How does bad customer service in healthcare affect patient health?

Bad service can lead to anxiety and exhaustion in patients, causing them to withhold crucial information from doctors. It can also lead to deferred treatment altogether because the experience is perceived as a hassle, thus losing out on vital preventive care and its cost-saving benefits.

What are the main proposed solutions to fix healthcare customer service?

Solutions include shifting compensation models to direct-to-consumer (making patients the customer) or value-based care (insurers incentivizing quality). Additionally, adopting principles from the hospitality industry, focusing on empathetic communication, clear expectations, and patient-centric service is crucial.

What is Landby and how does it aim to improve healthcare experience?

Landby is a primary care membership service that applies hospitality principles to healthcare. They provide healthcare hospitality training to their team, emphasizing treating patients with respect, setting clear expectations, active listening, being agents for patients, and aiming to surprise and delight.

Why are Americans dying younger despite increased healthcare spending?

Despite high spending, Americans are often unhealthy due to lifestyle choices like excessive drinking and processed food consumption. Corporations make healthy living difficult, and healthcare spending is often directed towards treating illnesses resulting from these poor habits rather than effective prevention.

Can integrating mental health services into primary care work?

Integrating mental health is challenging due to the higher touch experience required, making it difficult to fit into traditional primary care models with large patient panels. While models like virtual therapy and sliding scales exist, scaling them within primary care is complex.

What is the organization called Landby and how can I learn more?

Landby is a primary care membership service located in New York. You can learn more and apply for membership by visiting their website at Landby.com. They are currently raising a seed round of funding.

Key Moments

#AIS: The Lanby's Tandice Urban on solving healthcare's customer service problem

All-In Podcast

People & Blogs4 min read24 min video

Jun 1, 2022|32,962 views|753|90

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TL;DR

Healthcare customer service is broken due to misaligned incentives, harming patient health and preventive care.

Key Insights

The US healthcare system suffers from systematically poor customer service, making patient experiences unpleasant and inefficient.

Misaligned incentives, stemming from an employer-sponsored insurance model and fee-for-service physician payments, prioritize volume over patient well-being.

Bad customer service in healthcare leads to patient anxiety, rushed appointments, and deferred treatment, negatively impacting health outcomes and preventive care.

Preventive care is crucial for long-term health and cost savings, yet it's often neglected due to the poor patient experience.

Shifting to direct-to-consumer or value-based care models can realign incentives and improve customer service in healthcare.

Applying principles of hospitality, such as empathy, clear communication, and personalized attention, can transform the patient experience.

THE PERVASIVE PROBLEM OF POOR HEALTHCARE CUSTOMER SERVICE

The healthcare industry is plagued by abysmal customer service, from initial appointment scheduling to the in-office experience. Patients often face unhelpful staff, lengthy wait times, and impersonal interactions, creating a stressful and inefficient process. This poor patient experience extends beyond mere inconvenience; it affects the quality of care by hindering open communication and causing patients to feel anxious and unheard, ultimately impacting diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning.

ROOT CAUSES: MISALIGNED INCENTIVES AND THE CONSUMER-SERVICE DISCONNECT

The fundamental issue lies in misaligned incentives within the US healthcare system. Structured primarily around employer-sponsored insurance and a fee-for-service model, providers are incentivized by the volume of patient encounters rather than the quality of care or patient outcomes. This system, a relic of post-WWII policies, designates employers and insurance companies as the true customers, leaving individual patients with little leverage and creating a disconnect between who receives care and who dictates the system's priorities.

THE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS OF BAD SERVICE AND NEGLECTED PREVENTION

Poor customer service in healthcare has direct, negative consequences on patient health. When patients feel rushed, unheard, or anxious, critical information may not be shared, leading to suboptimal treatment decisions. Furthermore, the unpleasant experience discourages patients from seeking timely care, leading to a significant decline in preventive services. This means conditions are often caught later, resulting in poorer prognoses, increased chronic disease burden, and higher overall healthcare expenditures for preventable issues.

THE CRITICAL ROLE OF PREVENTIVE CARE AND ITS CURRENT DEFICITS

Preventive care represents a cornerstone of effective and cost-efficient healthcare. Statistics show that a significant portion of annual deaths are preventable, and chronic diseases, largely manageable through prevention, account for a vast majority of healthcare spending. Patients with a primary care physician tend to spend less overall, indicative of the benefits of early intervention. However, the negative patient experience actively deters individuals from engaging in preventive care, leading to a considerable loss of potential health benefits and cost savings.

PATHWAYS TO IMPROVEMENT: DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER AND VALUE-BASED CARE

Realigning incentives is key to transforming healthcare customer service. Two primary models are emerging: direct-to-consumer (DTC) healthcare, which re-establishes the patient as the primary customer, and value-based care, where reimbursement is tied to quality outcomes rather than service volume. While the latter still involves third-party payers, it shifts the focus towards better health results. These models aim to provide physicians with the time and financial stability needed to prioritize patient experience and deliver higher quality care.

LEARNING FROM HOSPITALITY: THE LANDBY MODEL AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

To effectively implement better customer service, the healthcare industry can draw valuable lessons from the hospitality sector. Concepts like empathy, clear communication, and personalized attention are crucial. The Landby, a primary care membership service, exemplifies this by integrating 'healthcare hospitality training' for its team. This involves treating patients with the Golden Rule, setting clear expectations, practicing active listening, acting as an agent rather than a gatekeeper, and even incorporating elements of surprise and delight to create a more human-centered experience.

SHIFTING PATIENT PERCEPTIONS AND INDUSTRY NORMS

Changing American perceptions of healthcare is a significant hurdle. The lack of price transparency and the general acceptance of poor service conditions contribute to a passive patient population. Direct-to-consumer models and higher deductible plans encourage patients to view healthcare spending more critically, akin to other service industries. As patients begin to demand better experiences and greater transparency, providers will be compelled to adapt, gradually moving away from the ingrained 'Stockholm Syndrome' that has long characterized patient-doctor interactions.

ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY

Beyond core customer service, broader population health issues and specialized care require attention. Discussions around increasing life expectancy despite rising healthcare costs point to lifestyle factors and overspending on less impactful interventions. While international comparisons are complex, the fundamental need for more focus on preventive lifestyle choices, such as improved nutrition literacy and reduced consumption of unhealthy foods, remains clear. Integrating mental health services more effectively also presents a significant, albeit complex, opportunity for improving overall well-being.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Software & Apps

●Companies

●Organizations

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Healthcare Hospitality Best Practices

Practical takeaways from this episode

Do This

Follow the Golden Rule: Treat patients how you'd want to be treated or how you'd want your family treated.

Set Clear Expectations: Inform patients about potential delays or changes.

Be an Active, Empathetic Listener: Ask good questions and treat each case like a medical investigation.

Be an Agent, Not a Gatekeeper: Make it easy for patients to access care and accommodate reasonable requests.

Surprise and Delight: Find ways to make the patient interaction positive, even during challenging times. Remember personal details.

Avoid This

Don't leave patients guessing about wait times or costs.

Don't be dismissive or rushed during appointments.

Don't create unnecessary barriers to care.

Don't treat patients impersonally; strive for human-to-human service.

Don't wait until the end of the appointment to discuss costs if possible.

Common Questions

The US healthcare system is largely employer-sponsored, a relic from WWII, leading to misaligned incentives. Doctors are often paid per encounter (fee-for-service), prioritizing volume over quality. Insurers and employers, not patients, are the primary customers, resulting in practices not being designed to cater to patient experience.

Topics

Health & Longevity Mindset & Self-Improvement Business & Entrepreneurship Customer Service Healthcare Systems Hospitality Industry Patient Experience Preventive Care Direct To Consumer Healthcare Value-based Care Primary Care

Mentioned in this video

Legislation & Policy

Medicare

Government health insurance program. Mentioned in the context of shifting towards value-based care models.

Concepts

Roman

A direct-to-consumer telehealth company. Mentioned as an example of companies that help change patient perception towards healthcare services.

CMS

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Mentioned in the context of breaking through logjams in healthcare reform.

Companies

Uber

Ridesharing company. Used as an analogy for patients seeking non-interactive services, compared to their passive acceptance of poor healthcare service.

Michelin

Mentioned in reference to the high standard of quality expected in hospitality, and by extension, healthcare.

Landby

A primary care membership service co-founded by the speaker, focused on healthcare hospitality training.

Hims

A direct-to-consumer telehealth company. Mentioned as an example of companies helping to change patient perception and behavior towards healthcare services.

Yelp

A customer review platform. Used as an example of how dissatisfied customers readily leave reviews for restaurants but not typically for healthcare.

condition

Stockholm syndrome

Used to describe patients' submissive behavior towards poor customer service in healthcare, contrasting with their behavior in other service industries.

Organizations

New York Times

A major newspaper. Mentioned as a publication where a writer discussed heart disease statistics in women.

HHS

Department of Health and Human Services. Involved in pushing for value-based care models through Medicare.

CDC

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cited for statistics on preventable deaths through good preventive care.

People

Bill Gurley

Prolific investor quoted on the US healthcare market being the least customer-centric.

Danny Meyer

Esteemed restaurateur whose definition of hospitality is used as a benchmark for healthcare service.

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