By Matt Kuhrt
For all the regulatory and institutional pressure to define and deliver value-based care, the biggest near-term driver of practical changes to care delivery may come from traditional market pressure. The expectations and values held by millennial patients already force providers to adjust, and that trend is likely to continue, according to an article in USA Today.
In general, millennial patients look for interactions with their providers that are easy to set up, efficiently managed and low cost. Those expectations put pressure on some long-standing elements of traditional care, in particular the one-on-one relationship between doctors and patients, the article noted.
Convenience and easy access to care have contributed to a reduction in patient visits to individual primary care physicians and the rise of retail clinics. Millennials prefer retail clinics at approximately twice the rate of baby boomers, according to a PNC Healthcare survey, a trend that John Packham, director of health policy research at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, told USA Today ties to the younger generation's general consumption patterns.
Millennials are also significantly more comfortable with technology than previous generations, which has them craving instant gratification, according to the article. This makes them especially amenable to telehealth services, in which they can interact with their providers without having to be physically present in an office, and without necessarily being bound to regular office hours.
The slow pace of change across the industry provides an opportunity for practices that recognize these trends and cater to them, according to Packham. Recognizing that millennials may prefer less-personal channels of communication also should serve as a reminder to doctors that they may need to do some extra work to educate their patients about the need to balance convenience with the benefits of face-to-face discussion, Bayo Curry-Winchell, M.D., a Saint Mary's Urgent Care administrator in Reno, Nevada, told the newspaper.
To learn more:
- read the article