Health care CFOs are betting on a ‘patient loyalty model’ for growth—and advanced technology could be the key

Finance chiefs of hospitals and health care systems understand that competition now includes private equity-backed chains, or companies like CVS Health, said John Summerlin, managing director in Grant Thornton’s national health care advisory practice.

I had a conversation with Summerlin about the firm’s recent survey of 100 health care CFOs in which nearly three-quarters named patient experience enhancement as the most important part of their growth strategy. The survey also asked respondents to provide words that best describe decisions that drive growth and “technology” was cited the most.

Finance chiefs know growth is dependent on serving as many patients as possible, and a controlled way to do that is by providing for all of one patient’s health needs within a single organization, Summerlin said. A system that already features a patient’s primary care doctor, for example, should include—or at least streamline—seeing a specialist or getting lab work done.

Think about shopping at a retailer: If an item is hard to find, or you have difficulty buying it, then you probably won’t return, Summerlin told me. From a health care perspective, if you show up at a primary care visit on Monday, and are told to go to a physical therapist, but there’s no guidance in selecting one, then you’ll most likely find one on your own.

Other priorities mentioned by growth-minded CFOs were expanding into new markets (65%), launching new services (64%), increasing community outreach (60%), and M&A activity (38%), according to the survey.

Enhancing customer experience also includes better technology. A major retailer like Amazon is seen as a leader in its digital experience for customers, according to Qualtrics. A health care system may have a totally different business objective, but enhancing digital offerings for customers still has tremendous upside. 

“The patient loyalty model would be: My patients want to engage with me at the highest convenience point—and that includes telemedicine—so I need to deliver seamless, simple access to telemedicine for all of my patients for all of my customers,” Summerlin explained. Another example could be using technology to create more transparency around the bills being sent out.

Components of a health care system include diagnosis, treatment, administration, and operations. Although the health care system has been behind in technology adoption for a long time, he added that “we’re starting to see some more of that adoption and that innovation.”

“Pre-COVID, we thought that no one over the age of 65 would ever engage in telehealth,” Summerlin said. “Two-and-a-half years after COVID, we found out that regardless of age group, people are eminently willing to talk to their provider on their computers or on their phone.” And a new generation of doctors and nurses are also more comfortable doing so. 

Generally, with “the retail conversion of health care,” CFOs in the sector may have to think like a retailer when it comes to customer experience, Summerlin said. But they also can’t lose sight of the original mission.

“The business of health care is not deploying technology, or closing the books, or writing the journal entry, or ordering the supply—it’s providing the best care to patients,” he added. “That is a very unique challenge.”

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

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Kate Thomson was named CFO at BP, a British multinational oil and gas company, effective immediately. Thomson has held the role of interim CFO since September 2023. She was previously BP’s SVP of finance for production and operations, responsible for the financial stewardship of and commercial partnering with the business globally. She has been with the company since 2004, previously holding a number of senior financial roles, including group treasurer and group head of tax.

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