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5 Health Industry Trends for 2017…No.2 and 5 are crucial!

There is much uncertainty, and significant transformation, taking place within the global health industry. With Trump taking the reins, the future of Obama’s Affordable Care Act is unclear. Brexit might see potential funding cuts to the NHS which will increase staffing pressures. Hospitals have to figure how to get the most out of each pound. These changes are impacting other health systems, like ours in Australia.

The strongest theme is certainly value-based healthcare – how to offer value to stakeholders, partners and consumers, in a climate of limited spending and economic uncertainty. As per the Healthcare Triple Aims, value can be defined as improving health outcomes, reducing cost per capita and improving the experience of care.

Here are 5 key (aggregated) health trends around ‘value’ and what it means for the future of patient experience in countries like Australia.

  1. Organisations to adapt, innovate and build new approaches to work. The continued emphasis on patient-centeredness, cost-effectiveness, safety and quality means that getting the most out of your current measurement methods is vital. The Western Sydney Hospital District is already seeing some strong interim successes with the Energesse MES platform.
  2. A more active data-led approach to patient engagement. More roles are likely to open up in hospitals in software and data management pointing to an increased requirement for effective and efficient ways to extract and understand patient demographics, needs and issues. Seek real-time, granular reporting (from board to ward) on patient experience data for a true drill-down of problems, empowering health teams to develop solutions.
  3. Greater need to address situations where consumer experiences with hospital billing and payment, damage opinions of organizations. Understanding the breadth and depth of these incidences within your health setting is vital in order to build less complex, secure and modern payments systems. Ensure your patient experience measurement quantifies and qualifies i.e. it counts incidences and captures insightful patient stories that help support the development of new service initiatives.
  4. Medical schools and residency programs are building innovative training programs to prepare students for a new healthcare landscape. Measure the effectiveness of your doctor training programs, identify current skill gaps and future skill requirements and start incorporating new elements in your training programs. We measured the effectiveness of the Greenslopes junior doctor training programme recently. See here for more details.
  5. More focus on physician engagement. Leaders are now focusing on engagement as something that is integral to alignment, accountability and patient satisfaction, and also critical to the next stages of performance improvement. Seek partners for holistic coaching and mentoring of physicians. At Energesse, we are firm believers of doctors being the most credible mentors to other doctors. Apart from our one-on-one personal and professional coaching, we recently launched group-coaching workshops for participants to help themselves and help others achieve job satisfaction and success.

If you’re like me and you want to deliver more VALUE in 2017, then let’s have a (no-obligation) CHAT NOW about riding these trends!

 

Sources:

PriceWaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute Report: Top health industry issues of 2017: http://www.pwc.com/us/en/health-industries/top-health-industry-issues.html

Online Health Technology Trends 2017: http://www.wexhealthinc.com/healthcare-trends-institute/2017-technology-trends-to-watch-in-the-health-industry/

Studer Group Insights for 2017: https://www.studergroup.com/resources/articles-and-industry-updates/insights/january-2017/what-does-it-mean-to-really-engage

Hays Recruitment Advice for Lifescience 2017: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/jobs/hiring-trends-life-science-jobs

About the Author: Dr Avnesh Ratnanesan

Dr Avi is a medical doctor with broad healthcare sector experience including hospitals, biotech, pharmaceuticals and the wellness industry. He is a leading expert who coaches and consults to senior executives, entrepreneurs, practitioners, organisations and governments.