Physicians sometimes see dozens of patients in a single day, making it difficult to build rapport with them. Even with in-depth efforts to collect patient data at the beginning of an appointment, physicians and nursing staff may find themselves puzzled by a patient’s conditions and symptoms.
This naturally translates into uncertainty among hospital administrators and other management as well. As a healthcare organization strives to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction, customer intimacy dramatically influences the future of the organization.
Attaining customer intimacy requires careful use of customer data analytics to draw a clearer picture of patient needs. Using a wide range of big data is the only way to build rapport with patients in an era when patient and doctor time is limited.
Why Is Customer Intimacy Important?
Customer intimacy plays a huge role in the growth of an organization. While external marketing is important, existing customers may not recommend the provider if they don’t have a strong relationship with the doctor or clinic.
Even more importantly, customer intimacy can increase trust in physicians, which has generally decreased in recent years. This may improve patient compliance with prescribed treatment plans, which is especially critical for individuals living with chronic conditions.
The Complexity of Chronic Conditions
Even if a patient sees the same physician multiple times a month, that physician may struggle to understand their life and risk factors. Physicians tend to interview the patient extensively about their diet, habits, and medical history during the first appointment, then not follow up in-depth about changes.
Patients might not always be honest about aspects of their life that may be negatively impacting their health. They might overestimate how much they exercise or underestimate how frequently they smoke.
These failures to gather information are usually not the physician’s fault, especially since appointment time is so limited. A healthcare provider can improve physicians’ knowledge of individual patients and larger trends by adopting a more cutting-edge approach to predictive analytics in healthcare.
Big data analytics can reveal more about patient exercise and dietary habits than the patient realizes about himself. AI in healthcare can also unveil demographic risk factors and potential comorbidities that may complicate care and increase readmission risks.
Delivering Preventive Care Information
Many patients don’t visit their primary doctors annually and may miss out on opportunities for preventive care. Preventive care appointments are both medically necessary and a great opportunity to build patient trust and intimacy.
Delivering custom-tailored preventive care information to patients may motivate them to visit their doctor again, increasing the chances of them receiving the care they need. This information could be tailored based on the number of children in the household, income, age, and other factors that influence the type of care they need.
If a patient hasn’t visited the provider in a long time, their data on-file may be irrelevant to their current needs. Big data can help supplement this information and show changes in zip code and income.
Overcoming Financial Obstacles
Healthcare costs are projected to increase at an average of 5.5% per year until 2027. Although health insurance covers most major costs, monthly prescriptions and other expenses can add up quickly for low-income patients.
Many patients hesitate to talk about their financial situation, leaving doctors unaware of the obstacles they face. It’s up to the healthcare industry to proactively inform patients of ways to afford their medications.
Big data can provide a wealth of information about patient income, family size, spending habits, and other demographics that indicate their overall financial health. By combining that information with data about the failure to fill prescriptions, healthcare providers can predict which patients are likely to be non-compliant with prescribed care due to financial issues.
From there, providers can design and custom-tailor emails, text messages, and other outreach efforts to encourage patients to apply for social safety nets, financial aid, and other benefits. In some cases, patients may even be missing out on generic drug options or basic manufacturer coupons.
Deciding Where to Start
Harnessing the power of big data in a way that is relevant to your patients takes time. Many healthcare providers and insurance companies already use AI to tackle healthcare fraud and other problems, but solutions must be customized to meet each organization’s needs.
Although there is a massive amount of data already available and waiting to be analyzed, implementing relevant changes must be done step-by-step. Data must be cleaned before use, and although some data can be stored in unstructured data lake form, even getting to this step requires some time and planning.
Starting with the most serious and urgent problems allows you to boost customer intimacy and trust much faster. Leading causes of death like heart disease can be tackled easily, especially since preventive care and lifestyle changes can do so much good.
Depending on your overall patient demographics, you may decide that financial obstacles and knowledge of financial aid options are an even larger issue. A quick analysis of your patients can reveal which routes should be investigated more in-depth, and which actions should be taken first.
How to Measure Customer Intimacy
One of the ways AI transforms healthcare is by allowing providers to measure consumer intimacy and satisfaction in new, in-depth ways. Being able to quantify customer intimacy values will show you whether your customer intimacy strategy is actually working.
Big data can be helpful in measuring how much the provider is being advertised word of mouth. Social media mentions and reviews can give huge insights into customers’ perceptions of your organization’s intimate customer service. Drawing customer data and analytics from multiple sources can give you the complete picture of how much your patients trust in your care.
Creative Use of Big Data
The impact of big data analytics on healthcare is multifaceted, and as technology improves, we may see even more ways to use big data. Healthcare providers need to start the process of big data analytics as soon as possible to improve patient outcomes and organizational growth.
Syntelli Solutions has the skills and experience you need to link big data and consumer behavior and improve patient outcomes and retention. We provide a huge range of data and analytics services in the healthcare industry and can custom-tailor our services for any size organization. Contact us today to learn more about the new technologies available to you.
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