Health Care Systems Need to Better Understand Patients as Consumers

The data is clear: Patients in the United States aren’t loyal customers. They split their care across an average of four to five different provider networks each year. Given the increasing number of options for where and how consumers can seek care - from new virtual and primary care providers to retail entrants and urgent care centers — who can blame them? To remain competitive, health systems and traditional provider organizations must seek to better understand patients as health care consumers: how they make decisions, what motivates them, and how, where, and why they are engaging with the broader health care system. They must also understand how the forces of demand and supply shape the markets in which they operate. And compete they must. While 44% of Americans have an active Amazon Prime membership — giving Amazon even more consumer data to use in its ongoing health care expansion and targeting strategies — the nation’s largest health system, HCA Healthcare, only engages with 1% of Americans through its care delivery system.