The "Retailization" of Primary Care
Everyone is abuzz about 亚马逊 buying One Medical . Not a new story, Amazon led the way for self service in retail (e-commerce) which then led to a revolution in powering self service in technology (#AWS cloud), why not healthcare???
?Amazon senior vice president Neil Lindsay said (in a press release/company communication) health care is “high on the list of experiences that need reinvention.” The Seattle-based tech giant believes it can expand and improve health care through a “human-centered and technology-powered approach,” he said.“Booking an appointment, waiting weeks or even months to be seen, taking time off work, driving to a clinic, finding a parking spot, waiting in the waiting room then the exam room for what is too often a rushed few minutes with a doctor, then making another trip to a pharmacy — we see lots of opportunity to both improve the quality of the experience and give people back valuable time in their days,” Lindsay said in a statement.
Sounds familiar. Amazon reinvented retail by blending innovation with technology and fanatical customer service. It has its own fleet of branded trucks and delivery vans to drop off packages - drones soon to come. It isn’t too difficult to vision what will happen in healthcare.?
?“Alexa, I don’t feel well.”? Alexa responds in a few minutes with a diagnosis. Schedules an appointment or spins up a virtual telehealth session with a One Medical practitioner who sees you in minutes. With a variety of digital health tools, vitals can be taken. Not serious? Treatment is prescribed. This transpired within minutes and you, the patient, never left your home.? More serious, schedule an appointment and visit the clinic to physically see a doctor. Need a prescription? Click and be done with medication being sent to your home from Amazon Pharmacy. Your bill presents in your Amazon account. Need a referral or find a doctor? Intelligent tools will connect you to the right specialist. Refills, reminders, scheduling - all automated.?
?Some of this already exists, but the trend will continue with greater emphasis on home care and virtual visits.? Additionally, there is a merger happening between retail and healthcare with retailers like Wal-Mart, Walgreens, CVS, and now - Dollar General adding more services and expanding healthcare offerings.? They not only have the physical locations which are ‘close to the customer’, they have the supply chain and infrastructure to support localized care - they already know how to personalize delivery based on demographics and will capitalize on that.? They can deliver standardized care with volume discounts/mass buying power? to lower healthcare costs.?
Fierce Healthcare published the 2022 Healthcare Forecast: Competition in Retail Healthcare will heat up. What to Expect from Amazon, CVS, Wal-Greens. (Rebecca Torrence, Dec 21, 2022). ? There were five predictions with key support noted by different analysts (summarized below):
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What does this mean?….Remember Sears? K-Mart? Two Guys? Bradlees?? Joe’s Hardware Store? Yep - that will likely be the fate of many primary care physicians. Especially those *old school* who do not invest in technology or become more patient centric in terms of service.? The days of the independent physician who overbooks, keeps patients waiting, forces un-necessary visits for refills (as my physician annoyingly does) are numbered.? I would even argue the independent physician’s days are numbered generally as the need to compete will likely create larger ‘conglomerates’ of practices or limited locations with more emphasis on virtual care.?
Seriously, does one think that technology behemoths like Wal-Mart or Amazon can’t build a better EMR or innovate with respect to health record sharing?? I bet that is on the roadmap.?
Technologies like WellAI are enablers and can level the playing field for smaller clinics and physician offices. They create a mobile patient pre-visit workflow and #digitalfrontdoor - putting more services and convenience directly in the hands of the patients.? They streamline the front office workflow and can automate many tasks involved with patient intake. The competition is increasing in #directprimarycare which is moving to a #haas (Healthcare as a Service) subscription model and technology enablement is a critical piece of that. Just as retailers beefed up e-commerce and “buy online pick up in store” and other digitization strategies, physicians will follow suit and transform or go #extinct.?
Written by Rachel Schneider, Marketing