Consumers Tell the Health System What They Think of Its COVID-19 Response

You know what I think about health system’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., and you know what our 4sight Health contributors think about it. But what do consumers think about it, which really is the only opinion that matters, if you’re an advocate of a customer revolution in healthcare.

The answer, in a word (really two words) is not much. Yet, it’s still better than how the government is managing it under President Trump, according to the respondents.

Those are the big takeaways from a survey of a representative sample of 2,004 adults conducted by NRC Health, the Lincoln, Neb.-based patient satisfaction measurement and healthcare research firm formerly known as National Research Corp. NRC surveyed the adults April 3-6 and released the results on April 9.

You can download a copy of the 12-page NRC report with the survey results here.

Here’s what your customers think of the job you’re doing:

• 71 percent said they are “very concerned” or “extremely concerned” that their local hospital has the capacity to handle COVID-19 cases
• 69 percent said the healthcare system as a whole is not prepared to handle the COVID-19 outbreak
• 54 percent said they are “concerned” or “extremely concerned” about getting the medical care or the prescription medications they need during the pandemic
• 53 percent said they or someone in their household has delayed other medical care because of the coronavirus outbreak
• 49 percent said they are “very concerned” or “extremely concerned” about the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment

That’s not exactly the report card that you want to bring home to your parents. Or, today, have your parents see online after they log into your student account.

But hey, at least you’re not the government. Only 13.5 percent of the respondents said they trust the federal government to handle the coronavirus outbreak. By comparison, 72.3 percent said they trust their local hospitals and health systems and national healthcare leaders to manage the crisis.

In short, your patients—your customers—trust you to get them out of this public health crisis and trust you certainly more than the federal government to do it. Now it’s time to earn that trust.

To learn more about how the health system is responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, please read the following blog posts and commentaries on 4sighthealth.com:

• “Differential Susceptibility of Individuals and Communities to COVID-19”
• “Oh, hey. About that Accreditation Survey”
• “The FDA’s Vast, Uncontrolled, COVID-19 Science Experiment”
• “Tone-Deaf GPOs Brag About Savings While Healthcare Workers Scramble for Supplies”
• “How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Dulling the Point of All Those Healthcare Regulations”
• “Pandemic Preparedness 101: Creating Appropriate Surge Capacity”
• “COVID-19 Will Test the Ability of Healthcare CFOs to Manage Financial Risk”
• “Adjusting to Life with Spreading Covid-19: Stay Safe and Be Productive”

Thanks for reading, and please stay home, stay safe and stay alive while you do.