Article
Put Your Customers in Focus With Patient Experience Mapping
By Lindsey Elliott|Aug 13, 2022
Public health emergencies, staffing shortages, and disruptions to the global supply chain are just a few of the barriers the healthcare industry has encountered over the past several years. This environment has proven to be a challenge when delivering the high level of services that patients and customers have come to expect.
So what can healthcare organizations do to maintain resilience while ensuring their products make it to those who need them most? They must focus on their customer — the patient — and dedicate themselves to a patient-centric model. Experience mapping (sometimes referred to as journey mapping) allows organizations to build a competitive advantage by tapping into and thoroughly understanding their customers’ needs.
The techniques used in patient journey mapping can help companies identify opportunities to build trust and improve customer support while also enabling them to adapt to changing social, competitive, and geopolitical conditions. As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, it’s critical that organizations recognize patient experience mapping as more than just a tool to drive meaningful change — but a continuous practice required to remain competitive.
What is Patient Experience Mapping & Why Is It Important?
Research found that between 2010 and 2019, an average of 38 new drugs were approved each year — a 60 percent increase compared to the previous decade. With that number continuing to rise amidst increasingly volatile market conditions, organizations must understand where they fit into a patient’s journey if they want to improve productivity without sacrificing the value offered to patients. When deployed correctly, a patient journey map can organize and communicate information about how the company’s actions and customer interactions contribute to the success (or failure) of a patient’s treatment plan.
What Patient Experience Mapping Does
Experience mapping explores what a person is thinking, feeling, and questioning during a defined period of time (for example, during a course of treatment). The results found during experience mapping make it easier to define a customer’s pain points, uncover growth opportunities, and re-align processes with desired business outcomes to benefit both the company and the patient.
Patient experience maps analyze the different stages of care and sort patient events into distinct categories. Below are a few examples of these categories:
- Emotional — A patient who experiences needle anxiety may fail to adhere to the treatment schedule.
- Medical — A patient’s pre-existing condition interacts with the treatment unexpectedly.
- Practical — A patient who has difficulty getting to and from treatment centers due to a lack of transportation may opt to forgo treatment.
A clear picture of the patient’s experience makes it easier to design support services and resolve problems before they become significant issues or impact adherence. Furthermore, we can optimize patient programs more effectively by considering the patient’s well-being, loved ones, and journey during treatment. Patient experience mapping adds much-needed empathy to process optimization and can reaffirm a company as a leader in the mode of treatment and the service it offers.
Why Patient Experience Mapping Matters
Patient experience mapping is a crucial, proactive measure that can reveal ways to address process gaps or opportunities before beginning a new project or program. Whether the product is a surgical device that’s long been on the market or a prescription drug in its trial stage, patient support systems and change initiatives will benefit from a better understanding of the end-to-end patient experience.
Customer Service with Heightened EQ
Organizations looking to strengthen their patient-centric focus will explore implementing new care delivery models but may not recognize one of the most vital factors in customer care: emotional intelligence (EQ). Improving organizational EQ can help bridge the gap between distressed customers and a customer service team — and patient experience mapping can fast-track the emotional understanding teams need to de-escalate tensions with compassion.
Imagine a pharma company is rolling out a new drug and is preparing its customer service team to provide support for the product. By mapping out a patient experience prior to launch, a company can prepare its team to manage rightfully concerned customers with the sensitivity the situation necessitates.
Maintaining Adherence and Improving Outcomes
In the healthcare industry, ensuring patients can maintain their quality of life should be the first priority.
By concentrating on improving adherence rates and treatment outcomes, not only do patients benefit, but companies do as well. Patients following through with prescribed treatments drive refill rates and improved clinical outcomes, leading to stronger revenue and overall improvement in patient health. A patient experience map can serve as a great first step in identifying any barriers to adherence.
Patient journey maps may even help a company identify ways to support patients post-treatment, leading to product and service innovations that can bolster testimonials and garner trust from patients who may be considering other treatment methods.
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Written by Kellie Duci and Alex VanderEls
