4 Ways Millennials Will Change Healthcare Delivery in 2025, is your practice ready?

In the United States, millennials (also called Generation Y), represent a quarter of the U.S. population, estimated at 75 million strong. They are those born between 1980 and 1995. They are considered to be 30 percent of the voting age population, and two-fifths of the working age population. Millennials wield a significant economic power, and they exhibit diverse decision-making tendencies in all areas of their lives, including healthcare. It is not surprising that the millennials are changing the U.S. healthcare system based on the following factors.

[1] Convenience

The traditional healthcare system has lost its appeal among millennials who desire utmost convenience when receiving medical treatment. Instead of queuing up at hospitals and other healthcare centers, you will rather find them checking out retail clinics operated inside drugstores or retail outlets. They also patronize free-standing urgent care centers that attend to people in evenings and on weekends. Telemedicine is fast becoming one of millennials’ best options for medical attention, since they don’t have to leave the comfort of their homes to access it.

[2] Speed of delivery: Technology factor

Millennials are impatient, and they won’t tolerate delays in healthcare delivery. To address this important issue, many hospitals are hiring more doctors and other medical personnel to increase their speed of operations. More so, healthcare providers are embracing innovative tools and technologies to reach out to millennials who have lost hope in the slow, traditional healthcare delivery model currently in many hospitals. These modern technologies give healthcare providers the unique opportunity to constantly engage with their millennial patients through customized patient portals and other communication tools. Patients can now make appointments with doctors via their smartphones and other devices. Hospitals are now arranging doctor visits through videoconference and other distance-communication gadgets

[3] Cost factor

Millennials aren’t subscribing to the fact that healthcare services should be too expensive. It is reported that at least 50% of millennials skip doctor visits to save money. And most of them prefer high-deductible insurance plans with low premiums. Choosing cheap insurance plans has caused more millennials to pay out-of-cost for their medical treatment. Even when surgery is required, some millennials want to know first-hand if they can afford it or not. They may decide against an operation if they think it is going to create unwanted debts. So, millennials are flocking to healthcare providers that offer affordable prices.

[4] Can healthcare providers be trusted?

Having gone through a lot of financial crises and healthcare scares, millennials are finding it difficult to trust the systems around them. This apparent lack of trust in society is being extended to doctors. In a survey that was undertaken by Greyhealth Group and Kantar Health, it was discovered that only 58% of millennials affirmed that they trusted their doctors (compared to the general public that has about 73% trust in their physicians). This portends an alarming situation as far as millennial healthcare services are concerned. What can hospitals and other healthcare delivery centers do to win the hearts of these millennials?

Millennials are changing healthcare: Is your practice ready?

This is a clarion call to all hospital and health center administrators: Millennials are changing healthcare, is your practice ready to take advantage of the new trend? Each millennial is reportedly worth $8000 (having a combined net worth of nearly $1 trillion). No healthcare provider wants to shut itself out of the unique opportunity of cashing in on supplying millennials the healthcare services they deserve. Consider the following essential questions:

1. Are your price points driving millennials away?

2. Is your practice reliable and can win millennials’ trust?

3. Are you delivering your healthcare services as fast as possible?

4. Do you constantly engage with your millennial patients?

5. Are you embracing new and innovative medical technologies?

How IT Consultants Can Improve Your Practice

Hospitals and health centers operating under the old, traditional model of opaque, complex, and expensive may not survive the current threats posed by millennials. It is imperative that hospital administrators transform their medical practices and save their business from unprecedented collapse. One of the best approaches to do this is to embrace medical innovations and technologies.

Hiring IT experts that will handle medical technologies directly may appear daunting for small hospitals, clinics, and healthcare centers. The only sensible option available for these small-scale or even medium-scale healthcare providers is to use the service of IT consultants.

An IT consultant, upon request, will:

• Supply experienced IT professionals who are ready to build, maintain, and sustain IT infrastructure that will strategically transform your healthcare delivery model.

• Hand over the management of the IT workers to the hospitals, clinics, and healthcare centers to ensure their optimal performance.

• Retrain IT professionals when necessary.

• Help hospitals streamline their payrolls, in the sense that they are not responsible for paying any fringe benefits to the dispatched experts.

Ready for the next step? Text/Call 501-500-1927‬

References:

Evans, M. (2018, November 27). Millennials expectations are fundamentally changing the healthcare landscape. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2018/11/27/millennial-expectations-fundamentally-changing-healthcare-landscape/#5eaca9357fe5

Kolpakov, N. (2019, February 28). Millennials are reshaping how the health care industry does business. Visioncritical. Retrieved from https://www.visioncritical.com/blog/millennials-health-care-industry-does-business