SKOKIE, Ill., Aug. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hospitals and health systems across the country have been slow to catch up with rapidly changing consumer demands. Only 8 percent of healthcare organizations are applying successful practices to meet these new expectations, according to a new report being released tomorrow by Kaufman, Hall & Associates, LLC.

The 2017 State of Consumerism in Healthcare report benchmarks how well America's hospitals and health systems understand their consumers and apply effective strategies to meet their needs in areas such as access, pricing, and improving the patient experience. Using a tool called the Healthcare Consumerism Index, the report findings are drawn from analysis of a recent survey encompassing more than 125 organizations.

The analysis shows that consumerism is a high priority for most healthcare organizations, but many have been slow to build capabilities to meet core consumerism objectives:

90 percent of organizations identify improving the consumer experience as a high priority, but only 30 percent have built capabilities to do so.
73 percent identify developing a diverse set of facility-based access points as a high priority, but just 25 percent have the needed capabilities.
58 percent identify offering digital tools and information to enable consumer engagement as high priorities, but just 14 percent have those capabilities.

Other key findings include:

Only 15 percent of organizations are aggressively moving to improve patient access with both diverse sites of care and digital connectivity.
Nearly three-fourths of organizations rate poorly relative to their efforts to use consumer insights for decision making.
Less than 10 percent of organizations are pursuing pricing strategies and price transparency as high priorities.

"The findings should serve as a wake-up call for hospital and health system leaders across the country," said Paul Crnkovich, Managing Director with Kaufman Hall.

"In the age of Amazon and Netflix, consumers expect more from their healthcare providers," Crnkovich said. "For healthcare executives, consumerism should not be just another item to be checked off a list. It should be a core capability, as it is key to long-term growth."

About Kaufman Hall
Kaufman Hall provides management consulting and software to help organizations realize sustained success amid changing market conditions. Since 1985, Kaufman Hall has been a trusted advisor to boards and executive management teams, helping them incorporate proven methods into their strategic planning and financial management processes, and quantify the financial impact of their plans and strategic decisions to consistently achieve their goals.

Kaufman Hall services use a rigorous, disciplined, and structured approach that is based on the principles of corporate finance. The breadth and integration of Kaufman Hall advisory services are unparalleled, encompassing strategy; financial and capital planning; cost transformation; treasury and capital markets management; and mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and joint ventures.

Kaufman Hall software includes the Axiom Healthcare Suite, providing sophisticated, flexible performance management solutions that empower finance professionals to analyze results, model the future, and optimize organizational decision making. Solutions for long-range planning, budgeting and forecasting, performance reporting, capital planning, and cost accounting deliver decision support, reporting, and analytics within an integrated software platform. Kaufman Hall's Peak Software empowers healthcare organizations with clinical benchmarks, data, and analytics to provide a higher quality of care for optimized performance and improved patient outcomes.

SOURCE Kaufman Hall

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