NEFF HEALTHCARE INSIGHTS
The Biggest Trend In Healthcare? It’s In-Home Care
Everyone is “bringing it home” these days, and healthcare consumers are no different.
In fact, the rapid shift toward expanding in-home care is the biggest medical trend this year, and it will be far into the future.
Why is this?
Simply put, it’s good business for the hospitals and insurance agencies, and it’s great healthcare for patients.
It’s vastly more expensive to have care within the four walls of a hospital, and it exposes patients to many illnesses they don’t yet have.
Besides the extraordinary cost savings of in-home care, what is also fueling this trend are the dramatic technological and cultural shifts favoring the conveniences and comforts of home.
You can stream just about any movie or television program onto your home device, and in many cases enjoy them with audio and visual systems that rival those at the theatre.
And, without having to step onto someone’s spilled popcorn.
It’s not just about propping your legs up on the couch. It’s what “on-demand” technology is introducing across all industries. Do you remember when you had to actually schedule time on a given evening to enjoy your favorite television program?
Now, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you want.
Hungry, while you are sitting on the sofa? A few taps on your mobile phone and any of a long list of Uber Eats type of providers will deliver it directly to your home within a few minutes.
In the same way, the patient, as consumer, is demanding their healthcare be provided on their schedules and in the comfort of their own homes.
The Internet is helping to make this possible. Digital records can be instantly accessed by in-home nurses and through remote communication tools like Skype, appointments with doctors can be conducted online.
Before you start longing for the “good ol’days” of hospital-based healthcare, you should be reminded this all began with doctors getting on their horses and visiting you on the farm.
Healing at home is better for your health.
In a hospital, you get sicker inside those four walls because of the plethora of germs, being shared by a plethora of other sick people.
Being in the hospital or a nursing center is one of the most undignified situations for people. Everything there runs contrary to your vision of healing and feeling good about yourself again.
You lose everything. You lose your money as a result of the extraordinarily high costs of hospital stays. There, you also lose your clothes and any sort of daily schedule that you have long been enjoying.
Do you like eating your breakfast at 9 a.m. on your beautiful back porch, as the birds chatter in the background? Sorry. You’ll be eating it at 7 a.m., reclining in your hospital bed.
There is why severe depression is often medicated for patients in nursing homes and hospitals.
You lose your dignity and you’re more likely to have a roommate or somebody near you in the emergency department that is an alcoholic or a prisoner or who has issues ten times worse than you.
It’s sad. It’s also quite depressing.
This is all solved by in-home care as soon as it’s appropriate for the patient.
The power of being in charge of your own care, in your own comfortable and safe environment, and being able to choose your own schedule is amazing.
Now, you can control your life in the way you’re used to, which means choosing what and when you eat, the times you use the bathroom, when you sleep and when you relax in front of the television.
You can do your medication on your timetable. You can exercise at a time most convenient to you, and rehab around a schedule best for you and your therapist.
This is all empowering. It’s about dignity. And most importantly, it’s about healing and getting back on your feet again.
It’s what patients want, and it’s now what patients are demanding.
The smartest people in the healthcare industry are well aware of this dynamic trend and are already making the right moves to be best prepared to profit it from it.
Are you ready?
Stephen is a healthcare executive leader with over 35 years of progressive experience, including 25 years in CEO and CFO roles within large community hospital and senior care health systems.
Through his consultancy, Neff Healthcare, he serves entrepreneurs, investors and leaders facing mission-critical strategic and operational challenges in the healthcare industry. He would enjoy strengthening your vision and goals by providing his proven expertise of the health care market, strategic planning and execution proficiency, team building skills, communications, and philanthropy.
You can reach Stephen at stephen@neffhealth.com.