Patients Need This: Hospitals..Are You Listening?

Hospitals Are Places For The ‘Un-Well’

Under the best of times, hospitals are scary places: they represent illness and bodily compromise. Many people have anxieties and strongly held beliefs about hospitals being places where ‘you go to die.’ Being a place of illness represents a certain closeness with Death that make many uncomfortable.

Recent polls suggest that upwards of 75% of consumers are experiencing anxiety or fear, which factors into people’s hesitation to go to hospitals. (And who wouldn’t be?)

During COVID-19, Why Go There?

Unlike, say, a restaurant where people go there to have a good time and share meals, hospitals do carry a mission and burden of taking care of sick people. Hospitals are places, after all, places where people go when they are ‘un-well.’

And honestly, why go someplace that is the very manifestation of ‘death and dying’ when we are all trying so hard to stay alive?

And while the vast, vast majority of the un-well are discharged from hospitals feeling better than when they went in, it should come as no surprise whatsoever, that in this era of COVID-19, people are avoiding hospitals. No one who has a choice, wants to go to the hospital or doctor’s office.

It’s Probably The Safest Place To Go!

But the truth is, hospitals are not where the COVID-19 patient are! Many hospitals currently have 1 to zero patients with this disease. And we know this, because every single person—staff, doctors and patients—are tested. So, in fact, hospitals are probably the safest place to go!  Honestly, if hospitals opened up a café and move theater, I’d go there for my nights out!

But No One Trusts That Hospitals Are Safe.

Because of the long-standing concern patients have about hospital safety, and because the are the pace where the ‘un-well’ go, patients are staying away. There is a 40% reduction in patients coming in to the hospital for care to get treatment for heart attacks, stokes, migraines… Emergency room visits are down about 50% and so are calls to 911. But heart attacks, strokes and broken legs still happen…

So What’s It Going To Take?

So, what’s it going to take to get people into hospitals and doctors offices, feeling safe and sound? What sort of facts or information do people need to feel confident? What do people need to know in order to feel safe getting their medical care from their local hospital or doctor’s office?  Whether that care is virtual or in-person?

Top List of ‘To-Dos’

To answer that question, I’ve developed a short list of ‘to-dos.’ These are pragmatic yet powerful, if actually undertaken:

1.      Develop a plan to reopen and share the plan: Be completely transparent in terms of number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19, how the staff are being screened, cleaning procedures and the like.

2.      Put more autonomy into the hands of patients: Just like airlines are doing to give consumers more autonomy over the process of checking-in and self-boarding, hospitals should consider stepping-up their on-line presence and their digital capabilities to allow patients to control more of their admitting processes and in-stay experience.

3.      Move as much care into the virtual world: As I’ve written about (many times), hospitals have been reticent to move into a virtual delivery platform. But now they must—and have started. Virtual solutions like telehealth have doubled since the pandemic. It is now time to develop an end-to-end digital care journey for patients and their families that include remote monitoring, and other augmented reality capabilities to provide full-services to patients. What’s also nice about virtual optimization, is that more can be done in this type of digital setting to enhance and improve the patient compliance and adherence.

4.      Develop more home care and ‘point-of-care’ practices: Real primary care is what we do for ourselves at home. Consumers need more education, guidance and training on how to ‘diagnose and treat’ themselves by themselves. Understanding how to administer self-care is empowering, safe and effective. Become a part of enabling empowered home-based patients. Sure, this is counter-intuitive for hospitals that earn their money by having ‘heads in beds,’ but a healthier community is a healthier world, which we all need and want.

5.      And finally, be authentic in talking to patients and families about the real risk of a medical procedures: Fancy marketing slogans will not work. Smart tag lines will fall flat. Only honest-to-goodness truth will work. Tell people what their risks are and advise them accordingly, even if it means lost revenue.

Patients trust doctors and nurses more now than ever so use them to build ‘a community of trust and wellness’ in order to be more than a place for the ‘un-well.’ Become a place for the Well and a place where health, healing and wellness can flourish—both inside and outside ‘the four walls’ of the hospital.

 About the author: Julie Kliger is recognized by LinkedIn as a "Top Voice" in Health Care in 2015 & 2106, & 2107. She is a Healthcare ‘Strategic Realist’ who is passionate about improving health care and improving lives. She specializes in future-oriented healthcare redesign, translating bio/med-tech into legacy industries, implementing new care models and strategic change management. She is an adviser, clinician, health system board member, speaker and author. 

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