I am a huge fan of Jane Sarasohn-Kahn. I follow her on LInkedIn and she is one the few people whose articles I regularly read. It’s generally because I like research and data and she writes often about her thoughts on recent surveys. If you don’t already follow her, you should. Her insights are always very thoughtful and interesting.
Recently, she shared a survey that jumped out at me. It’s the data from a new survey from JLL, a leading global commercial real estate and investment management company, has helped clients buy, build, occupy, manage and invest in a variety of commercial, industrial, hotel, residential and retail properties.
Don’t let the source turn you off, the insights are very interesting. Essentially, the press release says, “JLL’s new patient consumer survey reveals that, while cost is a large consideration, convenience and comfort factors must not be ignored.”
This reflects other surveys in recent years showing that patients say they want the same service and experience in healthcare that they get in other areas of their lives.
What are some of the highlights of the survey?
First, Jane’s thoughts, which she summed up as, “In the 2023 Patient Consumer Survey report, the topline lesson is that ‘cost and location drive patient decisions, while service and comfort drive experience.’”
Then, according to the release, “More than 80% of responders evaluating primary and preventative or specialist care noted whether a provider or hospital accepts their insurance as one of the top five factors considered when deciding to seek care. Location and proximity ranked as the second-most-likely factor for all types of care, aside from outpatient behavioral health, for which it ranked third.”
The press release goes on to say, “What this means for healthcare providers and health systems is that a strong location strategy can both improve reach and improve positive outcomes,” said Alison Flynn Gaffney, FACHE, President, Healthcare Division, JLL. “It’s critical to strike the right balance between convenience and cost – health systems need to balance the benefits of being close to their target populations with the cost of a new facility or a provider’s time in transit from a local clinic to the hospital.”
Jane shared a few charts and images with stats that were interesting. First, we can see there is a growing interest in more amenities. What’s interesting is that in many cases health systems offer these but perhaps don’t do the best job of letting people know or making it easy to find them say through the ability to search all the points of interest in the system on your phone.
The report shares another graph and some detail that is equally interesting:
“Location/proximity ranked as the second–most–likely factor in the top five for all types of care aside from outpatient behavioral health (for which it ranked third). This is consistent with prior surveys – in the 2022 survey, 70% of respondents found location convenience either very or extremely important.”
One of the best ways to deliver the best experience around distance, travel time, and ultimately convenient access to care, is to provide location awareness as part of access to care. When a health system uses a location aware mobile framework, they can easily show the distance to care sites, searchable by type of care and provide wait times and the ability to book or save a spot.
At the end of the day, one of the best ways to address these desires and expectations is through a robust mobile patient engagement platform. What could be more convenient than having all the healthcare access you need across your patient journey in the palm of your hand.