The nation’s hospitals, which have consistently lagged behind other industries in terms of management technology and service, will soon face a new demand for MIS innovation just as they are implementing new platforms, systems, and programs to deal with electronic health records and the concept of meaningful use.
It is called Customer 2.0.
It seems like only yesterday that some hospitals ventured timidly into the 20th century with call centers to assist clients navigate their way through a myriad of questions concerning unpaid balances, paying bills, scheduling and registration. Now we learn that other industries are looking at innovative ways to meet consumer demands that want them to incorporate new media into the customer service mix.
This will not be a change that occurs overnight. Thank goodness, since healthcare management information systems, which are today better than ever, are still far behind retail and manufacturing. But this is a change that will come, and once the critical mass trigger is hit in other industries, it will sweep into healthcare.
Here is a post from Christopher Elliott writing in BNET, the excellent interactive business site from CBS:
“Brett Shockley, a senior vice president at Avaya, told a recent technology conference that businesses are just coming to terms with a new kind of consumer – he called it Customer 2.0 – and defined it like this:
They’re born with a keyboard. They’re born with an attitude.
Now that they’re graduating from college, they’ve got a disposable income and there’s about 80 million of them.
We’ve got to pay attention to all the different ways that they want to communicate. We’ve got totake all of this into consideration in our companies.”
If you are not a regular reader of BNET, I want to encourage to check in on this site from time to time. They have some excellent articles.
Now add to the mix that we will have less money for the whistles and bells – aka new technology – and the fact that we are change resistant, voila, you have yet another interesting confluence of competing interests that will make the CEO’s job – already one of the most difficult on earth – even more challenging.
Have a great weekend. I am staying indoors, if at all possible. It is forecast to be 100+ again in Dallas.
© 2011 John Gregory Self