A look back on 2019 reveals key trends, including patient experience, access to care, and the social determinants of health.
Patient experience, access to care, patient satisfaction, and the social determinants of health were all key issues in 2019, as medical providers continued their work to drive improve healthcare.
As 2019 draws to a close, it becomes clear that industry experts are still chipping away at some of the core problems that have long plagued the healthcare field. In a review of top trends and stories from this past year, a few familiar faces crop up.
Providers are still interested in creating a positive patient experience and are specifically looking at the role nurses play in that. Industry professionals are also working to connect patients to care, specifically looking at how non-emergency medical transportation factors in.
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New this year, however, was a vested interest in the social determinants of health, as more organizations recognize their role in a community working to achieve wellness.
Nurses drive patient experience of care
Nurses have long been regarded as the lifeblood of compassionate, patient-centered care. These clinicians, who bear the lion’s share of patient interactions, are essential for creating a positive patient experience, and medical professionals are still working to understand how nurses can do it.
Key nurse communication strategies include positive patient-provider communication, patient education, empathy, all while balancing key technologies that connect patients with their nurse providers.
Healthcare organizations are also looking into strategies that make these patient-centered care duties workable amidst a hefty clinical workload. Nurse staffing ratios, which have been on several state ballots in recent elections, call on a certain proportion between nurses and patient load, ensuring nurses have enough bandwidth to meet patient needs.
Proponents of nurse staffing ratios have asserted that this is a key patient safety issue, while others have suggested the high cost of such a strategy could be prohibitive and lead some community providers to shutter their doors.
Patient access to care poses challenges
Despite gains in health insurance coverage, the medical industry is still grappling patient care access challenges. Better health coverage has facilitated some access, but data still shows fewer patients than ever have a primary care provider and care barriers and cost are limiting patient attempts for treatment.
Non-emergency medical transportation has emerged as a key strategy for addressing at least some of the barriers to care access this year. A near 3.6 million individuals, regardless of payer status, cannot access healthcare because they do not have a ride to their medical appointments, per the American Hospital Association (AHA).
NEMT, which can include car services, shuttle buses, or rideshare platforms, can help patients get to and from their appointments.
More specifically, rideshare partnerships between healthcare organizations, payers, and NEMT brokers have become exceptionally popular. Through the emergence of the Uber Health platform and Lyft’s notable presence in the medical space, these provider groups have been able to connect patients with a ride to a doctor’s appointment at a low cost.
And these strategies are proving effective. Data shows that rideshare programs can cut NEMT costs by $10 per patient per ride. Rideshare also improves patient satisfaction and delivers on promises of consumer-centered healthcare.
Community-based care addresses social determinants of health
New this year is the emerging push to address the social determinants of health, or the social risk factors that influence an individual’s ability to be healthy. Medical professionals are working to understand the social determinants of health and design programs that can address patients’ social needs and drive better outcomes.
The nation’s largest medical institutions are leading the way on this front, with 14 of them vowing to invest nearly $700 million on community health projects to address social risk factors. The group, a part of the Health Anchor Network (HAN), specifically aims to address economic, racial, and environmental health disparities that limit individuals’ ability to achieve health and wellness.
“In the last two-and-a-half years, the HAN members have moved forward to collaborate on strategies and to align their business operations to tackle the structural and economic drivers of poor health through place-based investing, as well as through local, inclusive hiring and procurement,” stated Dave Zuckerman, HAN Director.
“Anchor mission work utilizes and leverages local community resources to address jobs, training, small business support, and equitable community development. It’s individual and community wealth building,” Zuckerman continued.
Projects for addressing the social determinants of health ranged from funding low-income housing units, creating food security programs, and tackling interpersonal violence.
Patient satisfaction, consumerism loom large
Efforts to improve patient satisfaction scores and drive positive patient experiences remained common this year, with articles outlining key strategies floated to the top of our most read lists. The push to improve the patient experience and meet the expectations of an increasingly consumer-centered industry has been in a mainstay in recent years.
New this year are calls for improving patient satisfaction measurement, with industry experts questioning whether traditional measures accurately portray the patient experience. In July, a group of industry experts led by the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) issued their own recommendations for improving the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Processes and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.
“Great hospital care needs to be patient-centered. Providing the best care, meeting patient expectations and keeping them comfortable and well informed is key,” FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn said in a statement. “Updating and improving the HCAHPS survey could have a major impact on improving care.”
Much has also been made of how to measure hospital quality, with an August report published in the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst calling into question how different hospital ratings actually score facilities. The report suggested that industry staples like the CMS Hospital Star Ratings, US News & World Report hospital ratings, Healthgrades, and the Leapfrog Group patient safety grades are all flawed.
“Current hospital quality rating systems often offer conflicting results – a hospital might rate best on one rating system and worst on another,” Bilimoria, who is also the report’s lead author, said in a statement. “We wanted to provide information on how to interpret these contradictory ratings, so people can better select the best hospital for their needs.”
This report sparked a firestorm, prompting responses from each ranking system in defense of their respective methodologies. Critics – namely from the Leapfrog Group – pointed out that some of the researchers on the Catalyst post had a history of butting heads with executives at certain ranking companies.
Meanwhile, heading into the next decade healthcare organizations can expect to see these trends continue. Health IT and other patient engagement tools will also be key issues, as more organizations utilize technology to enhance the customer experience.
Source: Patient Engagement Hit