As we kick off the HIMSS 2021 conference in Las Vegas, this tweet highlighted a fundamental principle that many in healthcare don’t understand or at least don’t pay enough attention to. Jan Oldenburg shared it in this tweet:
When I interview patients it becomes clear that they really WANT both convenience and relationships with their doctors but if they are forced to choose, they choose convenience because it fits into their messy lives #HIMSS21 https://t.co/WhHoeIL1jD
— Jan Oldenburg (@janoldenburg) August 10, 2021
Oldenburg is exactly right. Patients want both convenience AND relationships. It’s not an either or thing. Patients want both. However, the reality for many patients is that they’re forced to choose. And when they’re forced to choose, they most often choose convenience.
In fact, I’d take this a step further and highlight Oldenburg’s comments about messy lives. Relationships with a doctor are messy. It’s hard to really know whether that relationship improves care. It’s hard to know if that doctor with whom you have a relationship is going to provide better care than another doctor. Our medical education puts an MD after all doctors regardless of quality. Very few patients really know how to judge the quality of their doctor or the quality of their relationship with their doctor. It’s quite ambiguous.
What’s not ambiguous? Convenience isn’t ambiguous. We’re quite good at evaluating how convenient care is. We know how long we’re waiting in the waiting room or the exam room. We know how difficult the check-in process is. We can evaluate how kind the front desk staff is to me.
When it comes to the question of relationships or convenience, relationships are a messy evaluation. Convenience is much easier to evaluate. When you put messy relationships up against convenience, it’s not hard to see why convenience wins every time.
We all want the best quality of care possible. However, when that’s uncertain, don’t bet against the value of convenience.
