Create amazing patient experiences by leveraging the retail playbook

The need to revolutionize the delivery of patient care has never been greater than it is right now. To remain profitable and relevant, healthcare providers have no choice but to rapidly evolve.

The urgency to evolve is in large part due to growing populations with increasing needs and a greater expense to care for them. The World Health Organization estimates there will be 2 billion people aged 60 and over by 2050, while a report by Transparency Market Research projects the global home healthcare market will reach over $303 billion in revenue by 2020.

At the same time, patient expectations and behaviors are changing.

We all know that today’s consumers have become accustomed to the data-driven, personalized experiences they get from retail brands. And now, they’ve come to expect similar experiences with all the brands they interact with, including their healthcare providers.

Most healthcare leaders are already looking for new ways to deliver more patient-centric care. But the clock is ticking.

Several big consumer technology companies—the ones that have done the most to transform customer expectations by delivering amazing experiences—have set their sights on the healthcare industry. Providers are under intense pressure to improve the patient experience.

Lessons learned from customer service disruptors

Providers looking for ways to deliver more patient-centric care can learn a lot from how the consumer market handles customer service. In particular, providers should look at how these big technology disruptors improve experiences through continuous engagement that strengthens relationships and improves outcomes.

Here are three examples of how providers might apply these lessons in the healthcare setting:

  1. Empower customers with easy access to their information—and personalize their experiences with that information. For instance, when a patient logs into a self-serve platform, they can get customized recommendations based on their medical history and other shared information.
  2. Proactively reach out to patients in the channels they prefer (like cell phones and tablets) to increase plan adherence and prevent readmissions. Imagine automatically contacting a patient via a mobile app to remind them of an upcoming appointment or share an important health alert.
  3. Provide patients with access to your services on their terms to improve outcomes. Through self-serve portals, mobile apps, personalized emails, and website experiences, providers can give patients the right information wherever they are to support their health.

Putting the lessons into action

At Microsoft, we’ve put tools in place to help healthcare providers deliver the relevant, personalized experiences today’s patients demand. Here are some things you can do:

  • Give patients self-service access with health data and personalized plans that are available anytime, anywhere, through secure portals that provide a 360-degree view of patient wellness.
  • Deliver precision health by collecting granular data on each patient and analyzing for individualized, predictive insights. These insights then enable personalized communication at scale.
  • Reach out to patients with preventative care and healthcare updates at their convenience to prevent readmissions and improve the management of chronic conditions.
  • Enable holistic, pervasive relationships where patients can contact caregivers and receive personalized advice whenever and wherever they need it.

The best part? Our new Healthcare Accelerator solution lets you do all those things competently. It is the linchpin that lets you use the full suite of tools in the Microsoft Cloud more efficiently—for even faster, easier transformation.

Using patient data to transform the patient experience

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Healthcare Accelerator unifies your EHR data while enabling a suite of systems and applications to help you more easily manage and understand patient outcomes.

When all your patient data is easily accessible, you can:

  • Gain a 360 view of patients and their individual experiences
  • Better communicate and educate your patients
  • Make better patient care plans
  • Reduce churn
  • Decrease return visits
  • Increase adherence to care plans
  • Ensure patients are in the appropriate care setting

To remain relevant and profitable in today’s changing healthcare climate, providers must act fast to improve the way they deliver care. Patient experience teams are under heightened pressure to do their jobs—and do them well. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Healthcare Accelerator solution makes that job a whole lot easier, providing the tools and insights required to deliver the personalized experiences patients expect and deserve.

Learn more about Dynamics 365 Healthcare Accelerator

The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Healthcare Accelerator enables the interoperability of your systems and applications that can help you better understand the patient journey, enhance your brand image, and prove your marketing ROI.

Download our new eBook to learn more about the Healthcare Accelerator and how to unlock interoperability to help reduce costs, increase revenue, and manage risk to improve patient outcomes dramatically.

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