Obesity affects 40% of all Americans. This means that nearly half of all healthcare customers in the US are impacted. For any business, if almost half your customers were facing the same problem, you would likely go out of your way to improve the experience, right?
Shouldn’t healthcare be the same?
Unfortunately, the picture is different in healthcare. Despite their numbers, people with obesity often face barriers to a quality patient experience. It may be hard to reach the doctor’s office. The furniture can be uncomfortable. Patients may be ashamed to be weighed. Worse, they may face weight bias from their doctors and other healthcare providers. This bias causes physicians to overlook or downplay these patients’ other health issues. Or to treat them with less care and respect than patients without obesity. This makes many reluctant to get the care they need.
But when it comes to improving the patient experience for people with obesity, the simplest changes are the most impactful.
Last month, Thoughtform Strategist Gwyn Cready traveled to San Antonio to present the results of our year-long patient experience co-design and research effort at Obesity Week, the largest international conference on obesity in the world.
Thoughtform has been working with the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the needs of those affected by obesity; ConscienHealth, an advocacy organization; and researchers Kristal L. Brown, PhD, MSPH from Drexel University; and Kimberly A. Gudzune, MD, MPH, FTO at Johns Hopkins to understand the pain points associated with the primary care experience and co-design an improved experience that solves these problems.
The results of this effort revealed a simple truth: People with obesity want to be treated with care and respect.
After co-designing an improved patient experience, Thoughtform and our partners asked 250 people with obesity to rank a number of features identified in the improved primary care scenario as either “not at all important,” “not very important,” “somewhat important,” or “very important.” A clear trend rose to the top. The most important aspect of a primary care scenario to respondents is that the “Doctor treats me with care and respect” (239). This is followed by “Doctor really listens to me when I talk” (237), and “Specialists I am referred to also treat me with care and respect” (230). In fact, the six most important features chosen were all focused on being respected as partners in their healthcare journey.
So what do we do now?
The findings suggest there may be easy, no-cost ways to improve the patient experience for people with obesity. For providers that have been reluctant to make changes to their practice on behalf of people with obesity because they worry it will be expensive or logistically difficult, this research shows that the most impactful changes don’t require added infrastructure or expensive personnel changes. It simply asks providers to change the way they relate to their patients in these key ways:
- Treat patients with obesity with care and respect.
- Listen to patients with obesity when they talk.
- Ensure that the specialists you refer out to also treat patients with obesity with care and respect.
- Recognize that patient with obesity do care about their health and acknowledge the positive progress they make.
- Do not automatically blame a patient’s health conditions on their obesity.
- Treat every patient with obesity as the expert on their own body and a partner in their healthcare plan.
By bringing people with obesity into the conversation about their own healthcare, understanding their pain points, and partnering with them on solutions, Thoughtform and our partners were able to work together a build a better experience. We are hopeful that physicians and other healthcare providers can do the same.
If you’re ready to create an experience that empowers your patients to take charge of their healthcare, we’d love to help. Just shoot an email to our Principal Steve Frank at [email protected] and we’ll get back to you ASAP.