The Doctor-Patient Relationship: Satisfaction and Communication Preferences by Generation

Feb 22, 2018 at 05:48 pm by Staff


Brands and marketers alike have many things to consider in today's ever-changing healthcare landscape. Are patients happy with their relationships with their healthcare providers? How likely are they to switch doctors? What could be improved with the doctor-patient experience? How do people want to be communicated with by their providers' offices?

To find out, Solutionreach recently conducted an in-depth study involving interviews with 2,100 consumers in the United States. All respondents have health insurance, make health decisions for themselves or their families, and have visited a doctor in the past year.

Overall, consumers cite three key things that could improve the doctor-patient relationship: greater connectivity, better convenience via text and online tools, and more time with the doctor.

While these improvements would be welcomed by all respondents, the researchers found major differences in how important each is with Millennials (age 21-34), Gen Xers (35-51), and Baby Boomers (52-70).

Moreover, each age group showed distinct preferences across a host of other healthcare provider-related areas, including satisfaction with service, preferred channels for interaction, and likelihood to switch providers.

To help healthcare marketers better target their messaging, here are some of the key findings from the research for each age group:

Millennials

Among the three generations, Millennials are the least satisfied with their doctors and and are most likely to switch practices. Not surprisingly, the researchers found that they are also the generation that is most likely to want to receive email and text communication from offices.

Generation X

Many Generation Xers control healthcare decisions across multiple generations, and their preferences and satisfaction levels both fall somewhere between younger and older consumers. Overall, the researchers found that they are fairly similar to Millennials, with an openness to digital communication and to switching providers.

Baby Boomers

Baby Boomers, the biggest consumers of healthcare services, are the least likely to switch doctors. However that doesn't necessarily mean they're happy: less than half are satisfied with their current providers. Boomers are also the generation least interested in receiving communications from doctors' offices digitally.

What should healthcare providers and marketers make of all this?

The first big takeaway from the report is that there's a lot of room for improvement.

Fewer than half of patients across all generations are satisfied with their current doctors, and the share of dissatisfied consumers is especially high with Millennials and Gen Xers.

Moreover, unhappiness is paired with an openness to switching providers--again, especially with younger patients.

This combination of dissatisfaction and willingness to change should give every healthcare provider pause; it should not be taken for granted by any means that patients will stay with your practice simply out of loyalty.

So, what can you do to improve the relationship? Beyond the eternal request--that doctors spend more time with their patients--the research shows that consumers want better doctor-office staff communication and that they want interactions/management/scheduling to be more convenient.

What's important to understand from the report is that convenience can come in different forms for different generations. For older consumers it may mean a friendly staff member calling by phone to personally deliver reminders. For younger consumers, it may mean supplementing phone calls with email and text alerts.

What emerges from the research is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to patient communications or healthcare marketing that will satisfy every patient. Each age group, and each individual, has a unique set of preferences. Ultimately, the key to improving the doctor-patient relationship isn't shifting to one particular communication or marketing approach, but rather embracing a wide mix so that the full spectrum of consumers is served well.

MDG Advertising, a full-service advertising agency with offices in Boca Raton and New York, NY, is one of Florida's top healthcare marketing companies and branding firms, whose healthcare clients include Dental Care Alliance, MDVIP, Max Planck Florida Institute, HCA East Florida, Primary Pharmaceuticals, and FastMed Urgent Care. MDG's core capabilities include branding, logo design, print advertising, digital marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, media planning and buying, radio and TV advertising, outdoor, newspaper, video marketing, infographic development, website design and development, content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. To learn more about the latest trends in healthcare marketing, visit mdgadvertising.com.

Sections: Business/Technology