Healthcare Next: Innovation’s Role in Creating Better Experiences

Adrenaline’s own Gina Bleedorn and Sean Keathley discuss what healthcare can learn from the financial and retail sectors.

On Monday, September 18, Adrenaline’s president, Sean Keathley, and CXO, Gina Bleedorn, took to the stage at the Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo in Austin, TX to discuss how the disruption that has come to the financial and retail industries can actually help healthcare organizations plan for a healthier future. As we’re seeing across nearly every industry today, consumers are demanding experiential change, and healthcare is the next big industry ripe for transformation. 
Just as financial and retail before it, technological advances are fueling the engine of change that all industries must adapt to or expire. Healthcare is actually seeing the beginning stages of disruption with the advent of the pop-up clinics for quick convenience, 24/7 nursing help lines/chat sessions, and even telehealth visits over the web. But it’s not just technology that disrupts; it’s how technology shifts our culture, driving consumer expectation. 

As we discussed in Healthcare’s 21^st Century Renaissance, the first phase of healthcare disruption is already here. In financial, we saw bankers wield less power and authority as consumers’ embraced change. In healthcare, we’re seeing that same power-shift between doctors and patients thanks to easy access to information. Of course, people will want doctors to diagnose illnesses, but we don’t always need a doctor for small concerns and will find more convenient ways toward health empowerment. 

Donna Ware, Executive Director of Planning and Design for BJC HealthCare, attended the session and says, “The focus on the customer journey is one we take very seriously at BJC Healthcare. We can learn from relevant parallels between the financial sector and healthcare. The examples presented both demonstrated best practices in action and envisioned the next phase of patient-centered care for our industry.”

Sean says, “Today, healthcare organizations are looking at more of a hub and spoke with a central hospital and satellite clinics rather than continuing huge medical campuses. Banking was much the same way, where bankers sat in a giant building at the center of town and people came to them. In the 1980s, banks realized they needed to go to where the people were through branch-banking. Today, healthcare is in the same position. People want convenient access to care close to work or home.”

But it’s not just where facilities are located that’s shifting; how people interact with healthcare facilities is changing too. Gina says, “Understanding experiential space design is so important. Large hospitals were built as a place for doctors and nurses to do the important work of care. But customers wandering lost in the hallways? That’s the furthest thing from a good experience. The reality is that healthcare organizations need help designing a blueprint for a good customer journey within their networks.”

For more information about the healthcare journey and how evolved healthcare brands are meeting the modern consumer’s needs, email [email protected].