Healthcare as a Business: Why Consumers Hold a Different Lens

Healthcare organizations operate as full-fledged businesses in the modern world. They plan and prepare for growth, fight for market share, and focus on profits. By adopting high-tech technologies to implement patient-centered care models, healthcare organizations continue to evolve to meet changing market trends. However, if healthcare walks, talks, and strategizes like a business, why don’t patients treat it as such? Why is a minor delay at a hospital met with less frustration than a similar delay at a restaurant or retail store?

The Emotional Gravity of Health

Healthcare is far from a typical service. It is deeply tied to our most vulnerable moments- life and death decisions, physical pain, and emotional turmoil. Would you compare choosing a vacation destination to deciding on life-saving surgery? This inherent emotional connection shapes patient expectations. When entering a hospital, patients often view providers as saviors or protectors, not as businesses looking to turn a profit. Does this perception make patients more forgiving of lapses, seeing them as exceptions rather than flaws in service design?

For example, a rude experience in a shop may be given an instant lousy review. However, if this is the same behavior within healthcare, it might be written off as ‘pressure to save lives.’ To what degree is this leniency merited, and to what extent is it masking deeper problems of the healthcare system?

The Legacy of Altruism

Healthcare has long been idealized as a noble profession motivated by service rather than commerce. Can an organization that prides itself on state-of-the-art technology and deluxe patient suites truly embody altruistic values? This heritage often causes cognitive dissonance. As hospitals apply corporate strategies- billing systems, profit measures, and marketing campaigns- they still conjure up themes of care and compassion. Are we, as patients, holding onto an outdated vision of healthcare providers?

The Discounting of Mistakes

Would you go back to a restaurant where the waiter forgot your order? Probably not. But would you forgive a hospital for a delay in your diagnostic test? Many do. This forgiveness stems from necessity- switching providers and our emotional reliance on healthcare professionals can be challenging. However, is this leniency helping or harming the system? Does forgiving service lapses lower the bar for accountability?

The truth of the matter is that healthcare organizations are businesses. The point is to balance care provided to patients with profit returns. However, achieving this without alienating patients is a challenge.

Rethinking the Patient-Business Dynamic

The paradox of healthcare as a business requires delicate balancing acts. How do healthcare providers thrive in business without losing the trust and empathy patients depend on? Can hospitals give patients more transparent pricing and outcome measures to facilitate informed choice? How can service failures be minimized and patient experience enhanced? How can healthcare professionals marry business sense with authentic care to match growing patient demands?

Is it time to stop viewing healthcare as "different"? Perhaps. However, while the industry must adopt modern business principles, it cannot lose sight of its foundational ethos of care. If healthcare organizations can embrace this dual identity- profitable yet compassionate- they stand to gain financial success and the enduring trust of their patients. Ultimately, does being a business mean compromising on being a caregiver? Or does it simply mean raising the bar for what care should be?