The Retail-ification of Healthcare

Yext's Head of Industry for Healthcare, Carrie Liken, recently attended the AMGA conference, where she joined thousands of medical groups and health systems across the country to discuss vital tools and strategies for succeeding in the industry today. This series features key industry trends and takeaways from AMGA for health systems to put into practice.

Carrie Liken is Yext's first Head of Industry for Healthcare. In her role, Liken leads all healthcare-related activities, including product and partnership development.

Patients are no longer standing idly by waiting for doctors or health systems to tell them what's best when it comes to healthcare. They have taken an active, consumer-driven approach, and are turning to the web to make decisions, searching for things such as the lowest premium, highest deductible health insurance plans, physician ratings, procedure costs, and more.

Patients have been conditioned by the likes of online retailers like Amazon to shop for things they want and need in the moment. When patients have more financial skin in the game, they want to do the same type of shopping for their healthcare. Health systems have also come to realize that they are not prepared to disclose the type of information prospective patients are searching for, or where this information should live online. On top of this, health systems aren't confident in their own facts, especially as it relates to treatment costs.

In today's day and age where everything can be Googled, health systems are having a challenging time conveying their value to prospective patients.

If you're a physician or are part of health system and are having trouble with these issues, here are a few questions to consider:

• Do you know how your patients search for healthcare? What kind of questions are they asking about your health system, or your providers and procedures?
• Are you helping patients understand their healthcare options? Do you provide them cost comparisons, or easy access to physician ratings and reviews?
• Are the ratings and reviews for your providers prominently housed on your doctor profile pages?
• Are your provider locations accurate online and an adequate representation of your health system's brand? If patients search for healthcare 'near me', will they find the right location or will they be sent to the wrong address (or to a competing health system)?

We have many resources to help you get the right information about your health system into the hands of searching patients. Check out our whitepapers, Preventative Care: Maintaining Doctor and Facility Listings Online, and Healthcare's Location Data Crisis: Improving the Mobile Patient's Journey. Learn more about Yext for Healthcare.