What it takes to elevate the patient and provider experience

The 3 key requirements of a patient experience solution as learned from patients and patient experience professionals. 

Months ago, we set out to build new products specifically for healthcare. Having had the privilege of hearing from our customers and working with providers across the healthcare landscape over the past few months, I wanted to share more about what we heard and how the needs of healthcare must shape new products that elevate the patient experience.

One of our most important tools for understanding the state of affairs in healthcare was a survey of over 700 patients and more than 150 patient experience professionals published earlier this year: The patient experience (PX) revolution in healthcare report.

Learning from patients and patient experience professionals.

Among many key takeaways were how fast and how high patient expectations had risen after the pandemic, and as they have increasingly digital and connected experiences in their everyday lives with companies in other industries, such as online retail, financial services, travel and hospitality. 

We saw many patient experience leaders saying they are moving much faster to meet those expectations than previously, with 71% saying the digital transformation of their contact center is a top priority. 

We learned some very specific requirements for any product where elevating the patient experience is the goal. For example, when 67% of patients told us that engaging with their provider on their channel of choice is important to them, we know that omnichannel and digital communication capabilities need to be a core component of any patient experience solution.

We also leveraged our Healthcare Advisory Board—a group of healthcare operations, IT, patient experience, and innovation executives from across the industry that are, crucially, drawn from both our customers and the broader industry. 

We shared with this group our healthcare roadmap and had candid conversations about the tools and capabilities health systems needed most to meet and exceed their patients’ and providers’ evolving expectations—the “Amazon moment” facing healthcare. One key learning from that board was their feedback that healthcare providers need a single platform for managing all interactions – voice and digital, automated and human-assisted.

The 3 key requirements of a platform reimagine the patient experience.

The result is a shared vision for a reimagined patient experience, one that should directly drive product strategy for products designed to improve the patient experience. These are what we learned were the three key aspects of that journey:

1. Synchronization. Patients want to experience a connected journey, where each touchpoint picks up where the previous one left off. Patients should not feel the frustration of “starting over” every time they engage.

2. Personalization. Patients must feel understood and guided toward better health outcomes and care. Their experience is tailored and relevant to their needs.

3. Radical convenience. Patients ought to get information and access to resources faster, on the channels they prefer – digital and voice. They deserve the same “always-on,” consumer-centric experience they’re experiencing in other industries.

To deliver that vision, patient-centric providers need to build a solution that integrates with systems and disparate patient interactions. The vision also depends on leveraging the power of AI and automation beyond inbound call deflection to truly elevate the patient’s experience. 

It requires empowering contact center teams with intuitive tools that make their jobs easier and link them to all other steps of the reimagined patient journey.

Reimagining patient experience: Talkdesk Healthcare Experience Cloud.

Earlier this month we announced the launch of the new Talkdesk Healthcare Experience Cloud™ at Opentalk 2021. 

This is the first contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) solution purpose-built for healthcare and the first Talkdesk product engineered for healthcare providers. In the same week as the announcement, our CEO Tiago Paiva discussed why our customers needed pre-integrated, pre-designed, and pre-trained products in complex industries like healthcare and financial services.