Patients demand more service from the doctor

Insured persons become more and more critical and self-confident in the health sector

03/12/2015

Doctors, hospitals and healthcare providers will have to adapt more and more to critical and self-confident patients in the future. That comes to this conclusion „Healthcare Barometer 2015“ the auditing and consulting company „PricewaterhouseCoopers“ (PwC) based in Frankfurt am Main. According to them, today's insured would expect more attention and service from their doctor, including the opening hours of the practices or the treatment „at eye level“ concerns.

Lack of attention and lack of expertise lead to dissatisfaction
The public in medical practices, hospitals and other healthcare facilities is evidently becoming increasingly critical. This is from the current „Healthcare Barometer 2015“ of the auditing and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), for which more than 1000 citizens aged 18 and over were surveyed. As the PwC reports, lack of attention, perceived lack of expertise and long waiting times are the most common reasons why younger patients are often dissatisfied with medical treatment.

Patients are demanding ever greater service orientation
Accordingly, 27 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds complain about the opening hours of the practices, while the proportion of over 55-year-olds is only eight percent. In addition, 20% of younger patients do not feel sufficiently taken seriously by doctors and medical staff, which is only 8% of the elderly, according to the study. „Doctors especially in young people need to be prepared for a target group of self-confident and critical patients who value service and want to be treated as equals“, Michael Burkhart, Partner at PwC and Head of Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals. Accordingly, nearly 50% of younger respondents would expect more attention from the doctor, while only 29% of the older generation would agree, PwC continues.

Young people are getting more and more information from the internet instead of the family doctor
According to the study, the young people are also becoming increasingly critical when it comes to choosing a suitable clinic for a hospital stay: While three-quarters (75.5 percent) of those aged 55 or over rely on the recommendation of the family doctor, this applies to the insured between the ages of 18 and 34, only 59.6 percent. Instead, young people would resort more and more to other sources of information, with websites such as clinics, online forums and reviews, as well as the opinions of friends and acquaintances playing an important role. „The information monopoly of the family doctor is increasingly questioned by the Internet“, Michael Burkhart continues.

Lack of reimbursement for alternative methods of treatment more frequent criticism
The insured persons are also becoming increasingly critical towards the health insurance companies, with the insured being legally more satisfied with their current health insurance than with the health insurances
Private insurance, writes the PwC. Criticism is practiced, above all, in the catalog of services, which almost 72 percent of the „disaffected“ Respondents as „inadequate“ the result of the „Healthcare Barometer 2015“. Here alone, more than a third of the lack of cost coverage was criticized in many offers, with alternative healing methods / homeopathy ranked at the first places with 8 percent and dentist costs (around 5 percent), eyewear and eye treatments (4.8 percent) , (No)