In Canada, people prefer to be called patients rather than consumers. In the U.S., there is a debate about whether using the word “consumer” to describe a patient is a good idea. Some believe that providers need to focus on patient-centered care, but not treat people as consumers. Others believe that it’s imperative for health systems to understand that patients are, after all, consumers. Some think framing healthcare just in terms of consumption can dehumanize the experience.
Contradictory perspectives notwithstanding, the reality is, in the U.S., people have choices when it comes to their healthcare. Maybe they don’t encounter the same number of choices as they do when shopping for cereal or jeans. But they are constantly making decisions about where to seek care, which medical advice to follow, which drugs to ask their doctor about and which health plan to join.
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Below, three health system executives I spoke with at the recent ViVE conference in Los Angeles give their take on why “patient” and “consumer” are often one and the same — and why hospitals need to be mindful of this. In other words, health systems can’t forget to treat people like “patients” by delivering human empathy, all while offering them care in such a fashion that the “consumer” in them chooses to return to the system every single time despite other options available in the marketplace.
“You’re here as a patient now, but you may not be here as a patient tomorrow”
To some, using the word consumer can make it seem like patients are reduced to mere buyers of services, rather than people aiming to maintain or improve their wellbeing. However, the word can also serve as a reminder to providers that there are millions of people actively seeking out quality healthcare services, pointed out Rhonda Bartlett, vice president of consumer experience and access at NewYork-Presbyterian.
“When we’re talking about our new patients coming in and we use the term consumer, it helps us make sure that we, as an organization, are positioned to ask ‘What are these consumers looking for, those who are seeking our service and have never been here before?’” she explained during a recent interview. “It makes you look differently at how you might attract them and how you might serve that consumer population.”
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For instance, viewing new entrants through a consumer lens may help health systems pay closer attention to patient preferences — such as how patients prefer to schedule appointments, access their medical records or receive communication from their providers.
The consumer framework can also help healthcare providers enhance their marketing and patient outreach efforts. Rather than relying on traditional healthcare marketing tactics, such as promoting clinical expertise or the latest medical technology, hospitals may learn to emphasize facets of their services that appeal to consumer preferences, like affordability, personalized treatment or convenience, Bartlett noted.
She said her health system still treats patients as consumers once they’re within the organization — because they “still have choice” even after they decide to receive care at NewYork-Presbyterian.
“When you have choice, that means that you’re here as a patient now, but you may not be here as a patient tomorrow if we don’t provide the level of care you’re seeking,” Bartlett declared.
“It’s empowering”
In the view of Mount Sinai CEO Brendan Carr, the word “consumer “conveys the degree of say patients have in their own healthcare journey.
“Part of being a consumer means that you get to accumulate as much information as you want and make a decision,” he explained. “Anybody getting a second opinion is acting as a consumer. Anybody deciding not to follow the recommendations of a doctor is acting as a consumer.”
Patients make the decision whether or not to continue to receive care at a certain health system based not only on the information they receive from the providers there, but also based on their overall experience at the organization, Carr noted. This is why improving the patient experience is becoming a more and more important part of hospitals’ patient retention strategies.
The human touch is one of the main things people want as part of the patient experience, Carr pointed out.
Healthcare providers’ work centers on what is often the most important thing in a person’s life: their own and their loved ones’ health. Because of this, providers shouldn’t forget to deliver care that is empathetic and personalized — people equipped with consumer choice usually don’t decide to return to clinicians who didn’t check up on how they’re doing, take time to listen to all their concerns or exercise the appropriate level of sensitivity, Carr remarked.
“In my mind, there’s nothing about healthcare being seen as a consumer product that feels in any way derogatory or demeaning. In fact, I think it’s empowering. It’s important,” he stated.
“Two sides of the same coin”
The patient side of things is very difficult to separate from the consumer side of things, said Tarun Kapoor, Virtua Health’s chief digital transformation officer.
“They are two sides of the same coin,” he declared.
He noted that Robert Pearl, the former CEO of Permanente Medical Group, introduced this idea in a 2015 article he wrote for Forbes. In the piece, Pearl brought up the example of sky-high drug prices — the “patient” who needs to take the medication to be healthy is the same person as the “consumer” who struggles to pay for the out-of-pocket expense.
To Kapoor, there is no use in separating one’s status as a consumer versus patient, because they will always be both. He did point out, however, that people will behave more like a patient or more like a consumer depending on the type of care they’re seeking.
For example, a person usually doesn’t put too much thought into where they get their flu shot, they usually just go wherever is most convenient. In this case, they’re acting like a consumer, Kapoor explained. On the other hand, if someone gets a cancer diagnosis, they’re going to spend a lot of time discerning next steps about where to seek care. In that case, the person is acting like a patient.
In order to win over patients as well as secure their loyalty, providers need to appeal to both sides of the coin, Kapoor said.
Photo: skynesher, Getty Images
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story’s introduction only linked to research focusing on Canadian patients, wrongly linking it to the American population. The current introduction features viewpoints from the U.S. and Canada.
