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The Boomer Cometh: Fundimential Changes In Health Care "A very cranky, cantankerous, obnoxious client is making his way into your waiting room," Dr. Bruce Clark, DPH, has warned doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Dr. Clark is co-founder of Impact Presentations Group and Age Wave LLC, and a widely recongized authority on the business and marketing implications of a multigenerational, aging society. He spoke in rousing terms when addressing the Young Health Care Leaders late last year. In 2006, baby boomers begin turning sixty. While their sheer volume is more than enough to strain the system, Dr. Clark explained that their particular propensity to make demands has fostered an increasingly uneasy relationship between providers and patients. How can healthcare leaders best deal with change? Clark referred to the Sigmoid Curve, a simple model describing how businesses form, rise to the top and either reinvent themselves or rapidly decline. "Most reinventions start too late," he said. "My encouragement today is that we not wait too long." Most people, Clark asserted, have generational myopia: they see other age groups through the filter of their own generation. To effectively work with patients, it's important for all workers – from receptionists to surgeons - to recognize and respect each generation's life experiences and core values. Old-style reverence for doctors has been replaced with a decidedly more questioning attitude. As a patient, the baby boomer is exhibiting rising discontent over cost, quality and access to service. While the industry has long been an American anomaly, Clark said, in its ability to get away poor customer service, boomers will not allow their providers the same leeway previous generations did. For many, the real definition of quality rests in relationships. Did my doctor hear me; was my call returned? "We've become such a fast-paced business that the relationship is deteriorating," Clark advised. New mature patients will also be more flexible, more likely to seek solutions online and outside traditional medicine, in homeopathy or herbal remedies. "Healthy aging" must become a system-wide priority, requiring new focus on prevention and long-term care. Clark urged providers to create an organized community network that incorporates services and resources that outside the typical acute care setting. The financial industry, he said, has looked outside its narrow focus area to assist clients with big picture planning. "On the other hand, healthcare does an incredibly poor job of incorporating other industries into the healthcare domain." Healthcare providers need to think about where they fit into the overall care network and how they can work with other providers. "The fatal flaw in healthcare right now," Dr. Clark said, "is that everyone is so distracted by our torturous payment and insurance system that no one is paying attention to how to reinvent the delivery system with this chronic care patient in mind." Back To Mature Market News → Go To The GenerationTarget.com Mature Market Bookstore → |
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