Consumerism continues to permeate the healthcare industry. With the propagation of high deductible health plans, the rise of technology and virtual health tools, and the advent of retail medicine and strategic partnerships, healthcare organizations are forced to shift their strategies and business models to be more patient- or consumer-centric. While we’ve seen many healthcare organizations embrace consumerism, this is still a relatively new concept and dramatic shift in how hospitals and health systems have traditionally delivered care.
As a millennial and young professional, I was intrigued by the various strategies or investments that healthcare organizations pursued within this space. Thus, across my second-year MHA fellowship, I focused on healthcare consumerism in both my professional and educational pursuits – helping an AMC recognize opportunities to improve seamless care delivery of services and writing a thesis on the early identified factors that enable organizations to achieve true consumer-centric care delivery models.
As we continue to see this trend pervade the industry, I’m curious as to how healthcare organizations will continue to evolve to meet the demands of their patient population and compete against these new retail models.
