Patients dissatisfied with providers’ digital prowess voting with their (actual or virtual) feet
The COVID crisis has pushed healthcare providers to up their game on digital health, but the sector is not moving fast enough on this front for the liking of healthcare consumers.
So indicates a sampling of 1,500 or so adults surveyed by Forrester for the medical billing company Cedar.
The surveyors found a 40% jump in patients who switched providers over the past year due to a poor digital experience.
They also report a 34% rise in the use of patient portals and a widely held desire for digital forms rather than paperwork (41% of respondents).
One of the pandemic’s silver linings: More than half of patients, 52%, report seeing improvements for which they credit virtual care and better administrative experiences.
And just under half, 49%, wish for a digital healthcare experience resembling the consumer experiences supplied by the likes of Amazon, Netflix and Uber.
In a blog post, Cedar comments that, as demand for digitization continues to rise in healthcare, “tools for the digital patient journey will become a key and increasingly important differentiator between providers of choice and the rest of the pack.”
The report is available in exchange for the requester’s contact info.
It arrives a few days after survey results from Accenture showed similar themes around COVID-19, digital health and consumer loyalty.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.