📍 Today b we take a look at hospitals must partner with retail disruptors like Amazon and cvs. The A H A says, we'll take a look at that report.

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 My name is bill Russell. I'm a former CIO for a 16 hospital system and create, or this week health, a set of channels dedicated to keeping health it staff current. And engaged. We want to thank our show sponsors. We're investing in developing the next generation of health leaders, short test and artist site two great companies. Check them out at this week. health.com/today.

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All right. Interesting article today from Becker's, hospitals must partner with retail disruptors like Amazon and cvs. And the big headline here is that it came from a study that was done by the American Hospital Association. So this was a February 9th report and they're saying essentially healthcare disruptors like Amazon, CVS hospitals must, we have to partner with them as hospital.

The AHA recommended that healthcare providers consider these questions and they have four question. number one, do we have an omnichannel presence that provides the convenience, access, transparency, pricing, and other information and services that patients want? , and I'm gonna come back to each one of these questions.

I'm just gonna give you the four questions. Number two, are there partnership opportunities with any of the big five companies, Amazon, cvs, Walgreens, Walmart, and a whole bunch of the United groups, right? So United Health Group, Optum, UnitedHealthcare, subsidiaries, they're all one. So they consider them those that are transforming primary care.

So are there partnership opportunities with any of the big five companies transforming primary care? Number three, how can we leverage our strength in established trust and rapport with existing patients to use our outpatient clinic and virtual services for routine and non-emergent care? That's number three.

Number four, how can we partner with big tech firms such as Apple, Google, parent Company, alphabet, and well, wow, interesting. No, Microsoft. Anyway, around research, data sharing, et cetera, to improve. Not only, no Microsoft, no Epic, no. I mean there's like a dozen companies just rolling off in my head right now that aren't mentioned there.

Regardless, American Hospital Association likely needs to hire somebody. Who really understands the big tech space and uh, provide them some guidance there. They could probably do that on a consulting basis if I thought about it. But regardless, let's go back through these four questions. This is a big deal because it comes from the American Hospital Association.

And they're saying, Hey, just give up the ghosts. Just partner with them. . Right. All right. So that's, that's interesting in and of itself, that that's the coaching of the aha. Why are they saying that? Well, it's embedded in question number one. Do we have an omnichannel presence that provides the convenience, access, transparency, pricing, and other information and services that patients want?

Okay, so we, I, I can really sum this up in one thing. Have we looked at our health system through the lens of the. And going one step further because the patients are those who have already chosen us. Have we looked at it through the eyes of a consumer, and I will make the distinction. The consumer is somebody who's choosing somebody else right now.

A consumer of healthcare is somebody who's choosing somebody else, whereas a patient is somebody who's in our system and has chosen us at least once they've chosen us and they've experienced our healthcare. All right, so I'm saying for the entire market, for the entire community that you serve, not only the people who have come in your front door, but those who haven't.

Are you convenient? Do you provide access? Do you provide the information like transparent pricing that they're looking for? Have you thought about what services and when they want those services and how they want those services delivered? Have you thought about that? Are we truly consumer centric in our approach to our health system?

So that's number one. And if we're not, they're saying, Hey, because we're not, you should seed this over to these other players because they. , and I'm not sure we should seed it. I think we could build this out. I think this is the challenge and I think a bunch of health systems are going down this path.

How do we build this out? How do we become more cons? The look the, we've known this competition is coming for seven years. 10 years, right? And now we're seeding it over the next seven years. So for 17. , we have had the warning that we need to be consumer centric and we've ignored it or moved too slow. Well, now it's only seven years away and you're either gonna partner with these players and seat it over to them, or you're gonna build it out.

Convenience, access, transparent pricing and other information. Looking at your health system through the consumer lens that, you know, the second question here, are you gonna partner with them? I don't. It may make sense to partner with them if it gets you pretty far down the road. If it's something that you just look at it and say, we're not gonna be able to develop these capabilities, some health, health systems will make that choice.

They will look at it and say, look, we are gonna fall back to the, to the, uh, high acuity care center for our local area or region, and we're gonna be the best high acuity care. In the market period, because they're not coming after that. They're only coming after primary care and the retail pharmacy, uh, retail, uh, uh, healthcare and the, those kinds of things.

So, um, so you might say, look, I'm just gonna fall back. I'm gonna regroup around this area. They're not coming after it. This is the area we're gonna stake out. We're just gonna spend all of our money here, and we'll partner with them and allow them to be the intermediary between us and the market, the consumers and the patient.

because that's what will happen. It won't stop at consumer, by the way. It'll go straight through to patients. The patients will go to Amazon, cvs, Walgreens from Walmart, Optum, and they will go to them and then they will direct their care. So that's the challenge. When you seed that, that point between you and your consumer, you now have another master, and that master will control where that money goes.

And so you've gotta take that into consideration. Number three, how can we leverage our strength in established trust and rapport with existing patients? With our patients clinics and virtual services? I think a lot of health systems are doing this already. We are the trusted partner for healthcare, not necessarily health, but definitely healthcare in our communities.

When you ask somebody you know, where are you gonna go for healthcare? They will rattle off one of the hospitals or some physicians who are affiliated with one of the hospitals. . That's the brand that we've developed over these last a hundred years, right? And we should not seed that easily, and we should utilize that to extend our services.

Now, virtual services and non-emergency care and the other things are talking about is not enough. We need to go beyond that, and that's that consumer lens of looking at the healthcare and the health that you deliver. All right, and I think that's another distinction. Healthcare and health making that move from healthcare to health makes you the trusted partner for more than just the 20% of care that is healthcare.

The 80% that is social determinants and other things, right? We're trying to invest there, but we're not getting any credit. All right. Number four, how can we partner with big tech firms such as Apple, Google, parent Company, alphabet, around research, data sharing, and improved? and we should absolutely be doing this.

There is, there's no reason why we shouldn't be doing this. And my preferred partner amongst the Apple, Microsoft, and Google, um, would probably be Apple. No, actually I, any of these three are fine. And the reason I like these three is cuz they've made no overtures to becoming a. Firm. Right? They're not going after healthcare.

They're not gonna stand up at Apple Care or a Google Care or a Microsoft Care. That's, that's not the, the, the play for them. They're big tech firms. Others have made that play. And I'd be, I'd be. cautious in partnering with them, but these players are pure play tech firms and I think Apple is a great play.

And the reason is cuz they have a great brand and they are really focused on the consumer. They are very connected with the consumer, they understand the consumer maybe better than any other brand out there. And I think there's a partnership where you can address those things in the first question, right?

Convenience, access, transparency, pricing. Through the, the Apple device and the relationship that they have a partnership with Apple makes sense to me for a lot of reasons, and one of the areas I've been touting for a long time, what Apple has done with Apple Pay. You go to any convenience store right now, just go to the convenience store.

They will have Apple Pay there. What they've done with that, we should do with our intake process. There should be an Apple. Insertion into our intake process that Apple collects the questions in the, in the way that only Apple can, that apple, uh, convenience that, you know, you, you go to the hospital and you swipe or whatever it happens to be.

It, it probably wouldn't be, it'd probably be, uh, uh, near, uh, N F T. It would probably be something pretty simple in terms of the transaction between the individual and the health system and make that intake process that much. Um, I think they all offer these kinds of opportunities. Apple, Microsoft, Google.

Uh, I just, I thought it was interesting. Microsoft isn't mentioned. I think it's interesting that, uh, uh, Tru Veta has not mentioned, uh, health Catalyst isn't mentioned. Epic isn't mentioned. There's a whole host of partners that we could partner with around research, data sharing, et cetera, as they say in this story.

So, uh, you know, to sum up, again, we try to talk at the intersection between tech and he. , you have to decide if your health system, not you, but your health system has to decide if they're gonna seed this ground to the, uh, the new players, the non-traditional players that are coming after the primary care market.

And if you're going to seed that, then you can fall back and really focus in on the technology that's gonna make you the premier, the preeminent high acuity care center in your. . If on the other hand you're not going to see this, then your investments in omnichannel presence, that improves convenience, access, transparency, pricing, and the other information.

Really getting that consumer lens it that work needs to accelerate and you're not measuring it against the other healthcare providers in your market. You're measuring yourself against Amazon,  cvs, Walgreens, Walmart, and opt.​ That's all for today If you know someone that might benefit from our channel. You could do us a great favor and shoot them a note. Let them know that you are listening to the show and that they can subscribe wherever they listen to podcasts, apple, Google, overcast, Spotify, Stitcher. You get the picture where everywhere. And if you can't find us there, go head to our website this week, health.com. We want to thank our channel sponsors who are investing in our mission to develop the next generation of health leaders, 📍 short test and artist site.

Check them out at this week. health.com/today. Thanks for listening. That's all for now.