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Customer Experiences Central to Digital Transformation in Healthcare

Appian Contributor
November 23, 2016

The healthcare industry is in the middle of a period of sweeping change as digital technologies take hold across the sector. For a long time, the goals behind digital innovation came out of the industry itself, with initiatives focusing on reducing the cost of care, freeing clinical staff from clerical work, eliminating errors and improving patient care. In all of these cases, the goal is to solve specific problems facing healthcare providers. As digital tools have taken hold, the goal has increasingly shifting from emphasizing challenges facing healthcare companies and is shifting to focus on the customer experience.

Shifting the focus to customers

Healthcare industry stakeholders are increasingly putting customers in the spotlight as they consider how they use digital tools. Collecting the data going out to customers and being created by them can give healthcare providers key insights into patient behaviors and predict potential future problems with greater precision.

Using data to inform and engage customers can help healthcare organizations improve preventative care and create a much better experience for patients.

"Digital transformation in healthcare is shifting to focus on the customer experience."

Attaining digital maturity to achieve transformation

Rebuilding operations around digital technologies requires an enterprise platform for digital transformationas optimizing everyday capabilities in light of data and new customer interactions is critical. A digital transformation platform can help healthcare companies achieve digital maturity, something that requires a level of flexibility that many healthcare organizationsare not necessarily familiar with.

A recent study from Altimeter explored the digital transformation maturity cycle, something that begins with hospitalsmaintaining business as usual, evolves to formalized digital strategies and reaches its peak at the stage when companies are innovative and adaptive. Essentially, an organizationthat has truly transformed operations around digital tools doesn't just have solid, formal digital procedures in place, but can also adapt and change based on shifting needs at any time.

How to Keep up with changing patient demands

As healthcare organizations work to adopt transformative digital tools, they must seriously consider how they can improve customer interactions and experiences through those capabilities. Getting to the point where hospitals are keeping up with changing patient demands can be accomplished with an enterprise application platformthat enables healthcare payers and providers to bridge core systems, enhance member experience, and significantly improve patient outcomes.

Improve decision making, speed innovation and simplify the healthcare journey with modern technology for providers and payers. See how rapid deployment delivers results in weeks and months, not years with The Appian Platformª