In an on-demand era, it is not surprising that consumers make quick, well-researched decisions based on their other experiences outside of healthcare. Health care and Starbucks consumers alike, expect quality (drinks or care), access (easy-to-use technology or location) and continuity (I want it right, and every time) of whatever it is you are delivering; but if you add that human touch-even better.

Whether a nurse who knows you by name or a barista who can shake up your drink customized without you asking, it’s the same affect. It’s an experience.

So you might ask, how do you bridge the gap between technology and human touch? It starts with foundationally believing that the product, service or commodity you are providing is actually touching a human being. Someone who is breathing has emotions and is driven to buy what you have based upon those emotions.

It’s not a robot or an alien. As human and mommy, I use social media to determine where I want to go, what recommendations others are making and I look for the “Wow” factor; the experience. Where that happens, you will find me spending money on the premium product, no matter the cost.

The other evolution that has forced hospitals to respond is the CMS reportable quality indicators and HCAHPS results. Over the course of the last 7 years, CMS has been monitoring the success from mandating top quartile results from hospitals. The astounding results show that only 3% of hospitals have actually reduced readmissions. Now hospitals are in panic mode trying to get a quick win with patients, especially when it comes to their perception about the hospital experience.

BerylHealth knew the one way we could help answer this emerging chronic pain for our clients was to introduce follow up phone calls to patients. Not just any old call back to patients. We came up with a model that allows hospitals to align either a live non-clinical call to address HCAHPS-like follow up, a live clinical call for those higher risk patients who have conditions that need to avoid readmissions and last, the chronically ill patients who need multiple, ongoing touches.
We also came up with a model that has proven a return on the patient experience by not only showing almost instant improvement, but also using a combination of the types of calls to target patients where it counts; for the patient and for the hospital.

All of these services surprisingly are powered by cloud technology.  You can’t program compassion into the cloud, but you can drive how the delivery of the product by humans can be caring.

In an age of Starbucks, iphones, Travelocity and Pinterest, it’s important to be where our clients’ consumers are. What’s non-negotiable in this space? Compassion.