Dive Brief:
- A new report from Accenture found 66 of the 100 largest U.S. hospitals offer mobile health apps, but only 2% of patients are using them. Failure to focus apps on services consumers want most could cost each hospital more than $2 million a year in lost revenue.
- Only 11% of the hospital apps offer at least one of the three most desired functions: Access to medical records; ability to book, change, and cancel appointments; and ability to request prescription refills.
- In addition, nearly 7% of patients have switched healthcare providers because of poor online experience with customer service, including mobile apps.
Dive Insight:
Accenture recommends hospitals adopt a patient-centric approach when developing new mobile health apps or revising existing ones. The report found 38% of the 100 largest hospitals develop health apps in-house instead of hiring a mobile app vendor.
“Simply having a mobile app is not enough,” said Brian Kalis, managing director in Accenture’s Health practice in a prepared statement. “Hospital apps are failing to engage patients by not aligning their functionality and user experience with what consumers expect and need. Consumers want ubiquitous access to products and services as part of their customer experience, and those who become disillusioned with a provider’s mobile services – or a lack thereof – could look elsewhere for services.”
He suggested hospitals should engage with leading digital and mobile health companies that offer unique solutions, such as ZocDoc, to understand what interests consumers most. Kalis also said hospitals should work with digital health companies as well as build solutions in-house as the pace and size of mobile health technology grow faster and larger.