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With political campaigns ramping up and candidate debates taking center stage on primetime television, it comes as no surprise that healthcare is a hot topic now more than ever. It is, after all, one of the most relevant social and economic concerns in the United States.

Surveys indicate that voters continue to be frustrated with inflated drugs prices, rising out-of-pocket expenses, and grim health insurance benefits.

Most projections indicate that Democrats will fall short of taking senate control next year, much less meet the 60-vote supermajority that is needed to pass Medicare for All (without a filibuster). Republicans haven’t been shy about sharing their intentions to unanimously vote against the bill.

The Democratic House has a progressive agenda regarding healthcare, but the laws presiding over healthcare are most likely going to stay as is.

More and more, medical procedures are being conducted in outpatient facilities vs. an inpatient setting. Mammogram screenings and cataract procedures may not come as a surprise, but many patients would rather have their total joint replacement surgery done in ambulatory centers than in a hospital. This is because of the convenience factor, a lesser burden on the wallet, and overall easier experience.

The gap between inpatient and outpatient net revenue continues to close in. In the 2019 Hospital Statistics report, the American Hospital Association shared that hospitals’ 2017 outpatient revenue was $472 billion. By comparison, the inpatient revenue was nearly $498 billion.

The age-old expression…the landscaper always has the worst-looking yard…means that we tend to pour ourselves into our professions, but don’t necessarily give ourselves the same TLC. The same can be true for physicians. In this month’s blog content, we discussed the burnout epidemic among medical workers, as well as ideas on how to combat the mental, emotional and physical demise of healthcare staff. 

Fortune 500 companies invest in coaching to encourage behavioral proficiency of their current leaders and leaders-in-training. Personal development and leadership coaching have become mainstream in recent years.

Respected, world-renowned coaches such as Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, and Rachel Hollis are plastered all over social media, podcasts and stand on stages in front of tens of thousands of “students.” It’s time to invest in coaches for physicians who are deserving and very much need some attention in the self-care department.

Improving the patient experience, patient health outcomes, and process efficiency — also known as the Triple Aim — may have a name change coming in the future. That is if the focus is expanded from solely improving patients’ well-being, to also improving the well-being of those who care for these patients.

The Quadruple Aim would include medical and healthcare support staff, showing an interest in advancing their overall experience, too.

The Triple Aim is a top focus among caretakers, including doctors, nurses, and other segments of the healthcare workforce, but it is no secret that there is universal burnout among employees who pour themselves into taking care of others.

This dynamic leads to decreased patient satisfaction, which can lower the outcomes for their patients, and it potentially increases costs due to inadvertently making mistakes. Expanding from a Triple Aim to a Quadruple Aim would improve the mental and physical wellness of clinicians and support staff.

The dictionary defines Virtual Reality (VR) as a “computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.”

As you can imagine, this advanced technology is a force to be reckoned with inside the healthcare space based on the possibilities to advance both patient healing and medical expertise.

Some trends come and go — and some stick around indefinitely.

Virtual reality within the healthcare space is not going anywhere, anytime soon.

Over 240 hospitals in the U.S. are using virtual reality to assist various health-related procedures, and support patients in helping understand their treatment options. The virtual reality market in healthcare is projected to reach $6.9 Billion by 2026.

Understanding the Role of Virtual Reality in Healthcare

The terms ‘augmented reality’ and ‘virtual reality’ are sometimes confused.

According to Healthcare Weekly, Virtual reality creates an immersive experience by providing the user with images of 3D-environments. “As part of this virtual experience, the user can sometimes change or alter the appearance of the environment. As for augmented reality, this simply adds graphics or sound to a real-life environment and augmented reality glasses are then used to bring the experience to life.”

How consumers shop in 2019 has fundamentally altered how healthcare is provided, including stepping up the patient experience. They expect to experience top notch service in a brick and mortar retail store, and they expect the same “5-star” service inside the walls of a hospital or medical office.

Prominent healthcare systems are leading the way in this effort. Here are the top four predictions on what we can expect to see over the next year when it comes to the patient experience.

1. Streamlining with Technology

Leading hospitals will utilize technology to produce more cost-effective programs, such as an EMR-integrated customer relationship management (CRM) platform where insights are assembled and saved for future reference. This data will include documentation from patients’ previous visits, to predictors of potential future health concerns.

Healthcare of yesterday included going to the nearest facility, trusting your care provider without question, and following the protocol/advice that was given.

Healthcare of today includes going to a provider who has the best reputation on HealthGrades.com, and on your neighborhood’s Facebook community page, doing your own research in advance of an appointment as well as following the appointment, and seeing what other alternative approaches are available in addition to the advice that was given by the provider.

Our healthcare landscape has become more and more competitive, since patients and their loved ones are no longer riding shotgun, but rather are now sitting in the driver’s seat…steering their own healthcare experience.

Over the past year, we have witnessed several advances in the realm of telemedicine. From adjustments in the state / federal policies and reimbursements to providers implementing telehealth in their practices to the actual definition of telehealth changing.

The intersection of consumer purchasing transactions has evolved across multiple areas in our lives — how products are acquired, how we communicate with each other, and how we foster connections — the weaving of the tangible and digital is here to stay.

Telehealth has been defined as the delivery and facilitation of health and health-related services including medical care, provider and patient education, health information services, self-care via telecommunications and digital communication technologies.

Technology that is utilized to store, share, or synthesize health data can be referred to as “health information technology” or healthIT. This wide classification includes practice management systems to online patient portals. Telehealth technology includes both software and hardware.