Read time: 5 min
By: Prateek Bhatia
There was a time when film enthusiasts had but a single option: the cinema – or, to a more modern audience, the theater. A handful of movie houses kept 100% of customers – until those customers had a choice – making them effectively, for the first time, shoppers. First came the option of waiting until a film made its way onto television, allowing those who were more frugal, patient, or averse to public gatherings the opportunity to avoid the traditional theater-going experience. Then, this same group had the choice to borrow a film from their local video rental franchise – like arguably just about anyone who lived through the nineties and oughts did on the regular – siphoning away even more former theater patrons (who were only as such for lack of option, not by choice). In fact, just one rental chain all but dominated the art of movie consumption for some time. As things have a way of doing, eventually, that all changed with a new arrival on the block.
Netflix redefined the movie-viewing market once again by offering would-be moviegoers or renters yet another option in their convenient mail-order rental service. Theaters, for their part, had already begun ramping up efforts to attract people back to the pictures. Premium lines of well-known cinemas started popping up, offering recliner seating, full bars, and elevated menu options – luxuries that continue winning customers’ business even today. Our familiar rental chain? Less adaptable. Less agile. Less aware, perhaps, of the power of consumer choice. And then, the big blue-and-yellow bust.
I’ve seen this movie before…
Some might argue that the same storyline is playing out in healthcare – more specifically, when it comes to infusion services. Hospitals and health systems were once the only choice patients had for receiving an infusion. Now, their options are virtually endless, and patient-shoppers make site-of-care decisions like they would with almost any other purchase or service – by weighing up convenience, proximity, personal preference, and overall experience. In response, privately owned ambulatory infusion centers (AICs), which are increasing in number every year, continue to upgrade their offerings – from free parking to posh waiting rooms to gourmet snacks and entertainment-on-demand. The availability of new options and alternatives, combined with the not-to-be-ignored or -discounted shift in payer reimbursements, has resulted in a decline in the number of patients choosing hospitals and health systems for their infusion care. Sound familiar?
No – hospitals aren’t cinemas, and patients aren’t coming for the popcorn – but there’s something to be said for thinking like the theaters did when new models of business were driving revenue elsewhere: 1) Recognize that customers now have the option to “shop around.” 2) Determine what factors are driving their decision-making process. 3) Replicate those to recapture revenue.
In the spotlight
As they should be, the patient is the star of the show in this story, and the patient experience has to live up to the leading role. “The patient experience is unequivocally a primary factor in losing infusion patients – if not the primary factor – but it also presents one of the most compelling opportunities for health systems to recapture those patients,” explains Prateek Bhatia, PhD, MBA, VP/GM, Intrafusion by McKesson, “and we are here to help our customers realize those opportunities to their fullest potential with comprehensive solutions that put patients, their preferences, and their quality of care at the center of the conversation.”
Rewriting the script
Even with a premium patient experience and a prime location offered by health systems who modernize their approach to infusion care, AICs will continue to attract patients, but “[This] out-migration doesn’t have to be a complete exodus,” Bhatia reminds. “Developing a strategy centered around patient experience that keeps 30, 40, 50 percent of infusion patients within the health system who may otherwise have gone elsewhere can have significantly positive implications both for revenue and clinical outcomes. That’s better than digging your heels in – or worse, doing nothing – and ending up at 0.”
Bhatia is right. Consider, once again, the once-untouchable video rental chain, who infamously turned down the opportunity to purchase Netflix for a microfraction of the value it would ultimately hold. At the time, it’s reported that the rental chain’s CEO “failed to recognize the opportunity” and thought the shift in business models from home video rental to dot-com streaming was ‘overblown hysteria.’* Fast-forward not too many years later, and this missed opportunity is something now referred to by many as the ‘$150 billion mistake’. When asked his own thoughts on the chain of events, Netflix co-founder and CEO Marc Randolph has been quoted as saying, “If you are unwilling to disrupt yourself, there will always be someone willing to disrupt your business for you.”*
“Billions of dollars in infusion revenue is walking out of health systems for a better experience,” Bhatia cautions, though not without a note of encouragement, “but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story.” Sounding something like Netflix’s Randolph, he leaves us with a call to action: “Give patients a reason to choose you, or someone else will.”
A supporting role
Bhatia goes on to acknowledge the challenges health systems can face in enhancing their infusion strategy to compete with AICs. “We know it’s not an easy task, but with the right partners, health systems can overcome the barriers and complexity to build something that ticks all the boxes: patient experience, improved care and outcomes, profitability, the list goes on…”
To learn more about partnering with McKesson to achieve more, download our Insider’s First Look at Specialty + Infusion for Health Systems below.
*The use of this quote is not intended to imply endorsement of the statements made by the CEO or the views expressed by Netflix. The opinions and statements are solely those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of McKesson. All content is provided for informational purposes only.
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