Not every healthcare organization in every destination is consumer centric. In countries that have overcrowded public health facilities, it is difficult if not impossible to be consumer centric.
- For one thing, they don't view patients as "consumers".
- For another reason, lack of time, they don't invite patient engagement.
Referring an American patient to many locations in Asia and Europe, for example, without investing some time in patient education can set up a medical or dental tourism client up for an unpleasant surprise.
In the USA, clinics, hospitals and day surgery centers are all on their toes with regard to customer service and #livingbrand performance. People take the extra second to ask "Is there anything else I can do for you before I leave?" or "Have you any other questions?" If they don't, they feel it in their revenues -because patient satisfaction is a quality metric. It probably should be all over the world...but it isn't.
To create empowered, engaged, equipped and enabled consumers, healthcare organizations develop products, services and experiences that align with consumer needs. Their brand differentiation strategies include consumer centricity. This strategy requires every team member, service line and department exist to serve the consumer in a remarkable way, at every stage of the healthcare journey.
By comparison, in Asia and Europe, where I've been a patient for two different 9-day stays as an inpatient, customer centricity was nowhere to be found. They simply didn't have time where I was admitted, in Korea (an academic medical center) and in Spain (also, an academic medical center). Nurse to patient staffing ratios skyrocketed on weekend night shifts to 20 patients per nurse. Attending physicians left direct patient care to residents on the weekends.
A recent study published by Prophet, revealed that not enough organizations have begun to make these shifts, and those who have started, haven’t made significant progress.
"Less than 15 percent have made full progression on any of these necessary changes, revealing a massive opportunity for improvement." .... Not so fast......
But it is only a "massive opportunity" if you benchmark as if everyone was determined to be consumer centric and receptive to patient engagement and self-determination.
Not every health system throughout the world desires or strives to be consumer centric or compare themselves to healthcare organizations in the USA.
As a health tourism business development expert, the hardest thing I encounter in my work is to not try to make every healthcare organization I encounter outside of the USA, "just like" the providers in the USA. The foreign clients don't like it, don't appreciate your trying to remold them, and don't appreciate the assumption that the American way is always better. (And I agree with them, in many cases.)
If you do want to transition to a more consumer centric health delivery model, then the role of the consultant who claims to do what I do in the health tourism sector is to celebrate your diversity, uniqueness, and cultural differentiation, not mold you in to an American "wannabe" copycat.
International healthcare accreditation programs such as "JCI" don't benchmark hospitals and clinics according to the standards in the USA that are established by "The Joint Commission", because those hospitals and clinics are not in the USA. That's because JCI and TJC are two different organizations, two different sets of standards, and JCI doesn't even accredit hospitals and healthcare organizations in the USA, and TJC doesn't accredit organizations outside the USA.
If you don't believe me, invest the USD $300-400 to obtain a copy of the standards and read them side by side for yourself.
In Europe, many countries offer their citizens a public health system that is paid for by government. In some European health tourism destinations, public health clinics and hospitals, thermal waters resorts, and academic teaching centers are the majority of the system, augmented by privatized suppliers. The private sector suppliers are often very interested to learn more and possibly test a pilot service line expansion to include medical and dental tourism services.
But if they were to "imitate" the U.S. health delivery model with enhanced patient interaction, engagement, and customer service, they would experience significant increases in pricing in order to add the feature and remain budget or "margin neutral". Therefore, a U.S. patient shouldn't go to Europe and expect a public or a private inpatient facility to act like its U.S. counterpart.
Therein lies a huge disconnect: U.S. healthcare consumers tend to put pressure on healthcare organizations with expectations that they have access to their medical information, can ask a doctor or dentist anything or challenge any order, and that the nurse has time (or English language fluency) to visit for just a few minutes.
In many parts of Europe, a patient is never alone in a healthcare facility as an inpatient. There is always a family member to sit with them and keep them occupied, help them eat, use the toilet, get a shower, fetch fresh towels, and so forth. this assistance has not
The four patients per nurse ratio in many private, accredited, international medical centers of excellence outside the USA is actually better than the six or seven patients per nurse in most U.S. hospitals. But our registered nurses in the USA are augmented by a bevy of other direct patient care staff that may be involved in "nursing" but are not "registered nurses" per se. We need these extra staffers because of our patient centricity delivery requirements. Without them, we cannot deliver patient centric care as it is described in U.S. industry parlance.
In Asia, many of the medical tourism healthcare facilities, especially the huge academic medical centers in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, Japan, China, India and the Philippines the pace is quick and conditions are very crowded. Private health facilities are also often gigantic, and have high average daily census counts. Some are usually stuffed to >96% occupancy. Why would they seek out medical tourism business to add to the already crowded conditions? Because they want to participate.
But the one common characteristic I have experienced throughout Asia is that physicians tend to "talk down" to patients. Condescension is rampant in busy academic teaching centers and the doctors who consult international patients are not used to patients who challenge their decisions and question their treatment plans. They are more accustomed to local patients' cultural tendency towards submissiveness and saving face. In walks the U.S. patient expecting similar treatment as what they have come to expect in the USA and without being educated up front about what to expect on arrival and during their hospital stay, the fiasco begins.
Another difference you'll notice in consumer centricity is that in the USA, the LGBTQ population is accepted and civil union marriages are honored and the couples afforded the same rights as other married couples. In Europe and Asia, this may or may not be the case. LGBTQ couples seeking to obtain medical services as an inpatient in countries outside the USA may need a little guidance before choosing a destination country. Don't be indelicate, but don't subject your clients to suffer the glares, stares and dismissals they may receive in a less-welcoming environment.