Patients are Terrible Consumers

Everyone wants to consumerize sick care. However, few are really doing it.

When it comes to judging the quality of sickcare service, patients can and do tell us what they like and dislike. However, when it comes to judging quality of care, they are not always right. Now research indicates that they are not such good consumers either when it comes to making choices about consuming sick care resources. Those who want to consumerize patients might want to think twice and not expect too much.

Here are some reasons why.

What will it take to make patients better consumer/customers?

1. Education. Most patients have very low health and insurance IQs and, understandably, do not grasp the intricacies of health insurance. Doctors are not much better.

2. Simplification. Make things easier for patients to understand, whether it be the language used in the examining room or the copy used in selling sick care products. Like the complicated mortgage statement you get when you buy and sell a house, maybe it's time for a patient Truth-in-Insurance statement.

3. Engagement. We need to do a better job of targeting the 20% who consume the 80% of resources and actively help make better choices.

4. Intelligence. Better use of data and predicative analytical techniques to identify and rehabilitate frequent flyers and the doctors who treat them.

5. Closing the education-practice gap. Medical schools are not teaching students and residents value based care and population health. That needs to change.

6. Filling the gap between the data and the doctor. We need to re-engineer processes of care given the increasingly complex nature of illnesses in an aging population. Unbundle primary care.

7. Digital health. Expand digital health technologies and execute a digical care strategy to help doctors and other care intermediaries to manage patients with chronic, complex diseases. Use social media better to improve population health. For example, Tinder users in the U.K. might see a profile from a celebrity, such as Olympic gold medalist Jade Jones, with a special logo to promote the cause. Those who swipe right will subsequently be asked to register to donate their organs after their death.

8. Workforce changes. We need to educate and train a new generation of patient advocates, educators and navigators

9. Care Teamwork. Promote interdisciplinary professional education and communicate better with patient families, surrogate and personal representatives. In many instances, the patient is not the decision maker, their families or children are.

10. Incentives. Give both patients and sick care professionals the information, tools and incentives they need to cut consumption of worthless and potentially harmful interventions.

We are still trying to figure out the relationship between patient rated outcome measures and satisfaction.

If we are to lend a hand to the invisible hand, we need to empower patients. Like all students, some patients will cut classes and try to slide through. and just rely on doctors to tell them what to do. With the right teachers, though, we can raise the overall GPA. 

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs