Ready or not… A revolutionary healthcare storm is brewing, driven by technological advances and patient expectations set outside the industry, which is empowering patients to take control of their own healthcare. The internet era is rapidly transforming expectations of service delivery for the patient, their extended family and social networks. And a veracious media appetite and social media provides ample opportunity for wide public scrutiny.

Developments in artificial intelligence, robotics, precision medicine, wearables and virtual care delivery are reshaping the doctor-patient relationship. Advances in gene research and data analytics hold transformative possibilities for cancer treatment that could upend the way medicine traditionally has been practiced.

And at the same time, traditional medicine combined with modern medicine is showing increasing health outcome benefits.

It’s time for a fundamentally new approach…

The future of healthcare puts the patient at the centre of a cultural and medical network that is both present and virtual—it’s a care model that’s fit for tomorrow’s purpose.

Healthcare With Patients At The Centre?

At its core, the current healthcare system is supply- and benefit code-driven and organised around what physicians do and can charge for. It is how governments have ‘managed’ the cost of health budgets and how patient care has increasingly been relegated behind administrative compliance.

Contemporary models of care are required to transform the delivery of health services to a new way of working—maximising value for patients and making patient outcomes the primary focus—e.g., achieve the best outcomes at the optimal (not necessarily lowest) cost. We must move away from the supply-driven healthcare system organised around rebate codes and move to patient-centred systems organised around what is best for the patient.

Our focus must shift from the volume and profitability of services provided—doctors’ visits, hospitalisations, procedures, and tests—to the patient outcomes achieved. We must replace today’s fragmented system, in which every local provider offers a full range of services, with a system in which patients access services that reflect that they are an individual and unique, within their own context.

And we must reflect the need to integrate care across complex medical conditions, concentrated health-delivery organisations and available in the right locations to deliver higher-value care.

This new way can’t be just about making incremental changes to the current processes. Instead, stakeholders must completely reimagine how care is provided within the healthcare system to incorporate technology, mobile health and connectivity between professionals and patients.

The development of these models will not be simple or easy to put into practice and will deliver a decidedly disruptive change for many. It requires bringing together key stakeholders, partners, referrers, employees and patients. It requires developing a new culture and mindset. But it is not unknown territory. Care models based on this approach have been around for years, based on necessity, but have limited adoption more broadly.

The biggest challenge is knowing where to begin…

To this end, Experience 360 has developed the Patient Partnership Indicator – a rapid online assessment to help Australian healthcare executives and patient-experience leaders understand the maturity of their organisations on the spectrum for patient-centred strategy, alignment and engagement.

This unique approach sheds a light on your overall patient-centred maturity level and also provides comprehensive insight into how your organisation is positioned across key business functions, processes and models to compete in the modern, patient-driven digital economy.

By completing the assessment, you will receive a personalised insight report reflecting your current business maturity.

Take the Patient Partnership Indicator – Rapid Assessment today.