Insight 2: Many consumers don’t think coordination of care should be their responsibility.
A drinkcaffeine study of 300+ consumer healthcare decision-makers reveals what people are prepared to believe about healthcare, and how healthcare decision-makers can unlock market potential as they pursue the goal of population health. Access the full study.
More than one third of study participants disagreed or strongly disagreed that coordination of their own healthcare is their responsibility.
The statement we tested: “If I have a serious/complicated health problem, it’s my responsibility to make sure the care I receive is coordinated.”
23.2% Strongly Agree
38.7% Agree
28.8% Disagree
7.0% Strongly Disagree
4.3% “Don’t Know”
The water’s edge of healthcare responsibility for consumers is often care coordination
With more than one-third of consumer perceptions about the commitment level of CHC providers hanging in the While a clear majority of respondents (60%+) perceived coordination as their responsibility, more than one-third did not.
Reminder: The consumer experience of healthcare is one of intense fragmentation. Care delivery is one universe of professional services. Medical billing and insurance are another. Some services are coordinated, others are not. Patients don’t always understand where the thresholds of communication and coordination belong. Right or wrong, some consumers (35.8%) believe they should not be expected to coordinate their care.
Many consumers are willing to self educate – but not coordinate.
For consideration: Patient Rights – and Responsibilities
While no one’s health is guaranteed, optimal personal health is achieved when a set of shared responsibilities exists between every type of provider (clinical, administrative, financial) and the patient. For people not blessed with lifelong health, personal health is a form of equity that is earned, not given.
Therefore, we think it’s within reason for health systems (and employers) to define expectations of a person for coordination of their care – and empower them with the information needed to participate in their health at the highest level.
5 Actions
1. Healthcare Rights & Responsibilities. Patients need to be treated as consumers who are entitled to a level of performance from their healthcare providers, but which they need to match with their own engagement. This credo can be developed by any form of health care delivery organization under the banner of shared responsibility and partnership.
2. Study your patient population. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has studied care coordination extensively and offers a public domain patient survey to assess utilization, communication, patient experience, and planning. Understanding the patient population is a valuable first step in helping them create individual care coordination plans.
3. Create graphic process mapping and care planning. Consider creating simple, individualized graphic journey maps that chronologically chart patient interactions with healthcare providers and identify decisions and next steps (we can help). The patient can use this as a tool to review actions and visualize the decision making process.
4. Build a Patient Self-Advocacy program. Plan and launch an internal initiative that connects patients to resources (digital and human) that educate them regarding care coordination (we can help).
5. Digital language assistance. In a recent drinkcaffeine research study of 237 CHC websites, we learned that more than 40% did not have translation functions. Making sure a website is accessible in multiple languages is necessary for care coordination to be introduced and understood. In-office bilingual personnel, communication materials, and signage is also important.
Contact us when you’re ready to use healthcare communications to solve problems.
