Healthcare Harnesses the Warp Speed of AI in Our Changing Economy

By Michael Bradford

A recent study indicates that 9 out of 10 healthcare companies are incorporating some form of AI into their workflows to leverage data-driven insights. This signifies a pivotal shift in the industry, underscoring the urgency for all healthcare providers to adopt AI technologies to avoid falling behind in an increasingly competitive landscape. Some organizations may wish to use AI to collaborate and improve process management and operations; others might want to increase the personalization of services they’re providing for improved quality of care and patient satisfaction.

The economical challenges in healthcare

In a tight economy, patients are less likely to spend money on services that are not absolutely necessary. Therefore, healthcare providers need to look more closely at the quality of services they offer to ensure that they will remain the patient’s first choice.

Furthermore, healthcare organizations also face the challenge of not having enough funding and resources. This reality demands meticulous resource management while maintaining high-quality care.

Turning patients into loyal advocates

In the competitive healthcare landscape, where patients’ perceptions are pivotal, delivering an outstanding experience is crucial. A negative experience can significantly impact your organization’s reputation, etc.

In the healthcare industry, word of mouth constitutes an effective way for existing users to become loyal supporters and bolster the reputation of their organization based on their favorable experience. Still there is a double-edged quality about this. For many patients, it is the same reason why they devise severe new slogans to harass healthcare workers if their service falls short of expectations.

How AI empowers healthcare organizations with insights

Patient feedback can be collected in many ways in the medical field, but a lot of organizations overlook the potential bias of face-to-face feedback collection, as it does not always represent the patient’s real experience. Hence one misnomer after another has spread—some don’t know what went wrong because the provider never found out about it.

This is where technology comes to the rescue, providing new methods of patient feedback collection in the moment of experience without an intermediary and allowing the feedback to be entirely anonymous.

Afterwards, the feedback is put through advanced AI powered analytics, which in seconds provide unique insights into the factors determining satisfaction levels: the place where feedback was given, the time, and even patient demographic information. This real-time data enables healthcare providers with actionable insights to find the bottlenecks and promptly address them.

5 things patients pay attention to in healthcare (and how AI can help)

When entering a healthcare facility, most patients will scrutinize at least one of the following areas:

• Facility cleanliness
• Wait times
• Staff friendliness
• Quality of service
• Equipment available

By placing feedback collection tools in strategic areas throughout their patient journey, healthcare providers can get a comprehensive look at how each performs and allocate their resources accordingly to swiftly address any operational challenges.

Making patient experiences transparent

If a patient has a bad experience, they will likely remain quiet about it until after they’ve left the facility. This leaves the business with little opportunity to fix the problem before it becomes worse. Utilizing AI-powered real-time insights allows healthcare providers to follow patients’ experiences while they receive treatment, offering a unique opportunity to address concerns immediately and foster patient loyalty.

Let’s consider the common frustration of lengthy wait times. Through interactive feedback-collecting terminals, patients can voice their problems to the personnel while waiting in real time. When patients are attended to, it alleviates their wait time and allows personnel to give incentives once service is rendered.

The impact of bad healthcare experiences 

Contrary to popular belief, healthcare providers do not lose just one patient over a single negative experience. In today’s digital era, one bad encounter might lead to tens of missed possibilities.

A healthcare provider’s unsatisfactory reputation might be exposed to thousands of prospective clients through internet reviews, where dissatisfied customers can express their grievances. Even while most people will delve deeper into these claims, others may just base their decision on a single negative comment, opting for alternative providers without further investigation.

4 AI insights for healthcare in 2024

1. Optimized resource allocation: Healthcare organizations can make smarter choices about where to put their finances, staff, and other resources when they know what specific parts of the service need improvement.
2. Service excellence: When healthcare workers know exactly what areas of the patient’s journey caused dissatisfaction, they can fix the problems before they escalate.
3. Increased satisfaction and loyalty: Patients are more likely to return in the future if they see that their opinion is valued and used to improve the service.
4. More funding: Healthcare providers are more likely to get funding and strengthen their place as market leaders if they provide excellent experience.

Conclusion 

AI technology represents a transformative shift in the healthcare industry—now small healthcare institutes have access to the data and insights that were previously only available for larger institutions. This access to data and analytics enables significant enhancements in patient care, making services more efficient and tailored to patient needs. In an industry where patient experience is critical, AI’s strategic use drives operational enhancements and fosters lasting loyalty.

Michael Bradford is head of operations, Americas, at HappyOrNot. HappyOrNot serves 4,000 brands, including healthcare organizations, Amazon, Google, airports, and retailers across 135 countries, and has collected and reported on over 1.5 billion feedback responses. The company provides AI tech that enables companies to identify and optimize customer and patient experiences through various touchpoints and in-moment feedback data.