HFMA VIEWS

Jeni Williams
Senior Editor, HFMA

Healthcare organizations must focus greater attention on making patient care a more memorable experience for their customers if they are to be successful in today’s changing marketplace, author Jim Gilmore told ANI participants Tuesday morning.

Even a procedure such as a colonoscopy provides the opportunity to stage an experience for patients that engages them in an inherently personal way, from registration through admission to the time of discharge.

“Today, more consumers are paying for the experience, not just the good or service itself,” Gilmore told ANI participants. For example, at Fresno Surgical Hospital in Fresno, Calif., which the hospital’s web site describes as “a hospitality-inspired, healing environment unlike anything experienced in a traditional hospital,” the experience is so good, “Patients call on the anniversary of their surgery to see if they can spend the night,” Gilmore says.

Gilmore, co-author of the book The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre and Every Business Is a Stage, addressed the fundamental shift occurring in today’s marketplace to an “experience economy” during his keynote presentation Tuesday, “The Experience Economy: Maximizing the Value of Health Care.”

Gilmore is cofounder of the Aurora, Ohio-based Strategic Horizons LLP, a thinking studio dedicated to helping organizations create new ways of adding value to their economic offerings.

During Tuesday’s presentation, he described the nature of the emerging experience economy, drawing on examples from Starbucks to McDonalds to Heinz ketchup bottles.

Consider the amount of square footage that Starbucks devotes to making its beverages--the space behind the counter--to the amount of space dedicated to enabling the customer to fully enjoy the coffee experience. “It defies any traditional thinking about retail to devote this much square footage not to services, but to experiences,” Gilmore says. But customers are willing to pay for the experience--which is why Starbucks is able to charge $4 for a cup of coffee, he says.

He displayed images of the new labels on bottles of Heinz ketchup, each one tailored with a clever saying: “Instructions: Put on Food,” “Not Green,” and “14 Billion French Fries Can’t Be Wrong.” He remembers the first time his wife bought bottles of Heinz ketchup with the catchy phrases. “When is the last time your wife called you into the kitchen to admire a ketchup purchase?” he asked the crowd. Today, the company invites customers to come up with their own phrases and allows consumers to purchase custom-made ketchup bottles for special events, such as weddings and birthday parties.

The same principles incorporated by these companies can also be applied by healthcare organizations to make patient care a better experience for their customers, Gilmore says. He outlined principles for staging compelling experiences in a memorable and meaningful way.

Principle No. 1: “Ing” the thing. “Focus on the using of the goods and services, because the using is the experience,” he says. Take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. On one side of the line, write down all of the “ing” words you can think of, such as “eating,” “sleeping,” and “imaging.” On the other side, create new “ing” words that could apply to your organization. “Ask yourself: What existing “ing” word is not being thought of as a patient experience? And what new “ing” words could you incorporate in your hospital?” Gilmore says. For example, by looking at the word “ultrasounding,” one company offers expectant parents the opportunity to purchase 4-D ultrasound images of their infant in utero--and parents are willing to pay out of their own pockets for this experience.

Principle No. 2: Theme the experience. Although people tend to equate theming with an amusement park (think Disney World), this is only one genre of theming, Gilmore says. He encourages hospital administrators to create an experience that is built around a theme. “Look at the average hospital waiting room. It’s horrible,” he says.  “I think the dominant operating theme for most hospital waiting rooms is a funeral home.” By “theming” the waiting room according to the needs of patients and their families, healthcare organizations can enhance the experience for their customers. He told of one dentist who has created a jungle theme in his waiting room, to the delight of his youngest patients. “This modest investment in the themed environment has a direct financial effect on his practice,” Gilmore says.

Principle No. 3: Work is theater. The environment is just the stage. When the founder of “Geek Squad,” a popular computer repair service, was creating his business, he looked at the traditional examples of service in this mundane industry and decided to break the mold. Instead of repairmen dressed in polo shirts--the stereotypical IT uniform--his service repairmen are dressed as “special agents,” with white, short-sleeve shirts and black ties. Instead of minivans, they drive Volkswagens with the words “Geek Squad” emblazoned on the side. When a Geek Squad professional is called to an assignment, he arrives by saying, “Special Agent 273 here for your computer. Step aside, Ma’am.”

“The founder of Geek Squad understands that work is theater. He is staging computer repair services,” Gilmore says. “He understands that the uniform is the costume, and he hires repairmen who are willing to “act” the part.” Today, there are more than 13,000 Geek Squad special agents, and the company is now part of Best Buy.

For hospital employees, theater might involve assessing a patient’s emotional and spiritual needs and responding to those needs. “I encourage you to encourage your employees to act,” he told ANI participants.

Principle No. 4: Help your patients experience less sacrifice when they come to your facility for care. Customer sacrifice is the difference between what a customer settles for and what he would really like. “Ask yourself, ‘What one dimension of sacrifice, if eliminated, would create the greatest value for our patients and most reduce our costs?’” Gilmore says.

Principle No. 5: Turn the experience into a transformation. Think about how you can stage a more memorable experience for patients on a disease state-by-disease state basis, he says. “We ought to be spending more money on experiences in health care,” Gilmore says. Doing so will ultimately drive down the costs of health care, he says.