementing our principles and process for every patient, every time.  We strive to make our patient’s healthcare experience as simple and as pleasant as possible, and we want to provide an experience that they tell their friends and family about. 

Making healthcare accessible is imperative. According to a 2020 Harris Poll Research, half of the consumers avoid seeking care because it is too hard. Over half of the consumers polled said that finding, accessing and paying for healthcare requires too much work. 

Our system is the cornerstone to consumerism healthcare, also known as retail health. 

While there are many parts to retail healthcare, 3 essential components include: 

• Elevated customer service 
• Seamless experience – personalized care
• Price sensitivity/transparency 

Elevated Customer Service

The clarion call of healthcare consumerism is a call to improved customer service, which leads to a more positive experience for patients. This clear expectation from consumers means that there is consistency in trying to win the next visit or convincing the consumer they should invest their time, financial commitment and health with us over and over again. However, this should not be the primary focus for healthcare providers if they have not first addressed their full capacity to provide a seamless experience for patients and healthcare consumers.

Healthcare providers must recognize customer service is not just one person’s job – it is every employee’s job. Customers must feel appreciated. Customer complaints must be handled immediately. Apologize. Put measures or training in place to prevent issues from happening again. 

Seamless Experience

Consumers want a seamless experience from beginning to end, not dependent on whom they interact with. In other words, an omnichannel experience. An experience that isn’t siloed. A few positive healthcare characteristics to look for include: 

• retail healthcare
• Online appointment booking
• Customer-centric operating hours 
• Trusted continuum of care
• Easy of parking
• Minimal wait times
• Proven processes to optimize the patient’s journey
• Breakdown internal silos and enhance efficiency 
• Personally walking patients out of the facility
• Offering to speak with family members over the phone
• Wowing the patient at every interaction 
• Implement patient experience/satisfaction surveys

Price Sensitivity

The 2020 Change Healthcare – Harris Poll Consumer Experience Index reported that customers want price transparency from providers. This has been the issue with ER utilization. Studies suggest that 44 to 65 percent of all patients treated in an emergency department could have received care in an urgent care setting.1 Yearly, Americans pay nearly $32 billion a year in unnecessary emergency room utilization billing. Traditional healthcare models expect the patient to know whether their medical issue is an emergency or not. When patients are unsure where to go for treatment, patients typically default to the highest level of care available to them. As a result, they often go to the ER and receive much larger bills for ailments that could have quickly been taken care of at urgent care facilities for a fraction of the price.

Level of care billing is a massive issue throughout healthcare, and to administer quality care, billing must transition to a structure that prioritizes patients only paying for the level of care received. Healthcare needs to close the mismatch gap between the level of care and its antiquated billing practices.

For example, at Intuitive Health, we have made great strides in improving the mismatch between the level of care and billing. We have devised a proven system where patients are billed only for the level of services they receive rather than on the location of their care. If an urgent care can treat a patient’s issue, the patient is billed urgent care prices. Conversely, if the patient’s issue is genuinely an emergency issue, they are billed at an ER rate.

It is important to remember that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to consumerism. Each customer has unique views, needs, and feelings. It is our essential goal to figure out what those are and how to meet them.

When healthcare providers implement consumerism-focused strategies, the rewards are enormous. Customer loyalty reaches unprecedented numbers. 

At Intuitive Health, our relentless pursuit of exceptional, patient-centered service combined with our unique approach of providing the right care at the right price, right now, is delighting patients and saving millions in unnecessary health care spending. We are 100 percent dedicated to our commitment to WOW every single customer.

If you are interested in learning more about our unique retail healthcare model, please reach out to us at www.iheruc.com/connect/.