Nearly half of American consumers interact with healthcare both offline and online, firmly incorporating it into the omnichannel trend that has already revolutionized commerce and is expected to do the same for a healthcare system that is changing.
Both the consumer-patient and healthcare practitioner viewpoints on this trend make sense. The practices of healthcare practitioners have undergone major changes after more than two years of the pandemic.
That degree of connectivity promises to change the consumer-patient journey with an end-to-end experience that is easier on customers’ mind-body health and financial wellness as healthcare delivery and payments migrate to adopt an omnichannel paradigm.
“What Omni delivers — and in retail, we’re so much further advanced — is that next step up,” said Shannon Burke, senior vice president and general manager of health systems at Synchrony. The next step, which is how to make [systems] operate in unison to deliver a singular patient experience, is a significant one. ”
She claimed that formerly, paying for healthcare was an afterthought, but the rise of highly integrated omnichannel healthcare has brought everything together into a seamless flow.
Starting at the outset, that clinical and financial journey has to be integrated. It can’t be a separate trip anymore, she remarked. “It’s the philosophical idea that patients would consider their financial experience when making decisions just as they will about their clinical,” the author says.
To do this, the practice needs new tools and solutions that encourage consumer-patient connection, such as logging into an online patient portal or scheduling a telemedicine session. Platforms like Synchrony are addressing that issue on the payments side, but the other tools and contact points along a linked patient experience must also be integrated.
