According to the research, over half (46%) of American customers engage with healthcare both in-person and online, firmly integrating healthcare into the omnichannel trend that has already transformed commerce and promises to do the same for a healthcare system that is undergoing change.
It’s a development that makes sense from both the consumer-patient and healthcare provider perspectives. After more than two years of the epidemic, healthcare providers’ practices have undergone significant adjustments.
With an end-to-end experience that is easier on customers’ mind-body health and financial well-being, the consumer-patient journey will be revolutionized as healthcare delivery and payments shift 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. How do you make [systems] work together smoothly to deliver a single patient experience? is the next major step.
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.
“That clinical and financial path needs to be weaved together from the outset. 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.
