Connecting with patients has always been a major concern for those in the healthcare industry. Yet, many patients today report that they do not feel heard by their doctors. What’s worse—research suggests that they’re right: their doctors may not be listening as well as they used to be. While patient visits are slightly longer—appointment times averaged 20 minutes in 2015, up from 15 minutes in 1995—much of the time that Health Care Providers (HCPs) spend is often focused not on the person in the room, but on their electronic medical record. (1)
Despite the growing number of ways in which HCPs can communicate with patients, current approaches have created an environment where it can be harder to forge a connection with patients than it was in the past. Still, there is evidence that by taking a concerted approach which foregrounds the importance of communication and empathy, HCPs may connect with their patients and help them to achieve better health. (1)
As will be explored below, one part of the approach is marketing; the other is what HCPs do in the room with their patients. (1)
Connections through marketing
How can those in the healthcare industry form connections with patients? One way is through health care advertisements.
There are important differences between marketing for healthcare and for other sectors. For instance, sales may not be the right metric by which to measure success. Instead, a healthier public is often the goal, though financial considerations may also play a role. (2)
According to a summary offered by one researcher, advertising for HCPs can:
- Improve their competitive advantage
- Increase their visibility
- Help to create a better connection with the patient
- Help them to understand patient needs and expectations
- Understand patient perceptions of their experience within a given organization (through their feedback)
- Help build a more effective “brand” in the healthcare market (2)
Unsurprisingly, this means that marketing for the healthcare industry is a big business, with an estimated $4 billion spent in 2020. A particularly major emphasis is placed on digital marketing. For example, in 2018, 44% of the money spent on healthcare marketing was directed towards digital and mobile ads. (2)
Social media, paid or otherwise, also plays an important role in connecting HCPs with their patients. These channels can be enormously useful for forming connections with patients, both before and after care. Social media can leverage the medical expertise of HCPs to build trust. It can also help patients to feel like they know a provider before they visit them, which allows them to be more forthcoming with their problems. (3)
At the same time, social media can be a source for mis- or disinformation that undermines trust in HCPs. It can also pose problems around patient privacy. This means that it needs to be approached with care and attention, to make sure that it isn’t doing more harm than good. (3)
Connections formed in the room
For HCPs, an important part of connecting with patients happens in the consulting room. Empathy has a big role to play, and there are specific ways in which a HCP can display it over the course of a short visit.
One popular checklist from 2008 proposed that, when meeting with patients in hospitals, doctors should:
- Ask permission to enter the patient’s room
- Make an introduction
- Shake hands with the patient
- Sit down in the room
- Explain their role on the treatment team
- Ask how the patient feels about their hospitalization (4)
In a review five years later, it did not seem as though the list had “caught on.” In one third of the thousand interactions reviewed, the doctor did none of these things. This might help to explain why, in another study, a quarter of patients in the hospital could not name their doctors. (4)
Forming a connection isn’t just about making patients feel better about their interactions with their doctors. When a patient feels that they’ve been listened to, they are more likely to follow the treatment plan given to them by their doctor. Taking this part of the job seriously means that HCPs can have a bigger impact, and help to provide their patients with better outcomes. (2)(4)
Final thoughts
As those in the healthcare industry have had to adapt to the unique challenges of the pandemic, focusing on forming connections with patients is as important as ever—if not more so.
Those new challenges have added to, but not changed, the underlying problem: there are more ways than ever to communicate with patients, but the answer as to how to do so most effectively remains elusive. It has, however, been shown that by balancing marketing and in-person approaches, those in the healthcare industry can achieve a measure of success worth pursuing: better patient outcomes.
