Humanising healthcare through COVID-19 and beyond

COVID-19 has transformed the world of healthcare, while acting as a catalyst for change on an unprecedented scale. Healthcare and hospital leaders have had to reinvent processes and develop new solutions to combat the virus and adapt to the new reality. In this paper, healthcare brand strategists and management consultants explore how the pandemic has driven innovation that is humanising healthcare on a structural, organisational and experiential level. Drawing from a series of in-depth qualitative interviews (IDIs) conducted with healthcare experience executives across the United States during Fall 2020, this contribution outlines how the industry’s leaders are implementing strategic changes in their organisations to embrace a more empathetic, human model. Supported by the 2020 Humanizing Brand Experience report quantitative survey data from more than 25,500 healthcare consumers, readers will consider the spectrum of shifts that have occurred and will learn about why these changes are likely to stay relevant in the post-pandemic era. This paper concludes with a set of strategies and considerations, including defining strategic brand experience objectives, creating cross-functional experience coalitions, focusing leadership on important experiential areas, hiring for ‘soft skills’, including empathy and communication, aligning incentives with targeted changes, and so on. These recommendations are designed to continue building on pandemicdriven management and leadership innovations in order to foster improved healthcare experiences for consumers, physicians and employees.