It’s 2014. What’s Reasonable?

There’s been a lot of buzz about consumers gaining access to their Electronic Health Records, being able to go online and see their medical test results, and wanting to communicate directly with doctors using email.

But how many consumers really prefer online versus more traditional modes of communicating and gaining information? Just as importantly, how significant is email conversation with a doctor, and will consumers pay for this? And how do these preferences differ among Seniors, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers?

We wanted to find out. So we conducted our 2014 “What’s Reasonable?” national study with over 400 American consumers.

The results were surprising to us, and may be to you as well. Fewer people than you might imagine want to go online to see their lab results or set up a medical appointment. A lot more than we guessed would prefer to take a patient experience survey online or via an app than via the two methods most widely used today: mail and phone.

Some hospitals and systems are well on their way to making it possible for us to do many of these things, driven in part at least, by the mandates and funding associated with the much-maligned Meaningful Use legislation.

So now’s a good time to gauge those efforts against what consumers told us are their current preferences, knowing that a growing percentage of the population wants to do things digitally and achieve instant gratification.

I invite you to join us for a free webinar in which we will reveal–and discuss–the results from our new “What’s Reasonable?” study on what consumers expect regarding online access to doctors and health information. This one-hour webinar is on Thursday, May 29, from noon-1PM CDT. Please email [email protected] with your name and the name of your organization to register.