The Pandemic’s Impact on Patient Expectations and How Providers Should Pivot

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, health care consumers across the country were faced with unprecedented challenges in their usual patient journeys. Behaviors and attitudes toward provider communications, missed appointments, and virtual and in-person visits during the pandemic changed dramatically and in turn required a shift in how hospitals, health systems, and other provider organizations facilitated care. Key pain points for patients included poorly managed communication and care coordination with their providers. External pressures on the health system prompted subpar patient experiences, which was reflected in patients’ reported satisfaction with their care. As providers grappled with meeting the demands of safety and innovation created by a global health crisis, patient expectations also facilitated a transformative inflection point to pivot to hybrid care models. Three key learnings from the past year include:

Provider Communication Did Not Meet Patient Expectations 

The US Consumer Trends in Patient Engagement Survey, commissioned by Stericycle Communication Solutions and conducted by third-party research firm Knowledge Executive, examined patient sentiment during the pandemic and preferences regarding engagement with providers and office staff. The study of 500 consumers revealed 37% of respondents did not receive effective communication about provider COVID-19 policies and procedures prior to their scheduled appointments. Additionally, when appointments were canceled due to the pandemic, 27% of respondents said providers took “a while” to reschedule and another 9% had not received a reply by the time the survey was conducted. Health systems need to prioritize tailoring patient communication and adopting multi-channel strategies that cohesively incorporate automated text, email, and phone calls, as well as dedicated hotlines for patient, caregiver, and staff questions. While most patients prefer email (37%), followed by phone (30%) and text (28%), only 2% of respondents said an email had triggered them to reschedule. The survey data reveals that providers must move beyond channel of choice to channel of patient activation with aggressive outreach campaigns and proactive communications. 

Ultimately, the health care industry continues to miss the mark when it comes to communicating with patients. Questions are left unanswered, or worse, patients are receiving misinformation. Hospitals and health systems should strive to be a trusted source of information. A way to streamline this is for hospitals and health systems to include FAQ webpages and hotlines that provide not only tactical information but also answers to specific questions to help alleviate concerns for those who, for example, are hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s also important for hospitals and health systems to monitor social media activity and tailor content to specific subsets of patients to ensure all are properly informed.

Patient Satisfaction Declined Amid the Pandemic

Survey data revealed that satisfaction with provider communications dropped by 13% during the COVID-19 pandemic, which does not bode well for patient retention and future revenue. Respondents also cited a general lack of provider responsiveness to digital communications from patients. Of note, more than half of respondents (54%) felt rushed during the appointment, an increase of 35% compared to pre-COVID-19 experiences. Patients felt that their providers did not spend appropriate time examining them and thought that providers made assumptions about what was wrong and the treatment patients needed without taking the time to better understand the underlying concern.

To enhance patient satisfaction, provider organizations will need to invest in tools that engage patients in a way that will induce action. At surface level, providers could easily assume that leveraging patients’ preferred communication channels would automatically engage patients and induce action; however, this is not the case. Preferred channels are not always the most action-inducing channels. Instead, providers will need to use A/B testing to detect and analyze behavior to identify the most effective patient communication strategies and ultimately drive positive patient interactions and good health outcomes. 

As appointments are scheduled, providers and administrative staff must keep in mind that patients may continue to be anxious about unnecessary face-to-face interactions, so deploying technology such as digital appointment scheduling, online check-in, virtual waiting rooms and contactless payment options are important. However, as we continue to tackle issues of health inequities, making multi-language sources of information available is also an essential element of care facilitation, as is keeping landlines and other traditional communication channels available for those with limited access to broad-band internet. 

Preference for Telehealth and Virtual Waiting Rooms Gave Rise to Hybrid Care Options

While access to in-person health care services continues to be altered, the survey revealed a preference to virtual waiting rooms and telehealth appointments. Over 80% of survey respondents preferred a virtual waiting room over a physical waiting room during the pandemic, and 67% of respondents used telemedicine or virtual channels at least once since the pandemic began. 

While the value of telehealth is undeniable, hospitals and health systems should be wary of considering the technology as a one-size fits all solution. Instead, leveraging telehealth as part of a dual in-person and virtual model in a post-pandemic world should be embraced. For example, 17% of patients are interested in a primary care appointment via telehealth, but only 8% would want to see their urologist via telehealth. Hospitals and health systems should consider implementing both a low-tech and high-tech approach for reaching older, vulnerable populations. It’s important to keep those who aren’t technologically savvy or who don’t have access to technology in mind when facilitating care. For telehealth to remain relevant, providers need to focus on appointments that can be resolved successfully virtually. Otherwise, they risk alienating patients who may view virtual care as an unnecessary and costly step if a telehealth appointment results in a required follow-up office visit. 

The effects of the pandemic on the health care system are numerous. At times, communications between patients and providers broke down and patient satisfaction suffered. The industry also rapidly adopted technology—namely telehealth and other digital scheduling and operational tools—that patient advocates had long insisted were essential to a patient-centric model of care. Now that those tools are widely desired and available, provider organizations can deploy them in earnest to improve patient experience (and satisfaction) during and after the pandemic.

About Mr Dickson

Matt Dickson is senior vice president, Stericycle Communication Solutions. He is a versatile leader with strong operational management experience and expertise providing IT, product, and process solutions in the healthcare industry for nearly 25 years. Find him on LinkedIn.

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