FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – The United States healthcare system is in the midst of a transformation, impacted by a "perfect storm" of regulatory, population, social, technological, and financial forces. These forces are creating opportunities to streamline patient communications and document processes, improve patient outcomes, deliver financial breakthroughs, and enhance the overall patient experience. According to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) survey conducted in Western Europe, 60% of healthcare and financial respondents said they would invest in efforts to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. And, those attitudes are making  their way across the pond. 

"Technological advancements are creating opportunities to break down silos, which have eluded the C-suite for years," said Holly Muscolino, Research Vice President, Managed Print and Document Solutions. "These opportunities exist in both the payer and provider side of the market and have spurned many experiments to progress to a better, more competitive, and financially sustainable model." Customers continue to evolve as we race through the first quarter of the 21st century. Dedicated Websites, customer online portals, and emails are growing in popularity and are becoming more prominent as customer communication channels.

To better understand these shifting attitudes and to identify best practices for customer communications management (CCM) within the United States healthcare industry, IDC is launching a new multiclient study, Document Strategies for Customer Communication Management: Healthcare. This study will examine pain points, systemic inefficiencies, and strategies to connect the silos and improve patient outcomes. The study will look at regulator and compliance requirements, enterprise mandates and initiatives, and best practices. Ultimately, it will explore the sensitive topic of where CCM will reside within the enterprise, either within IT, operations, or marketing. "Healthcare is one of the most complex document intensive industries from a CCM perspective and is ripe for best practices research, which can help to impact CCM and customer experience strategies," Muscolino added.