Health Care Consumers- An Enigma For Health Care

Last week I sat in on one of the webinars hosted by the Institute for Health Improvement (http://www.ihi.org/). The topic was "bending the Cost Curve" and was intended to continue the never-ending discussion of how to address the health care cost crisis in this country (if you get a chance, sit in one one of these- some of the topics are pretty decent). There were over 600 health care professionals listening in to this one.

We heard all the usual numbers. We heard the usual descriptors; crisis, unsustainable, breaking-point. We listened as one of the speakers discussed the methods used to contain hospital costs in Maryland with propspective payment and bundling approaches. Then, there was one slide that seemed to create a stir with most of the audience (I've posted it here).

When discussing how to get consumers involved- the group was at a loss. When discussing the creation of "discernable health care consumers," changing consumer behaviors, and changing the expectations of individuals, the group honestly did not know what to do. Most in the audience are used to controlling, incentivizing, and directing. When realizing they may need to begin a real dialogue with the general population, this audience simply didn't know how to go about it.

Health care needs to change its image. It needs to realize that consumers are not simply a herd of cattle that needs to be driven in the right direction. With the right relationships and context, consumers (for the most part), know what they need to do. They just need some trust and guidance sometimes. Health care needs to realize that the individual consumer is not simply a component that needs a clinical fix that can be directed by free gifts an money- but an important part of the solution that needs to be part of the dialogue, discussion, and relationship.

If we're ever going to fix the problem we have, health care is going to need to communicate better with the general population. It is going to need to break down the clinical and technical communication approaches it has relied on in the past and begin a dialogue and discussion with the "Joe the Plumbers" of the world. It needs to regain some semblance of trust, relevance, and context for the average individual before they are ever going to get engaged and participate.

Only then will we be able to begin to address the issues with "Bending the Cost Curve." And, hopefully, we won't have 600 health care professionals wondering how to get consumers involved.

We'll have solutions to discuss already making it happen.