Helping physicians and pharma through the healthcare system showed resilience over this past year and remained accessible to many. In fact, the 2021 Accenture Health and Life Sciences Experience Survey of nearly 1,800 people in the United States revealed that 26% said their access to healthcare has been even better since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital adoption spiked overnight as providers had to quickly pivot to virtual care. However, we also learned that more than one quarter of survey respondents did not use any digital technologies to manage their health in the past year.
Rising digital adoption in healthcare? Only in a few areas
It perhaps comes as no surprise that more people used digital technologies to manage their health this year. In early 2020, only 7% of people had a virtual consultation with a provider compared with a robust 32% this year. Nearly half (48%) say they have never had a virtual healthcare appointment. Thirty-nine percent of patients with chronic diseases or current conditions had a virtual consultation in 2020. We also saw an increase in the use of electronic health records—with 31% using EHR this year (38% for our patient cohort). Remote patient monitoring tripled compared with our last pre-pandemic survey. Interestingly, 21% of those surveyed said they would be willing to participate in digital services or digital technologies.
However, digital adoption lagged in several areas: the use of mobile phone/tablet applications (for healthcare services) decreased significantly compared with previous years and the use of wearables stayed about the same. Far fewer people used social media and online support communities (for healthcare needs), which is surprising given the isolation many were facing.
As we learned in previous years, one reason why many people didn’t adopt digital is a lack of trust in technology companies to safeguard their healthcare information. This year, nearly half (43%) said they would not be willing to have a virtual care appointment with technology companies in the future. People would be more likely to adopt digital technologies if a provider recommended them (33%), if they felt more confident in data security and privacy (30%) and if these technologies enabled them to receive better information about their health (30%).
Negative experiences can have lasting consequences
Better experiences can lead in helping physicians and pharma and increase engagement with the healthcare system. Our research revealed that only one out of three people (33%) said they did not have a negative experience. So what does that mean for the rest? People have had a variety of negative healthcare experiences including inefficient visits (22%) and getting unhelpful medical advice (19%).
Nearly half (44%) of the people reporting negative experiences felt stressed or upset. There were additional consequences: Slightly more than one-third switched providers or treatments (34%) or were less likely to seek medical care the next time they needed it. Others chose to not keep up with their treatment or never picked up their prescription. Only 12% of people said that the negative experience didn´t affect them in any way.
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