What Patients Really Want in Healthcare—and How Marketers Can Deliver It

Everything—yes everything—has changed in healthcare. Technology, of course, has been one driver; but equally important is the rise of consumerism. The ability of patients to make choices based upon their own preferences and attitudes has led to a significant evolution in healthcare generally, and particularly in healthcare marketing.

A Little History Lesson

Not long ago, only the physician had access to a patient’s labs and diagnoses. There was great disagreement, and lengthy discussions about whether it would be wise to let patients see their own data.

But the public, increasingly literate about healthcare, was demanding that their information be readily available to them. When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was signed in 1996, it provided the framework for patient data to be secure and accessible, and the first patient portals began to appear.

Fast forward to 2020 and the pandemic. Remote access was no longer an option but a necessity, and every healthcare provider had to scramble to provide it for patients, sick and healthy. For the first time, telemedicine became widely accepted by the public.

Meanwhile, ongoing technological advances have allowed many more procedures, diagnostics, and treatments to be done on an outpatient basis. All of these developments have meant that the hospital or medical center—once the focus of healthcare—was no longer the place most of the public went for care.

Moving the Front Door

By 2023 for example, while hospital care accounted for approximately 31% of total national healthcare spending, only around 5.9% of people aged 1-64 made a hospital visit. The “front door” for healthcare Awas no longer the ED or medical center lobby. Instead, it had shifted to the call center, the website, the patient portal, physicians’ offices, diagnostic (mammography and other imaging) centers, and social media posts. The front door of the near future may well be AI recommendations served up in a browser.

The implications for healthcare marketing are obvious. Yet providers and marketers are still prone to think hospital first. Even the terms “outpatient” and “ambulatory” come from a hospital-centric world—and all too often, healthcare providers who claim to offer “patient-centered care” fill their ads with their latest surgical robot or gleaming operating room.

Give the Public What it Wants

What do patients want? It’s not complicated. Patients want:

• Rapid and convenient access to services and providers.
• An easy and pleasant patient experience (not a—shudder—complicated and multi-step “patient journey”).
• Timely information on results, and the ability to see their own data.
• Communication between the providers and locations they use.

Notably, while marketing is not the only way these desires are met, marketers—who often have responsibility for websites, portals, signage, and messaging—have a lot to contribute. Meanwhile, marketers can create a brand that reaches the heart as well as the head to gain consumers’ trust, using patient or physician stories to humanize an organization, and speaking to their pain points.

Back to the Basics

If you’re looking to give your public what it wants, forego the robots and shiny ORs. Ask these questions:

• Can your patients schedule or request an appointment online?
• Are your physician profiles as complete and accurate as they can be, enabling patients to choose and access information for each provider?
• Does your website clearly describe what you offer, and how patients can access it?
• Does your website clearly state what insurance plans you accept?
• Are your call center personnel always up to date on wait times for services?
• Does signage in your offices and facilities enhance patient flow?
• Is your front-line staff trained—not just to answer the phone—but to give good customer service?

These items are as relevant to marketing your healthcare organization as anything else. Small in themselves, they can make or break the all-important consumer relationship you want to create.