Picture life on Mars – rocky surfaces with canyons and volcanoes, dry lake beds and craters everywhere you look. Red dust covering the ground, with clouds and wind just like we have on Earth.
Now, picture what healthcare on Mars looks like.
While the idea of colonizing Mars seems farfetched now, the efforts being made to create this reality have already sparked a movement to tackle the challenges of settling on the planet. For healthcare, Mars is a blank slate that introduces a unique chance to rethink how we approach the delivery of medical care in a world where there are no hospitals, where healthcare can be delivered to your door, on-demand, and technology amplifies treatment and relationships with patients.
In a landscape nurtured by the Amazons and Ubers of the world, consumers have come to expect services and goods on-demand. The healthcare industry is the last remaining place to be transformed into this modern experience. Meanwhile, today’s hospitals are burdened with growing fixed-costs, while growth and public payer reimbursement decline. This creates pressure to trim spending by reducing clinical touch points and overall time spent with patients, impacting the quality and care experience patients are receiving. What happens when we rethink where and how healthcare is delivered to overcome those costs and meet the on-demand desires of consumers?
The Model for On-Demand Healthcare Becomes Reality
The importance of redefining how patients are viewed, cared-for and supported, for improved recovery with greater satisfaction and peace-of-mind, through a modern economic approach is greater than ever. A more sustainable economic and clinical model of treatment must be put in place.
Shockingly, approximately 57 percent of hospital spending is allotted to brick-and-mortar fixed costs. To be profitable, hospital occupancy needs to be at a minimal level over the course of the year and, based on the current state of reimbursements, the average stay of each patient needs to be around 4.5 days. Unfortunately, that often isn’t enough time for a patient to fully recover, putting them at risk of relapse and additional hospital stays.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The same principles that shifted economics and the consumer landscape with the arrival of Amazon and Uber, are now being applied to healthcare. By moving advanced medical care from hospitals to homes, and creating an integrated technology-enabled model, the home is unlocked as a safe, preferred site of advanced medical care and removes the fixed-costs of hospitals. By transforming the economics of institutionally-based healthcare delivery, more time and focus can be spent on increasing clinical touch points, reducing disruptive care transitions, integrating consistent care teams, and building genuine relationships with patients and their families for increase involvement in their own care.
What begins as a vision for a future on Mars, is an opportunity for change here and now. A completely reimagined healthcare landscape where healthcare comes to you, becomes a reality. The time for the healthcare industry to embrace a modern patient experience is now.
Photo: Sylphe_7, Getty Images
