I have had the opportunity to do a number of projects in areas different to my usual diet of FMCG-relevant global consumer perspectives. Health, and in particular cancer, have been the object of my intense focus over the recent months.
Whilst I have realised that there is a vast amount to learn in these fields, it is also possible to find some familiar principles. One of these is acknowledging the importance of the customer perspective, whether a ‘bog standard’ consumer or a patient. The reason this is so striking in medicine and the more clinical side of healthcare is that traditionally the clinical perspective is the one that dominates and drives how things are done. Whilst this ensures that the patient has the greatest chance of getting better in one sense, it does not necessarily mean that the patient experience is the best. For example, recent surveys found that patients treated by London hospitals reported poorer experiences compared with those treated by hospitals in other English regions, despite the fact that London houses many of the top centres for cancer with world leading experts and cutting edge equipment.
However, there are signs that there is growing recognition of the need to factor in more of the non-clinical angles to being a patient.
- There is important policy support. The latest cancer strategy included a commitment to ensuring that ‘every person with cancer has access to the elements of a Recovery Package by 2020’. The Recovery Package is part of an overall support and self-management package for people affected by cancer and includes a Holistic Needs Assessment which encourages healthcare professionals to understand how patients are feeling not just physically, but also emotionally and what’s behind this.
- It is possible find examples of small tweaks to process, ‘little things that make a difference’, which are being instituted and at very little or no additional cost. The North Shore–LIJ Cancer Institute, one of the largest providers of cancer care in the New York metropolitan area, gives radiation patients and family members tours of the treatment rooms in advance to help address fears about going through the daunting and unknown experience of radiotherapy.
- There also examples of where things were done differently, even though this did have major cost implications. The new cancer center at Guys Hospital was built using input from a panel of cancer patients with the result that it houses the first radiotherapy machines in Europe above ground, despite the fact this was significantly more expensive. This means that patients will not receive their radiotherapy treatment in a windowless bunker below ground level, as usually happens, but be in more positive environment for what is already an unpleasant experience. Likewise, in the US, health care provider Bellin designed a freestanding facility for cancer, locating it off a major highway several miles from the hospital. This center houses all oncology and administrative staff members and provides comprehensive and coordinated care. The facility not only makes it easier to deliver efficient service, but also offers a more calming experience for patients with easy parking; specific design codes of soft colours, natural materials and lots of natural light with a garden visible from the infusion room. Without patient input, Bellin would have followed a consultant’s recommendation to simply add a more ‘impersonal’ cancer wing to its hospital.
Let us hope that, despite the uncertain economic climate, these important principles continue to be practised and do not return to be empty statements of intent.
