UnityPoint Health’s Patient Experience Aims to Rival Retailers on Convenience & Personalization

Hey, it’s Jessica DaMassa, with WTF Health, what’s the future of health? I’m talking to the who’s who of health tech and healthcare iInnovation. Today I’m doing a deep dive into what’s changing with the patient experience. And I’m doing it here at Artera’s first ever customer event Heartbeat. So joining me first I’ve got Lauren Hardison, Vice President of Strategy & Consumerism at UnityPoint Health. Great to have you here.

I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

I’m excited to dig into this patient journey and patient experience conversation because I feel like this has started to evolve in a lot of different ways. And I think one of the big trends I’ve had my eye on is just how the space is changing things for a lot of new entrants in the care delivery space. So all those retail health players, all those digital health companies, all those direct to consumer virtual care companies. I feel like they’re kind of increasing, you know, consumer expectations for healthcare. Do you think it’s fair that you know health systems are being held against these big direct to consumer companies that have a lot of experience, you know, creating those types of relationships with patients? I mean, what are we missing from the health system patient journey and like under estimating, I mean, is it fair to really compare the two?

Yeah, it is fair and it’s on us as health systems to really define for our patients and consumers what we can deliver. Our patients are used to getting their care with us. And now it’s on us to tell them how we can compete with these companies and how we can deliver an equitable amount of care and just as conveniently. So for health systems, we have relationships with them. We spend Saturday at the farmers market with them. We care for their family members, and we have a unified health record. So it’s really important for us to show the convenience that we’re bringing to them and the easy accessibility. A good example is Amazon clinic brings forward an asynchronous care option. So do we. And our turnaround time is just as quick, but we have to tell them about it and we have to show them how convenient it is. So I’m excited to continue talking about it. And I’m really excited to bring forward that experience to our patients and consumers and show them how convenient and how accessible traditional healthcare can be as it moves from traditional to not so traditional.

I love that. I think the education and awareness piece of this is really critical. Alright, I want to know, I mean, you have consumerism in your title, but I want to know when you are talking about the people going through the experience at your health system, are they consumers? Are they patients? Is there a time when they’re one and not the other? Like tell me how you’re talking about this because they think words really matter. And I love the nomenclature. So tell me you know which terminology is applied where.

Yeah, words absolutely matter. To us, they are people. So right now when we talk to our patients and consumers, we talk about them as people. Now when we’re on the backside, we’re talking about planning and strategy, a consumer is someone who may or may not have chosen us yet. A patient for us is someone who has decided to choose us as their healthcare provider. So as we’re building strategies and are building tactics for how we’re going to achieve the future of healthcare, we’re looking for targeted strategies towards consumers, which may include our patients, and then different targeted strategies for our patients. So they’re two totally different things, one of which encompasses the other.

Lauren, I did not expect an “and both”. I really did not expect an anvil. Oh, that’s awesome. No, I like that. I like that a lot. And I think it really helps delineate where they’re at in that whole journey of experience. Alright, so what do patients really want anymore? I feel like in my little world, which is kind of, you know, a tech infused bubble and healthcare, you know, we’re talking a lot about, oh, you know, living up to the experiences of an Amazon, or an Uber, or you know, something where it’s just really high-touch and tech-enabled and frictionless. Is that really what patients want? What are they saying right now? Give us the scoop. And also, how are you even sourcing this information of what they want and building it into the process of your own design for experience?

Yeah, patients want what they need when they want it. A good portion of the time, it’s a relationship with their provider. Then there are those times when they need that really convenient option, and it’s on us to deliver both of those. So we’re looking to make more creative experiences with their PCP. So it’s meeting them where they want to be, when they want it, with their primary care provider, or a provider that’s connected to them so that their medical record is all connected. Now, how are we sourcing that information? We are trying to bring patients and consumers to the point of decision making. So we might source information from consumers that aren’t our patients, but they’re in our markets, or in like markets. We bring forward some sort of primary research across our consumer base.Then we bring what we call an insider’s group.Those are our patients in our communities, and we leverage them to provide input into our strategies. And then throughout the care journey as we define that care experience, we put them with the strategy teams that are helping to influence the next steps and help them pulse check. We have very specific touchpoints with certain consumers and patients to help us throughout that journey.

That’s so cool. So what’s really hot? get was like one thing like I’m like, Please instant book appointment like how like what’s hot right now?

Yeah, so one of my favorite examples is and it sounds really foundational, but creating same day access for patients, because they don’t know they’re gonna get sick, right? And if they can have that care experience with somebody they know and trust, let’s give it to them. So at 3am every morning, we release everything on a provider’s schedule in primary care to the public for direct scheduling. So if 8:30am was intended for a procedure, but that procedure wasn’t booked, there’s nothing that says a strep throat can’t be booked into that slot. So we release that to the public for direct scheduling. And while that’s nothing novel, and we’re not leaning into the future with that one, it’s super foundational from a care experience perspective to be able to get that care with someone you know and trust.

As someone who just had a call to book an appointment,that is novel. Pretty cool.

Alright, talk to me about the clinical workflow side of this because this is where I feel like a lot of tech companies kind of maybe lose their way in the sense that it’s like, oh, we have this great technology, but they don’t realize the challenge of implementing it into a health system. UnityPoint Health is a big health system and you are multi state. You’ve got 32,000 employees, I think. So, there’s a lot of folks running around there. So how do you rethink the patient experience, without rethinking the clinical workflow side of it? Can you tear those two things apart? Or are you tackling the two of them together? I mean, how does that go?

Yeah, they absolutely go hand in hand. So everything that we build on the front end for patients and consumers is directly dependent on our clinical and operational workflows. So we’re actively looking at how we build standard business practices across three states with three different sets of rules that we can help really standardize to deliver a seamless care experience. So as we implement different tactics or different strategies on the digital engagement perspective, we also then look to define all of the necessary business processes that are either clinical or operational in nature, to make sure that we’re not putting a bandaid on top of processes to deliver a good care experience. We are actually building back the foundation to deliver a seamless care experience. So it doesn’t break.

Yeah, that’s so hard, though. To do the seamless part of it, do you have any tips?

Yeah, I think it’s, it’s bringing the right people to the table. So if we’re going to talk about a clinical workflow, we’re going to bring a clinical person who eats, sleeps and breathes it to the table. We’re not going to bring people to the table that are going to speak in assumptions about what that experience is. So we’re really trying hard to build those groups. A good example is we have a digital provider workgroup, where we bring, not provider leaders, but providers that are practicing on a daily basis. We bring them to the table. We have dialogue. We let them lean into the conversation with us to help explain, you know that idea that’s been a fumble clinically, let’s figure out how we can mold that to meet the experience we’re looking to deliver for our patients, and that completely disrupt something with our providers and clinical staff unless it needs to be disrupted.

I love that. So you’re getting the folks who are actually doing this stuff day to day to weigh in, not necessarily the person who’s in charge of the department who may or may not be practicing on a daily basis. I love that. That’s so cool. Alright, so where do you guys think you’re experiencing the biggest challenges right now when it comes to patient experience and what’s next for how this should look in the future? Like what’s the big thing on your to do list that you are working on right now.

So I would say the big thing is actively working to deliver an easier, more personal experience. We promise that to our patients and consumers and we have to continue achieving that. The mark keeps moving for what easier and more personal is. Today we’re actively working to implement texting and digital engagements that are more convenient. We want to make sure we’re doing that in a compliant and legal way. We also want to make sure we’re doing that as good stewards of our dollar right now, right? Margins are slim enough in for-profit healthcare. So as we look to deliver a really easy, more convenient experience for those patients, we also have to consider what’s the return on that investment to make sure that we’re mindful of the margin, right? So everything is a consistent weighing of what’s the return on investment, what’s the consumer experience it creates? And if it’s not a return on investment, is the consumer experience gained that much, you know, if that’s significant, then we can go ahead and move forward with that.

What’s your timeframe on that for ROI? Because I mean, that’s another thing too, that I feel like my tech audience is kind of you leaning into like, how long are you giving people like six months, a year? Is it instant ROI, or is it a long-term engagement thing?

Yeah, it just depends on the initiative, right? So if we’re talking about texting and how beneficial that is, we’re not going to see an additional revenue stream created, but we’re going to see a significant improvement in processes and potentially more efficient team members. So we can take that front desk staff that we were utilizing, and we can take them and we can do so much more with them. We can, you know, create additional opportunities for them to ping patients with care gap closures.That is actively providing a better care experience for patients and delivering an ROI. If we’re talking about generating a new revenue stream, that’s different. We have a calculated path to success there that we’re going to measure across the, you know, along the journey, and figuring out what that timeline to ROI is really just depends on the initiative we’re talking about.

Love the “and both” thing over there at UnityPoint. I love it. Alright, so where do you feel like you’ve really moved the needle? I mean, like, you gave us a couple really good examples of how you’re measuring ROI. The big challenge is creating that more personalized, more convenient journey. Where do you feel like you guys have already kind of nailed it? Like, where is that?

So asynchronous care is a big one for us. I would say there’s two things: asynchronous care and same day access. You know, we’ve had all these discussions about access in the past about, you know, do you want to see the urgent care provider off the street? So our goal is to deliver a multi-modality care. You can create an asynchronous care option, a video visit option or an in person option across a primary care setting and an urgent care setting. So whatever works for the patient, we’re gonna meet you where you want to be, with the services you need.

And that’s all up and running? You guys are just cruising along with that up and running.

Yep.

Oh my god. That’s awesome. I love that. I love hearing that because I feel like two years ago, omni channel strategy was like the buzz phrase in the industry. And so it’s great to hear that that’s actually gone from strategy to full on implementation and working well.
Yeah, omni channel communication has been big for years, right? We talk about how we talk to patients, but we don’t necessarily talk about how we deliver care. So we went from omni channel care engagement, or patient engagement excuse me, to omni channel care delivery.

I love it. Lauren. Well thank you so much for letting us pick your brain about everything that’s changing in the patient experience. I love the “and both” thing. I really think that it is awesome that there is not just this real clear cut, but room for all of these different ways to look at the people who are going through the experience at UnityPoint Health. So thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Alright, well, I’m Jessica DaMassa. If you want to check out more interviews with the who’s who of health tech as they are changing the way that we do health care, head on over to my YouTube channel. it’s youtube.com/wtfhealth. You’ll also find all the other interviews in this deep dive patient engagement series at Artera’s customer event, Heartbeat. They’ll all be there too. Again, I’m Jessica DaMassa and thanks again, Lauren. Will talk to you guys soon. Take care.