If we can binge-watch our favorite shows or have groceries delivered with a tap, why does navigating healthcare still feel like a maze? Is it time to rethink the patient experience from the ground up?
Joining us today is Adeline Ashley, Director of Customer Engagement at Sitecore and author of the groundbreaking book, Shop Stream Heal: Transforming Patient Care in the Digital Age. With over 20 years of experience leading digital transformation for major brands like Oprah, Anthem, and Southern California Edison, Adeline has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between consumer-grade digital experiences and patient care. Her mission is to create healthcare experiences that are accessible, intuitive, and, above all, human.
Adeline Ashley is a digital marketing heavyweight and entrepreneurial force in innovative customer experiences. For over twenty years, working with brands like Oprah, Southern California Edison, Anthem, and major healthcare systems, she has spearheaded pioneering initiatives that merge creativity with data-driven strategies to forge lasting connections.
From award-winning entrepreneurial ventures like her gourmet foods line to developing engaging digital platforms, she has a proven track record of identifying gaps and delivering groundbreaking solutions. This entrepreneurial mindset now fuels her role as the global healthcare lead at Sitecore, where she is revolutionizing the digital patient journey in healthcare by seamlessly blending human insights with cutting-edge technologies.
Resources
Shop Stream Heal: Transforming Patient Care in the Digital Age by Adeline Ashley: https://amzn.to/4gfoMGu
Sitecore: https://www.sitecore.com
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Transcript
Note: This was AI-generated and only lightly edited
Greg Kihlstrom:
If we can binge watch our favorite shows with a click or have groceries delivered with a tap, why does navigating healthcare still feel like a maze? Is it time to rethink the patient experience from the ground up? Joining us today is Adeline Ashley, Director of Customer Engagement at Sitecore and author of the new book, Shop, Stream, Heal, Transforming Patient Care in the Digital Age. With over 20 years of experience leading digital transformation for major brands like Oprah, Anthem, and Southern California Edison, Adeline has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between consumer-grade digital experiences and patient care. Her mission is to create healthcare experiences that are accessible, intuitive, and above all, human. Adeline, welcome to the show.
Adeline Ashley: Thanks, Greg, for having me. I’m delighted to be here.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, looking forward to talking about this with you, and congrats on the new book. Why don’t we start with you giving a little background on yourself and your current role at Psycorp.
Adeline Ashley: Well, I loved how you introduced me. So thank you so much for that. Yeah, so at Sitecore, we have a lot of different verticals and I lead the healthcare vertical. And Sitecore is a digital experience platform and we help major brands deliver amazing experiences through different web channels or digital channels, I should say.
Greg Kihlstrom: Great, so let’s dive in here and I wanna start, we’re gonna talk about a few things here, but I wanna talk about what I talked about in the intro is creating digital experiences that patients actually want to use. And so in your book, Shop, Stream, Heal, you discuss bringing consumer grade experiences into healthcare. What’s the first step that healthcare organizations can take to start delivering digital experiences that patients actually want to use?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I got this premise because I’ve had a lot of personal experiences. And so that’s what led me to thinking about how could we improve the healthcare experience digitally. And so if we think about what healthcare organizations can do, they really need to look at and understand the patient’s needs through a journey mapping and patient feedback loops. If we look at what they’re going through and focus on removing those friction points, like, you know, making an appointment scheduling easier and simpler, and even just removing the complexion of form completion and making that less cumbersome, that would be a great first step. Another one is to really adopt that digital front door strategy that really integrates the patient touch points to ensure that there’s a lot of ease of use and accessibility. Those are the first things that they need to do.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, so yeah, and in the book, you draw on some strategies from companies outside of the healthcare industry. So companies like Netflix, Amazon, and Delta Airlines. How do you tailor insights from these different industries to the unique challenges of healthcare?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I think that patients are really consumers. And when you think about how they interact with Netflix and Delta, for example, those experiences bring delight. Customers remember that and they talk about those experiences. And healthcare should think about, like, if those folks are interacting and having their everyday interactions with these trusted brands, and they come to your site, you should have a similar seamless experience as well. And one of the things that inspired me to write the book was my husband. He had a horrific ski accident and long story short, he had to have emergency surgery. And I was with him for three days before the surgery had to happen. There were some things that needed to happen And I hadn’t eaten for three days and the folks said, you know, you need to take care of yourself. We got you. We will make sure you’re informed all the way. And I didn’t really believe it, but I also felt like, yeah, it’s three days. I am hungry. So I will rush out and grab something to eat and come right back. And when I was at the restaurant, I got a notification on my phone and on my watch. And that’s when I’m like, wow, that’s like that’s like a Delta experience telling me that my luggage has made it to the plane. My husband is, you know, OK in the process. So when I got that experience, I was both delighted and it was unexpected. But then I thought, you know what? This health care system really took the effort to making sure that communications with the patient and the family was seamless, and it was very much appreciated.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah. Well, definitely, you know, sorry to hear about your husband’s accent, but glad that there was that kind of experience there. But a lot of people listening probably are experiencing something else, right? You know, healthcare interactions often feel unnecessarily complex. What are some of the most significant barriers to creating simpler digital patient experiences similar to what you just described and how can they be overcome?
Adeline Ashley: Well, the thing is, is that the healthcare industry is regulated, right? There’s HIPAA compliance and you need to make sure that you’re respecting the patient’s privacy and safeguarding that information. So with that in mind, it does make it a little bit, you know, harder to think about, but if you work closely with their agencies and you look at technology that is HIPAA compliant and you spend the time strategizing and working with the different stakeholders, you can accomplish those experiences. So it really relies on understanding what those regulatory compliances are, Understanding the complex and legacy systems that you have and what do you need to do to work within those things. And if there are new technologies that abide by the compliance, use those. And then, you know, overcome those cultural resistance. If you invest in that, you’re going to be able to rethink and create that user-friendly experiences that patients and customers want.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah. So I want to talk a little bit, you know, we certainly talk about AI a lot on this show in a variety of contexts, but I wanted to talk about the role of AI in the patient experience here. AI has a huge potential in healthcare as well as AI and automation in general, but they can also sometimes feel impersonal. How do you strike the right balance between automation and maintaining that human touch that’s so important in healthcare?
Adeline Ashley: Yeah, I knew you were going to ask me an AI question. It seems to be the hot topic. But, you know, to be serious, you need to balance automation with a human touch. You can’t just rely and say AI is going to handle everything. But what I see AI and how it works best is being kind of like your co-pilot, finding those things that AI can do to help ease things, make things much more efficient, do things quicker, right? It can deliver information to you quickly. So, you know, use AI to handle those routine tasks like appointment reminders or triaging symptoms or, you know, freeing up the clinicians to focus on the things that matter most, those high-value patient interactions. And then maintain that human touch by integrating those empathetic communications. Don’t rely on AI to just create communications for you on the fly. Use AI to give you brainstorm and create a lot of different things that the human touch, you know, the human person can go, you know, that’s a great one, or let me riff on that one, use it to help brainstorm and get that creative creativity going on. And potentially, you know, with volume, but always bring in the human touch. And and that that lends itself to being much more authentic, right? People can kind of sniff out when AI is being used.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and to that point, you know, are there situations where technology does more harm than good and healthcare, you know, how do you, how do you help organizations navigate those scenarios?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I think communication is key. You’re going to have to have stakeholders and breaking down those silos and making sure that everybody is understanding what each other is doing and how they’re using technology, especially AI, to help with the work. And if everyone is understanding what each other is doing and they’re being coordinated, then you’re going to be avoiding that overuse in technology, right? You’re going to be synchronized in what you’re doing.
Greg Kihlstrom: So I wanna talk and go back to the patient perspective here. And certainly, I’m sure many of us who listening have either had a direct experience themselves or one of their loved ones has had some health issues or patient experience issues. anxiety is, is often, often accompanies these, these experiences. And, you know, one of the things that you talk about a lot in the book is, you know, how can we reduce some of this patient anxiety through proactive communication, just even, you know, knowing, knowing what’s going on, sometimes, to your point, your example about being in the restaurant and getting an update, sometimes that’s that can be enough, what are some effective ways that healthcare providers can communicate more proactively?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I think it’s really important to have and use an omni-channel strategy. So making sure that you are available and reaching and communicating via text, via emails, through portal messages, and tailoring all of those messages to the patient’s preference. You got to kind of meet them wherever they are, right? So you can’t just rely on emails thinking that everyone’s going to read the email. And yet, you also need to make sure that you offer all the different ways that they can communicate with you, that the healthcare system can communicate with them, I should say, and then allow them to check off those things and then making sure that whatever the communications preferences are, whether it’s a text or an email, that the message is consistent, right? So making sure that you are holistically looking at everything and having that omni-channel strategy. If you are successful in doing that, then you’re going to definitely gain trust, right, in that communications, in that communication strategy.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, I mean, I think that’s part of it too, right, is, you know, there are regulations like HIPAA that are designed to protect patients, but there are still plenty of patients that may not have the trust of digital communication. You know, despite us, so many of us being on our phones all the time and all that, you know, how do you build trust in a world where patients may be wary of some of the digital communication?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I think it’s very important to be transparent, right? You need to make sure that you have language on the site that states that, you know, how are you using the data, clearly explain how that data is used and ensure that all of the messaging that is being created aligns with the patient’s care plan. And when you’re personalizing, don’t make it creepy, making sure that you understand the data and you’re really in the background, you’re putting forth information that is relevant to them in a way that they need it at the right time and at the right place. But again, explaining and making sure that the patients feel like you as an organization are being transparent in how you are using the information, the data, and then communicating with them.
Greg Kihlstrom: In your book, this concept of trust as a pillar of patient care is kind of a through line, and I totally agree. It’s an essential part of the patient experience, as we’ve just kind of talked about. Overall, how can healthcare organizations use technology to build trust rather than to erode it?
Adeline Ashley: Well, you need to be sure to provide patients with real-time access to their medical records and share the insights. For example, when you have wearable health devices, that information is transparent, again, from beginning to end. from the beginning of our previous conversation. And then you need to design systems that prioritize security and privacy. You know, that needs to be done first. And if you if you lay that foundation, then when you’re thinking about personalization, that comes through and the technology just is a method to reaching the patients in a personalized way. But because you’re being careful and you’re designing those systems to prioritize that security and privacy, that should come naturally and the patients can feel that you’re handling their information delicately and securely. And by doing that, you’re building trust.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah, love it. So last thing I want to talk about is how we measure success. And we’ve talked about there’s lots of inputs to this. There’s usage of these things. There’s the trust that the patients have. With so much data available and so many things being measured and tracked, how do healthcare organizations measure what truly matters in the patient experience?
Adeline Ashley: There are a lot of key metrics that need to be defined throughout the digital patient journey. And you need to have actionable metrics. so that you can understand and improve that digital experience. And some of the things that you need to think about is like net promoter scores or NPS. And this really measures the overall patient satisfaction and likelihood to recommend the services or the provider, the healthcare system. and providing, you know, some insights into the patient’s loyalty. And you’ll be able to understand where are those areas of improvement by listening to what the patients are saying through that feedback look. Other things to think about are like appointment adherence, like tracking how effectively patients keep schedules and often correlating this to their level of engagement and ease of scheduling with you. So those are some examples of key metrics to measure. You also have to think about engagement and digital tools. How can you measure patients logging into the portals? If they’re doing that and logging into the portals, that’s another way to measure their engagement. also looking at the time spent on reading educational material, perusing your website, or even using your telehealth services. If we look at all of these different types of key metrics along the digital journey, then you can see where you’re winning and doing really, really well, and then where you might be falling short. And if you have those feedback looks and you’re reading in between the insights and the data, then you can improve those experiences.
Greg Kihlstrom: Are there examples or stories you’ve seen that show how focusing on the right metrics can transform care delivery?
Adeline Ashley: Yeah, Cleveland Clinic is a great example of leveraging analytics to measure and improve the patient experience. Using digital dashboards, they can track metrics such as patient satisfaction scores, the NPS score that I mentioned. They can see if their wait times are making folks happy or not and how they can improve that. And also if they are seeing an uptick in telehealth engagements. Also, if you, again, focus on that transparency, using patient-reported outcomes and the satisfaction surveys, that will help drive quality, right? So for example, if they’re looking at that, they can analyze appointment booking trends and optimize the availability and ensure that patients have quicker access to care. So that’s a way that Cleveland Clinic utilizing metrics to help improve the patient care and the patient experience.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, and I think a lot of times, well meaning as it might be, some of the measurements that are being used are really good for the organization, but not necessarily as good for the patient, or maybe even vice versa. For instance, if turning over beds in a hospital is a metric, is that always in the best interest of the patient? Things like that. How do you ensure that the metrics that healthcare organizations prioritize align with what patients actually value?
Adeline Ashley: Well, I think healthcare organizations can learn from what other industries are doing. And so when we think about retail or even the hospitality industry, they, they always say customer first being customer centric, right? So in this case, it needs to be patient centric. What do the patients care most about? And think about the scenario in which the patient is engaging and what what would make that patient feel like they’re being attended to, that their needs are being addressed by the healthcare system and provider. And if that experience that the healthcare system and provider are satisfactory, then the patient will provide the right feedback. And then that’s a great loop to see. So always align your metrics with the patient’s needs and think of it like, in other industries, customer centric, it needs to be patient centric.
Greg Kihlstrom: Yeah, yeah, love it. Well, thank you so much for all your insights. I got one last question for you. I like to ask everybody, what do you do to stay agile in your role? And how do you find a way to do it consistently?
Adeline Ashley: Oh my gosh. Well, I believe in embracing learning and making that always, you know, learn something new every day. And it always happens, right? Someone will say something and just listen and then pay attention to what’s going on because you will learn something. I truly believe in cross-industry inspiration. That was the inspiration for my book, right? You can learn a lot of different things from other industries. and they’ll be applicable to your industry. And then always focusing on feedback loops, right? Always ask for feedback because you will learn something from that.
