The delivery of healthcare is transforming at an astonishing rate.  Digital and other technology improvements are being integrated into clinical care faster, and are bound to expand rapidly in the next 2 years.

It’s not going to stop—in fact, the pace is actually getting faster.

This can be frightening. What will the industry look like? How will patient expectations change? What do we need to do in order to stay relevant?  What do “I” need to do to stay relevant?

The good news is, that the rapid introduction and adoption of all things digital has created a cutting edge for healthcare. And there is a lot of achievement and net revenue to be realized on the cutting edge.

As a CFO advisor, I’ve been in a lot of meetings where leadership is planning for the future. And I’ve discovered some interesting patterns that show us which way the industry is evolving.  Adjust, and you can ride this wave of change.  Don’t adjust, and this wave will crash over and on you.

The patterns of the next two years will take the following forms:

• Hospitals will integrate data securely via third-party platforms to broaden their continuum of care
• Wearables will be necessary elements of clinical care
• Reliable models of customer lifetime value will form from patient experience efforts
• Patient trust will move from the primary care physician to a digital relationship with a healthcare entity

There are two reasons for this transformation:

1. Patient expectations have changed – the pandemic has created a “come to me where I am” expectation, with digital interactions being the preferred mode of communication
2. Patient experience has become more important – healthcare consumer selection criteria are used to favor proximity and brand. That has changed to ease of interaction and customer service.

So as this business landscape has changed, forward-thinking healthcare executives are moving rapidly to adopt elements that will distance them from their competitors – and they’re using the following four patterns to take them there:

1. Hospitals will integrate data securely via third-party platforms to broaden their continuum of care

Patients have lost their patience – with things like “requests for medical records” and multiple medical history forms.  Insurance companies send them to providers who are not connected with their MyChart account, and diagnostic results do not make it to the primary care physician’s office.

This is no longer acceptable.

New digital healthcare companies are making their information portable, and their ability to ingest data is superior.  Patients now expect seamless care, and the hospitals that can deliver it will get both their wallet and their attention.

Are there any digital retail companies that require their customer to input the same information every time they shop?

What if Amazon required new information every time a customer purchased something from a different supplier?

“Winning” hospitals will ingest data and export data, securely, to ensure that their patient will stay within their continuum of care – because the new continuum of care is digital, not owned.

Successful CFOs are asking the question – do we want to be Amazon, or do we want to be one of Amazon’s suppliers?

2. Wearables will be necessary elements of clinical care

Imagine a world where patients are notified when their blood pressure drops and they need to go to the hospital.

Or where doctors can base their diagnoses on trended months of patient data—like their blood oxygen levels or how often they exercise.

Or even where a caretaker can ask Alexa whether their elderly father has eaten well enough today and get a definitive answer from their calorie counter wearable.

Previous models of clinical care were focused on the “interaction” – the time spent while on the hospital or clinic property.  Physician visits.  Blood tests.  Acute care recovery.  More and more, healthcare economics tries to decrease the time of these interactions, which makes for more margin of error, or less effective communications.

But leading healthcare executives know that real-time patient monitoring accomplishes two goals:

1. It flags potential health issues before an emergency interaction is needed
2. It keeps their patients “connected” to their hospital – a key component of “customer lifetime value”

Hospitals are actively creating command centers that can ingest this information and algorithms that can “alert” patients and providers when an intervention is needed – or before an intervention is needed.

3. Patient experience efforts will lead to reliable models of customer lifetime value

Despite the focus on Price Transparency, no one really wants to “shop” for healthcare.  And no one is good at it anyway.

Similar in concept to a garage mechanic, accountant, or your favorite corner store, people want to form a relationship with someone they trust – someone (or some place) that makes them feel taken care of, and not taken advantage of.

This is the new healthcare currency.

By focusing on customer (or patient) lifetime value, healthcare organizations will capture more of patients’ care needs for each episode, more of the episodes of care they require, and more (and more of their family’s) years of care to follow. Obviously, this will mean the money will flow toward the organization that can successfully win patients’ trust.

Since every patient is on a “lifetime medical journey,” every provider should be focused on the patient lifetime value.

The underpinning here is obviously brand loyalty.  And the number one way to increase brand loyalty for today’s consumers is to provide an exceptional experience with every interaction.

If patients experience empathy, simplicity, quality, and ease, then they will seek you out over your competitors.

Remember – customer satisfaction is retrospective.  Customer experience is prospective.

4. Patients’ trust will move from the primary care physician to a digital relationship with a healthcare entity

People used to stop their cars and ask strangers by the side of the road for directions.  Now people follow Google Maps without question.  Which option has more “trust” right now?

Empathetic, personal interactions are so important to emotional situations – and that will never be replaced.

But what has been replaced effectively in many other settings (e.g. banking, retail, education, etc.) is replacing human interaction with the ease of digital – without trust being sacrificed.

These same transitions will now affect the way patients navigate their lifetime medical journey.  Healthcare entities that can rapidly utilize enormous amounts of information to enable choice, quick response, ease of use, and helpful tips will capture attention – and capturing attention captures market share.

Do most people “trust” Amazon?  Do most people “trust” Southwest Airlines?  Do most people actually “know” a person at Amazon or Southwest Airlines that provides the personal service?

The secret sauce here is replacing the personal touch with empathetic, intuitive interactions – and this is happening successfully in other industries.

This will be adopted very quickly in healthcare.

Visionary leaders will be looking for ways to stand out. And those leaders will grow their organization’s market share, while others will see their market share dwindle away.

Healthcare is changing—but the need for empathy will always remain.

In the next 24 months, we’ll have more technology and more access. But we won’t ever fully lose the need for connection, because people want to be understood, and taken care of, in their healthcare journey.

That’s why I wrote The Patient-First Revolution—to show organizations in our industry how to adapt to the quickly changing landscape of healthcare while keeping the patient experience at the top of the priority list.

This book gives you a roadmap to a better patient experience. You can grab a free chapter here.

Brian Sanderson is a national healthcare leader at Crowe LLP who has advised hundreds of hospital CFOs and other healthcare leadership team members. In 2016, he made Consulting Magazine’s list of the Top 10 Best Consultants in the World. His new book, The Patient-First Revolution, is a blueprint for hospitals to skyrocket net revenue by boosting patient experience. You can grab a free chapter of his book here