Opinion: Using simplicity to transform healthcare

As we enter 2023 with a "tripledemic" of RSV, COVID-19 and influenza—on top of continued margin pressures, a recessionary climate, high inflation and labor shortages—the healthcare industry is facing a tough environment. Too often, our systems respond to challenges by reactively iterating rather than proactively reimagining. The most effective processes are often the most elegant: They achieve mission and margin objectives while giving users the simplest possible experience.

Many successful businesses have moved complexity into the background, hidden from the consumer. They apply user-centric designs and solutions to solve operational challenges and effectively engage consumers. For example, interactions with companies such as online retailers and ride-sharing organizations are easy, a feat that takes great effort and reliable structures in the background to accomplish. 

The use of "elegant simplicity" is a strategic business approach that should be applied to healthcare to accelerate transformation. 

As healthcare leaders, we can identify the key problems that our organizations face, and we must drive expanded access and care through innovation. The less streamlined and integrated our systems, the more “touches” our data requires, increasing the risk of medical error while driving up costs and disrupting the user experience.

Healthcare systems are long overdue for a revamped, consumer-focused experience. Despite being essential, healthcare delivery continues to be a confusing experience for many, often filled with cumbersome and repetitive bureaucratic processes for patients and healthcare practitioners. 

Given the tremendous regulatory burden, new therapeutic options, proof of compliance mandates and payer requirement schemes, the challenges of providing standout, patient-centered care are daunting. We must effectively manage these operations invisibly—as the Google search bar does with its one box. Of course, streamlining processes takes significant time and resources, and healthcare operates on slim margins. However, it’s essential to find ways to increase efficiencies. 

Successful change management starts with analyzing the current state of a system and then creating a road map to the desired future state. This approach is structured similarly among industries. It starts with disciplined mapping of each step in the journey, testing potential improvements, and then measuring results. 

The process repeats in response to changing consumer needs, organization capacities and environments. In healthcare, this includes advancing operational elements in the care journey, ensuring quality and safety and improving  satisfaction while being mindful of the need to protect patient information. 

In mapping patient care, we typically begin with access—the first call or click. Few would describe this process as simple from the patient perspective in most health systems; it must move from complex to seamless. For example, Miami Cancer Institute is among the many healthcare institutions implementing digital self-registration platforms. Previously, patients physically visited multiple locations to register and check in. After applying advanced back-end technology, patients can now easily register at home before seeing a caregiver.

At Miami Cancer Institute, this led to a self-service intake rate of 82% during the first week of implementation and a 98% satisfaction rate with the process in three months. Our patients are clearly ready for change.

Identifying and removing barriers to entry for patients and healthcare practitioners takes disciplined planning and collaboration. 

As organizations look to streamline the patient experience, healthcare industry leaders must clearly communicate goals and collaborative methods. This means removing parallel structures (“verticals”) in favor of a team-based approach.

By using simplicity on the front end, while deploying complexity on the back end, we refine our processes and reduce the burden on patients and practitioners to deliver better healthcare experiences. Like Amazon bridged the gap between consumers and their shopping experiences, health systems can bridge the gap between patients and the quality healthcare they need and deserve. 

As in mathematics, the most powerful way to solve a problem is often the most elegant one. There is beauty in simplicity, in things working with little to no friction for the user. Why should we not expect the same in healthcare? 

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