How Digital Healthcare Enhances Customer Satisfaction and Value Creation?

Technology has dramatically impacted the provision of healthcare services as one of the most revolutionized industries. These changes have not only improved the quality of services provided to the patient but also the effectiveness of the service delivery, hence improving the value proposition. Nevertheless, a significant number of HPOs report various difficulties in leveraging these technologies to the maximum extent. It is, therefore, important for healthcare organizations to embrace customer-oriented strategies and the following customer-related strategies to improve patient experience and satisfaction.

The Digital Transformation Challenge

While healthcare organizations have embraced digital technologies as a way to improve their service delivery, most of them lag in terms of digital competitiveness compared to other industries. This situation is due to poor strategic direction, organizational inertia, and a tendency to focus on the use of technology without understanding its objectives. Tedrick Bairn also underlines in his Book Digital Healthcare that it is not enough to adopt new technologies; the focus is on using the technologies to improve customer value and satisfaction. He stresses that to use digital applications in the healthcare setting, there is a need for the use of patient-centered approaches to enhance the access, effectiveness, and quality of care.

Another of the significant goals of digital health is to enhance the value of care by responding to the patient and carer requirements. In this way, positioning the patient at the center of digital change initiatives can improve the relationship with the patient, satisfaction, and loyalty. This approach helps to meet the specific needs of patients and makes the processes of healthcare more effective and efficient when using digital solutions.

Customer-Centric Approach to Digital Healthcare

The most critical approach to adopt in relation to digital transformation in the healthcare industry is customer obsession. It is essential to identify patients’ needs, what they want, and what they dislike to improve the quality of services to be delivered. There are several ways through which healthcare providers can enhance customer satisfaction. When healthcare providers put their patients first, the outcome is an improved method of delivering care.

Digital healthcare assists healthcare experts in planning a patient journey, hence delivering care based on the journey. Telemedicine, remote monitoring, and individualized care plans make patient’s life more manageable due to technological developments. For instance, telemedicine is evident in virtual consultations, which does not warrant the patients to travel for the appointment. Likewise, remote monitoring gives a chance for healthcare providers to monitor patient’s conditions without having to visit them frequently by receiving updates on their condition in real-time.

Innovative Business Models in Digital Healthcare

The advancement in digital technologies has forced healthcare organizations to seek new strategies in the delivery of their services. Technologies such as telemedicine, patient-specific care maps, and remote health monitoring will help contain costs, improve productivity, and advance patient outcomes. In this way, healthcare providers can develop new sources of revenue and increase organizational effectiveness.

For instance, telemedicine allows doctors to offer consultations without the need for patients to visit facilities. It also reduces the time and cost incurred by the patients. It enhances the ability of the providers to reach out to many patients who are in various areas that may not be easily accessible. Furthermore, remote care solutions enable healthcare providers to monitor patient health information on a regular basis, thus enabling early identification of new problems that may arise.

Leveraging Data for Better Decision-Making

Data-driven decision-making plays a pivotal role in digital healthcare. Applying artificial intelligence and machine learning, healthcare practitioners and researchers are better placed to interpret the characteristics of the patient data to determine diseases and the possible risks associated with the diseases and then recommend the most appropriate form of treatment. The aspects that one has to be careful with include the patient’s behavior, the outcome of the treatment, and the efficiency of the health care organization.

On this front, information is used to provide advice to healthcare providers on trends and patterns that may be helpful in improving the kind of services being delivered. For instance, in a healthcare context, big data can be beneficial in the early diagnosis of key risk factors and the prevention of the progression of such complications, which would lead to improved patient outcomes. Furthermore, the analysis of the operational data helps improve resource use, reduce wastage, and increase the effectiveness of resource use in the healthcare sector.

Key Strategies for Digital Transformation

The following measures should, therefore, be implemented in order to realize the goals of digital healthcare solutions for the improvement of customer satisfaction in a healthcare facility:

• Leadership and Governance: A leader should be appointed in charge of the digital change initiative. This leader should establish specific objectives and make sure that the digital projects are consistent with the organizational goals.

• Talent and Culture: Healthcare providers should encourage their employees to embrace the new technologies by offering them training to enable them to fit into the new system. The culture of innovation and teamwork enables improvement and allows the staff to deal with the changes.

• Customer Experience: This is one of the most outstanding factors that need to be implemented to improve patient satisfaction. For healthcare providers, digital tools should be used for communication and feedback with patients with the aim of identifying areas that need improvement.

• Technology and Data: Several areas of development should be adopted in healthcare to improve the quality of care being offered to patients, including AI, cloud, and IoT. This is to ensure that the patient does not have their information exposed and, in the process, the patient loses confidence in the health care system.

• Alliances and Affiliations: Cooperation with other healthcare organizations, IT firms, and professional networks enables the dissemination of information and innovation. In this context, open innovation can improve the digital literacy of healthcare providers.

The Role of Digital Healthcare in Value Creation

E-health offers a lot of value to both the patient and the healthcare system. The use of digital technology in the healthcare system improves the process and includes, for example, the reduction of costs and the accessibility of care. It has the benefit of increased efficiency, better outcomes, staff and consumer satisfaction, and cost-effectiveness.

For instance, through technological advancement, the way patients’ information is stored and accessed has undergone a drastic change through the use of electronic health records or electronic medical records. Healthcare professionals can easily retrieve patients’ records, and patients no longer need to carry physical documents. Also, all records are updated. This integration assists in the reduction of errors, enhances the coordination process, and helps in making better decisions.

Tedrick Bairn echoed this in the book Digital Healthcare, whereby he estimated that through the use of technology, healthcare providers are able to combine a number of specialties. As patient records are made digital and healthcare workers are permitted to access this information electronically from anywhere, care can be made better coordinated, paperwork can be reduced, and the quality of care can be improved.

Conclusion

Digital healthcare is all about using technology to improve the way healthcare services are delivered. The customer-oriented approach, data analysis, and the use of new business models help healthcare providers improve the satisfaction of patients and generate value. The advancement of digital health technologies is a continuous process that can enhance care delivery and organizational effectiveness as well as patients’ health status. These investments will help healthcare providers deliver quality, efficient, and patient-centered care to their patients.