Healthcare is a 1 star experience
Healthcare is a 1 star experience
C Tier Experiences
In my NHS career, I can count on my hand the number of times I think a patient has had a good experience. Think I'm being dramatic?
Singapore spend 2% of their GDP on healthcare (the UK spend 12% and the US spend 20%).
There are five ward classes: A, B1, B2+, B2, and C. A costs the patient most, and C the least. A-class patients have a private room with a bathroom, air conditioning, and access to private doctors of their choice. C-class patients are in open wards, eight to nine in a room, sharing a bathroom, and without air conditioning.
Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Health System — William Haseltine
Interestingly, Singapore's worst class of ward (the C tier) is the standard in the NHS.
// Pair with How Singapore Solved Healthcare.
10 Star Experiences
AirBnB's Brian Chesky's 10 star framework is super interesting.
If you want to build something that’s truly viral you have to create a total mindfuck experience that you tell everyone about. We basically took one part of our product and we extrapolated what would a five star experience be. Then we went crazy.
So a one, two, or three star experience is you get to your Airbnb and no one's there. You knock on the door. They don't open. That's a one star.
...
What's a seven star experience? You knock on the door. Reid Hoffman opens. Get in. “Welcome. Here's my full kitchen. I know you like surfing. There's a surfboard waiting for you. I've booked lessons for you. It's going to be an amazing experience. By the way here's my car. You can use my car. And I also want to surprise you. There’s this best restaurant in the city of San Francisco. I got you a table there.” And you're like, “Whoa. This is way beyond.
So what would 11 star experience be? I would show up at the airport and you'd be there with Elon Musk and you're saying, “You're going to space.”
The point of the the process is that maybe 9, 10, 11 are not feasible. But if you go through the crazy exercise of keep going, there’s some sweet spot between they showed up and they opened the door and I went to space. That's the sweet spot. You have to almost design the extreme to come backwards. Suddenly, doesn't knowing my preferences and having a surfboard in the house seem not crazy and reasonable? It's actually kind of crazy logistically, but this is the kind of stuff that creates great experience.
5–7 Star Healthcare Experiences
What's a 5 Star health experience?
You enter the hospital and a greeter takes you to the correct department. You're immediately taken to a scanner and then to a private room where a doctor is waiting for you.
What's a 7 star health experience?
You call your personal doctor with an issue. "Hold on, let me call my friend — she's the world-leading -ologist in this". Minutes later you're on the phone to the -ologist: "Hold on, I'm sending a car to get you".
At the luxury clinic, the receptionist cancels all of your day's commitments, makes your favourite coffee and takes you to the doctor's office.
You're reassured that everything is fine but "Here's my number, text me if you have anymore questions".
10 Star Healthcare Experiences
Interestingly, 10 star healthcare experiences are here today.
Concierge doctors are medical fixers. They'll pick up your call on a ski slope and make shit happen.
One recent “VIP individual” was in town for ten days and wanted to get a second opinion on respiratory symptoms from London’s finest. She had a complex medical history, having been operated on around the world, and over the weekend Rezk helped collate PDFs of all her medical documents from abroad to help find exactly the right specialist for her needs. “I’m not sure whether she had a dramatic change in her symptoms, but the point is she had a second opinion,” says Rezk.
My friend Chris Lovejoy is working on Jhappi.Day, another 10 star experience. It's for immigrants who want to take care of their family's health back home.
A subscription service for NRIs, overseas Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis to take care of their family back home. Monthly home visits from a Medical Doctor, 24/7 on-call errand support, reports in one place and easy coordination of finances with the family.
Or this 10 star rehab experience ⬇️
11 Star Healthcare Experiences
Interestingly, an 11 star healthcare experience is already here too. It means never getting sick in the first place.
Funnily (and somewhat tragically) — it sits as what Taleb calls silent evidence. We can't see the benefits of preventing health catastrophes with our own eyes.
The fact that we've never seen a polio or tetanus infection due to vaccines is a miracle. Or that kids don't die from cholera because of sanitation.
But crucially, my perceived healthcare experience is no better because of this. And that's why having a perceived good experience is different from actually having a good experience.
11 star health experiences are boring and thankless and not really flashy — but they're the most important ones.
Podcast
With warmest wishes,
Musty