Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/96304
When Is a Patient A CONSUMER? The model of patient-asconsumer that took off during the past decade relies on unconstrained, rational, informed decision-making. But how often do people make health decisions freely or rationally? What They're Saying It's a mistake to treat healthcare patients like other consumers. GIANNA ERICSON Senior strategist, service design, Continuum Understanding generational differences is the key to guiding patients. CAM MARSTON President, Generational Insights You must help people build a mental model of how data relates to the condition they're dealing with and translate the data for them. AUGUSTA MEILL Vice president, Continuum Social media has grasped the way we think. People are accustomed to asking for advice in their circle of trust. ERIC MUELLER Services president, WPC As pay for performance looms larger in the public and private payer markets, practices need to know patients will make the right choices to keep themselves healthy. To put it bluntly, doctors will increasingly be paid to manage patients' behavior. As of now, understanding patients' choices looks more like an art than a science. Competing models derived from healthcare, insurance and marketing purport to tell payers and providers how best to understand and direct patients' thought processes. Patients Are Consumers, and Consumers Want to be Informed. When people open their hospital bills, they no doubt feel like consumers, and industry thought leaders have urged providers to view patients more in this fashion. The proceedings of a 2006 Purdue University healthcare summit urged healthcare delivery systems to think of patients as next-generation consumers who are: Increasingly knowledgeable about managing their healthcare Better informed at point of care about benefits, risks, costs and alternatives for treatment Technologically savvy Engaged in the decision-making process The informed, cool-headed consumer with her down-to-the-milligram accuracy in weighing decisions represents the ideal healthcare user. But research studies and economic reality paint a picture of a patient who is beset within and without by other, less-reasonable influencers: high deductibles or lack of insurance may steer him away from the doctor. Parents, children and Facebook friends may weigh in on health decisions. Workload or confusion or inner MDNEWS.COM I MD NEWS Twin Cities | 33