In the U.S., the methods of delivery of healthcare services have not changed much over the decades. Now it is time for suppliers to become innovators in the industry's transformation.
By Donna Benjamin
In the U.S., the channels for delivering healthcare services have been locked in place for many decades. Hospitals, in-person doctor visits, and a reluctance to change familiar processes have kept the healthcare system enclosed in brick-and-mortar hospitals, forced long wait times for visits with specialists, and created health insurance companies that are slow to embrace innovative change out of fear of increasing expenses.
As healthcare costs continue to rise, the population continues to increase, and technology offers previously unheard of options. The industry is transforming in a way that goes far beyond using an electronic health records system. The entire delivery system is changing, moving toward new approaches like retail clinics, telemedicine, and home monitoring of patients. Suppliers have opportunities to join the early-stage transformation, bringing new perspectives and innovative ideas.
Moving Away from the Buildings
Numerous changes on are the horizon for the healthcare industry, triggered mostly by rising costs, the Affordable Care Act, and technology. What is becoming clear are changes in traditional healthcare delivery systems will change in several ways, and the first signs of the transformation are appearing.
Overall, the trend is a movement away from seeing or caring for patients in traditional hospitals and doctor offices to providing services in other ways. The new concept is that a hospital will serve as a hub for a remotely maintained regional or local system of clinics and technology-based healthcare services such as home monitoring. This new business model of hospitals is reserved for those with the most serious illnesses, while those with less serious illnesses will utilize telemedicine, retail clinics, and home healthcare services such as visiting nurse practitioners.
Retail clinics located in places like grocery stores, pharmacies and department stores are already appearing and will begin to become more visible and numerous in the next five to 10 years. They are staffed mostly with nurse practitioners or physician assistants who provide services for a select group of medical conditions. There are some retail health clinics already in operation, and they particularly appeal to the younger generation and those with no primary care physician. They offer more convenient and extended hours, weekend services, walk-in availability, and minimal wait times. Generally, retail clinics treat minor medical conditions and conditions with established treatment protocols.
The number of retail clinics continues to grow each year, but this is a market that is far from saturated. Suppliers will find opportunities ranging from keeping retail clinics supplied to managing spaces.
Delivering healthcare outside the traditional brick-and-motor hospital or doctor's office is a concept gathering steam via many channels. Accessing primary care has become a laborious chore for many people for many reasons. They include a shortage of doctors in areas outside major metropolitan areas, long wait periods between making an appointment and the appointment date, and even longer periods between seeing the primary care specialist and a specialist. A person with a health issue can literally go months waiting to see the appropriate medical personnel.
A Need for 'Outsiders'
It is not surprising that the "NEJM Catalyst Insights Council Survey on the New Marketplace" published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the top healthcare sector in most need of disruptive innovation was hospitals and health systems. The second area was healthcare information technology, and the third was primary care.
Important to note is that the survey of clinical leaders, executives, and clinicians found the respondents believe that it will take "outsiders" to bring innovation to current systems and processes. The same survey found that the top buyers willing to pay for innovative products services and solutions are healthcare IT, hospitals, health systems, and pharmaceuticals. This is a clarion call for innovative suppliers to bring new perspectives and creative ideas for healthcare delivery services and products.
There are other new care delivery options like mobile care. Currently, mobile care is primarily viewed as a way to provide healthcare services to people who do not have local access. The mobile care units in the future will be designed and outfitted to manage a much broader set of needs in the general population and for businesses. For example, an employer that has field workers who move from job to job can enlist a mobile unit designed to carry a healthcare team and medical equipment to go to the job site as needed.
Mobile units can also be used for homecare. Rather than taking the patient to a hospital or doctor's office, a mobile unit goes to the patient. Innovators think in terms of mobile units sent to the home of chronic care patients or the elderly based on warnings sent through sensors in the person's home. It is not an ambulance service. It is healthcare delivered to the person in his or her home.
Of course, utilization of telemedicine is increasing but very slowly. What does the future hold? A panel at the American Telemedicine Association conference held April 2017 tackled the subject, addressing some of the challenges the telemedicine industry has already identified that are slowing progress. One is convincing people that telemedicine is an efficient and effective means for accessing healthcare. This is a marketing opportunity. Another challenge is developing technologies that appeal to consumers most likely to embrace this form of healthcare delivery – digital natives. In the future, the technologies could become so integrated with accessing health systems, hospitals, and insurance providers that consumers will not interact with telemedicine and other telehealth products as standalone devices or systems.
These are just a sample of the supplier opportunities in alternative healthcare delivery systems. Traditional hospitals and doctor offices will have to adapt to changing population needs, rising costs, and advancing technology. This offers yet another supplier opportunity.
Any supplier bringing creative ideas for new business models to the industry and to helping hospitals reinvent themselves will find an abundance of opportunities.