Four ways the healthcare industry is transforming digital experiences

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, healthcare organizations are finding ways to effectively adapt and build new digital capabilities. For many, this has proven to be a challenging sprint against the pace and scale of the pandemic.

The magnitude of the challenge is intensified by the relative digital and user experience maturity of healthcare companies. A 2019 survey identified that 59% of healthcare organizations still lacked a well-defined digital strategy.

This is why it’s crucial for healthcare companies to understand the current trends and best practices within the health industry in order to tackle the challenge of adapting to new digital priorities.

In our brand new ebook, How COVID-19 is changing the digital healthcare landscape, UserZoom’s team of digital healthcare solutions experts provide a detailed look into how healthcare organizations are using UX research to rapidly adapt—and continue to hit business goals—during this crisis-driven economy.

You can download the complete ebook below…

In the meantime, we’ve picked out four examples from the ebook to highlight how the healthcare industry is transforming its digital experiences during COVID-19 and beyond.

Site performance improvements to manage the influx of traffic

As healthcare providers experience double the site traffic, web IT teams are having to re-assess how the marketing technology stack is deployed on health system websites.

Trackers, cookies, web analytics, and other tools can slow down site performance during heavy traffic. To combat this, providers might seek short-term fixes to temporarily disable this marketing technology. Tag management systems can help simplify the process of managing multiple technologies and snippets of code.

Amid short-term fixes to handle load and traffic influx, healthcare systems need to plan for their future and create a forward-looking digital strategy to address all areas of care.

However, as healthcare organizations are addressing website and infrastructure improvements, few are conducting iterative usability testing to keep pace with traffic demand. The ability to respond to new and evolving changes is critical to ensure consumers’ questions and needs are being met.

Companies that regularly benchmark website key performance indicators (KPIs) against versions of their sites have a competitive advantage in digital strategy, brand perception, and overall consumer experience.

So while high traffic and adoption might mean certain insights and optimization tools are re-evaluated for the immediate future, it will be even more important to embed remote user feedback as a long-term practice through an efficient and scalable means.

Establishing metrics for new digital workflows

Those looking to emerge from the current crisis as digital leaders should ensure they are well-positioned to deliver innovative ‘retail’ healthcare solutions to millions of consumers.

Healthcare organizations will need a clear digital consumer strategy that will discover new ways to track behavior and provide a holistic look at the digital patient journey.

Prior to the pandemic, a healthcare system might be used to monitor common search queries related to provider searches, appointment scheduling, and whether certain kinds of insurance is accepted.

In this new world where coronavirus has taken center stage, leading healthcare organizations are adjusting their tactics around analytics and website traffic conversion. By using an adaptable usability solution to explore those red flags, healthcare organizations can pivot and adapt to consumers’ new digital journeys.

Workforce pulse and health & wellbeing surveys

As the fight against coronavirus ramps up, healthcare organizations are facing a shortage of essential personnel. They need to find quick ways to assess their workforce to reallocate staff into critical care units.

In addition to addressing staffing needs, organizations are actively engaging providers regarding their needs, concerns, morale, and overall wellbeing. This is a critical measure in ensuring a productive and supportive working environment.

Organizations can use the power of research to effectively monitor, report and address ongoing staffing concerns within their own organizations. ‘Workforce pulse surveys’ are a short (often containing just one question) frequently repeated survey that can help measure your employee’s current wellbeing without taking up their valuable time.

Using chatbots and virtual assistants

Chatbots or virtual assistants are another solution that healthcare organizations are deploying to disseminate information and triage recommendations regarding COVID-19.

Many of these solutions are deployed to answer common questions on the homepage, and use artificial intelligence to respond with support to common phrases and questions. In the US, consumer interest in using chatbots and virtual assistants is rising, leaving support agents to handle more complex consumer inquiries.

In order to ensure these assistants provide the right information, they must be ‘trained’ to accept a wide variety of user input words, phrases, sentences, misspellings, languages, and utterances that patients might type into the chat.

This is why many are conducting large-scale usability testing that can be done with diverse audiences from all over the world to ensure the chatbot returns the right information, and that the patient can get the right help as quickly as possible.