EY finds health organizations need to minimize costs, focus on wellness for future healthcare success

EY's New horizons: Executive insights on the future of health explains healthcare organizations are being challenged to lower costs and improve outcomes while they invest in and implement strategies that focus on prevention. The global report explores how increased consumer demand for more personalized healthcare and advances in technology are changing healthcare delivery and business models. It points out that:

• Healthcare organizations are examining their processes, procedures and patient interfaces to identify and eliminate waste and inefficiency;
• Many are also exploring how new technologies, such as robotic process automation (RPA) and AI, can help lower costs by systematizing care delivery, business processes and case management, while other emerging technologies, like virtual interfaces and remote monitoring, can improve the patient or consumer experience;
• Preliminary findings from EY on health consumers and physicians in England, Australia and the Netherlands shows:
  • Forty-five percent of consumers and 57% of physicians believe their current healthcare systems perform well;
  • When it comes to using new technologies, physicians see those that enhance patient safety, clinical excellence and facilitate communications with consumers as priorities;
  • Sixty-two percent of physicians see the use of virtual technologies for communication with patients favourably and 68% see the benefit of patients using smartphones to capture and send biometric data; and
  • Consumers are willing to share with physicians their biometric data (75%) and patient-generated data (70%).  

In addition to investing in systems that improve the consumer experience, EY says organizations must improve their capabilities in sharing data, and explore new sources of data to better understand the drivers of health and disease.