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Samuel Norvell

Dr. Mitchell

UWRT 003

30 March 2018

Before they Turn Twenty-Six

In today’s world, it is evident that technology is evolving at an exponential rate. This

immense growth rate has allowed technology to intrude into a range of industries (Cowan,

“Primary Care”). One industry however falls behind today’s innovation in tech. By no means are

medical professionals or hospitals in the dark ages of science and technology when it comes to

caring for a patient. It comes down to the process of their industry. The smartphone is the tool of

logistical communication that healthcare has not taken full advantage of. It rests in almost every

millennial’s pocket. The smartphone offers a seemingly infinite sea of information at a thumb’s

reach. Millennial’s have known this version of the world far longer than the previous generations

(Sarringhaus, “The Great Divide”). Each day the new generation is gaining more experience than

those before them. Baby boomers as a generation seem to have a bigger learning curve than the

millennials when it comes to technology. Those working in healthcare that fall into the baby

boomer range are resistant to any changes that differ from what they have learned over their

careers (Sarringhaus “The Great Divide”). Some believe smartphone usage takes focus away

from the employee. Baby boomers can find it difficult to use and understand, whereas

millennials are “fluent” with this tool (Sarringhaus, “The Great Divide”). Millennials know how

to maximize every feature, every percent of battery, and every opportunity to communicate

through today’s smartphone. It does not necessarily make the world a better place, however it

can make it far more convenient and simpler especially in the healthcare industry.
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In order to gauge where healthcare costs lie across the country today, Vice News

interviewed doctors to speak on their industry today (“Doctors Explain”). Due to the American

Care Act widening access for healthcare it has driven up costs for doctors. One explains that it

costs three times the amount billed to the customer to keep the practice open for the duration of

the same examination (“Doctors Explain”). This can be tied to the idea expressed by The

University of Chicago Illinois, that millennials are not likely to have a primary care provider (“5

Ways Millennials”). So much time spent in a doctor’s examination room can be conversation

between doctor and patient. Over time this can become a friendship in some cases the patient

trusts their life with their doctor. This is an aspect of the healthcare industry that baby boomers

value far more than millennials. The relationship of the past is not the same today as millennials

seek instantaneous fixes from medical-professionals especially due to the ability of the patient.

Online resources provide a stepping stone for the patient to shorten their experience at the

doctor’s office (Cowan, “Primary Care”). The examination that used to take an hour could be cut

in half if not down to a simple blood test as patients are more informed on their symptoms and

condition.

Within a number of industries that attain large bank of consumers there has become a

great presence of online tools created for the customer. A trend of these tools is that they reflect

some aspects of social media, that being a familiar medium for millennials. They offer open

environments for signing up for appointments to discuss their services while also offering those

services purely online. For example, Ally Bank is an online only bank. They have no physical

branches. They are equipped with a single headquarters and few offices for designing a bank that

caters to the new generation. It is clear their website is the key to their success. When discussing

improvements made by Ally Bank they focus on the redesign of interfaces. Interface being the
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screen you access for a business and how simple it is to navigate. A trendy homepage that is not

only easy to reach but also easier to sign up, pay a bill, or access any service the company offers.

Millennials every day continue to simplify processes which is reflected on these high traffic sites

by a noticeable intake of new customers (Tyndall “Systems Engineering”). A task that used to

take a phone call and consulting a handwritten calendar is on the verge of being replaced by

syncing multiple online calendars.

These are just examples of what occurs today. The possibilities are endless as Dr.

Stephen Klasko of Jefferson University elaborates on “believable understandable billing,”

prescription delivery, online communicative groups, and a growing number of outlandish ideas

that the future may or may not hold (“Healthcare in 2020”). “Believable understandable billing”

is Klasko’s principle that the healthcare system in the United States hides costs and complicates

the billing of patients. It is not clear how much a patient will pay until after an operation or

procedure has been completed. This is intended to create a transparent form of billing

accompanied by the translation from medicine to the average American’s understanding. The

average millennial would not hold a great deal of trust in the care provider without a simplified

bill created for the customer. Prescription delivery is another way that care providers can service

the patient better. Millennials are known to be conscious of the environment as many choose

cleaner ways of transportation. When it comes to picking up a prescription there lies the potential

to cut time and costs both for the customer and environment they care so deeply about. Before

either of these comes the idea of group boards, blogs, or some sort of online communication

regarding healthcare. Sarringhaus elaborates similarly to Klasko when it comes to online forums

for healthcare. This quality of the future’s healthcare can give a sense of security to the customer

of having a real person offer knowledgeable feedback (“The Great Divide” and “Healthcare in
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2020”). It can also give empowerment to the patient by having an idea of what to discuss when

arriving at the doctor’s office. All three of these components add to a customer centered

healthcare industry.

The community of healthcare is not just centered around the instruments of information

access for the customer but also includes the recruitment process for employment. Due to the

average amount of time millennials spend on their mobile devices it is clear that the channel for

career building is on their phones. Within this comes the use of social media to bring in new

talent along with a way to incentivize productive work habits (Sarringhaus, “The Great Divide”).

The social media component of this topic can be compared to the past’s use of radio and

newspaper job postings. The two channels used frequently for entertainment such as music

paired with the other for news have been dressed in today’s smartphone. After jobs have been

filled, those same millennials must work. If social media were to be embraced by the healthcare

community it could be used in a way to reward employees (Sarringhaus, “The Great Divide”).

By providing a medium to keep track of employees, their personal qualifications, and completed

tasks it could streamline the logistics of scheduling. A better way to visualize this is by

imagining an application that has employee profiles. These profiles present their availability for

scheduling, their current statistics, and what their rating of service is with customers. This could

then be organized by consumers by what kind of healthcare they want to receive. For a physical a

customer would want the quickest rated employee, and would not require a doctor with a

specialization. For someone coming in for a more serious ailment they might want a doctor that

is more personable. Especially if they are faced with grave news, a customer would most likely

want someone that offers excellent comfort. While some of these ideas may seem far off like

categorizing and rating employees, the premise of electronic records is far closer. Records of
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actual employees or what could be essentially be profiles in a scheduling application is being

used in other industries. Popular with businesses that use tablets for checking out customers,

applications like Homebase are used to share master schedules with all employees. It has features

that involve direct messaging, requesting a shift cover, and accomplishments based on total

hours worked. (Homebase). This principle of incentivizing work past the dollar reward is an

example as to where healthcare is heading.

Millennials hold certain traits throughout the generation as a majority. These trends make

them stand out as a generation that differs from the last. As mentioned earlier they have one of

the best grasps on technology use. This can be to blame based on the presence of technology in

education and the world they have been raised in. The age of convenience differs fundamentally

to the generations before, specifically the baby boomers. Those who hold dictating positions in

healthcare may not be aware of the routes of convenience that millennials have created in the

digital age. What baby boomers may have classified as shortcuts or impossible in a time ago,

millennials have explored, developed, and created a plethora of “fundamental practices” (Cowan,

“Primary Care”). The stiff healthcare industry hesitates to accept new procedures no matter how

small. Cowan claims that the generational difference is located in “the role for the provider is to

partner to manage information, social networks, health information, and decision making”

(“Primary Care”). This only reinforces the idea that in order for healthcare to become

accustomed to its growing majority of clients it must strive to serve the customer more so than it

has in the past.

One of the largest components of life out of society’s control is time itself. Every moment

passes cutting into the fabric of space leaving its record. When exploring the history of the

common era it is evident that humans have managed to fight time with innovation. Past centuries
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could not have progressed into the present day by repeating traditional methods of survival, in

turn evolving intellectually by learning from mistake. With that being said it is clear that as the

current generation of teens and young adults grows older to reach twenty-six they will change

healthcare. The system will experience thematic changes as discussed in this essay. Some will be

welcomed easier than others depending on their magnitude. The industry shows resistance to

new tools and methods today as it has good reason. Healthcare’s mission is to aid, cure, and care

for those who have fallen to illness or injury. In many cases, it becomes the setting for a fragile

balance between life and death. Any change to the healthcare system as a whole is difficult to

analyze until after a failure or death has occurred. This is healthcare’s defense to keep with

traditional methods of the past quarter century. At the same time, is it not in society’s right to

expect the best from an industry that is in the business of preserving life?
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Work Cited

Cowan, Michael,M.C.U.S.N. "Millennial Transformation for Primary Care." Military Medicine,

vol. 175, no. 6, 2010, pp. 379-81, eLibrary; ProQuest Central,

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/500071003?a

ccountid=14605.

“Free Online Employee Scheduling Software.” Homebase, https://joinhomebase.com

Klasko, Dr. Stephen. “What Healthcare will look like in 2020.” Youtube, uploaded by TEDx

Talks, 17 November 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esugL07XANg

Sarringhaus, Meredith M, “The Great Divide: Social Media's Role in Bridging Healthcare's

Generational Shift.” Journal of Healthcare Management, vol. 56, no. 1, August 2011, pp.

235-244. EBSCOhost,

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=d190d805-16c1-

4669-ad3e-f151510414ba%40sessionmgr102

Tyndall, Jake. “Systems Engineering.” Society of Systems Engineers, 23 January 2018, CHHS

UNCC, Charlotte NC.

University of Illinois at Chicago. “5 Ways Millennials View Healthcare Differently.” Health

Informatics University of Illinois at Chicago, ND.

https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/resources/articles/5-ways-millennials-view-healthcare-

differently.

Vice News. “Doctors Explain Why U.S. Healthcare Is So Expensive (HBO).” Youtube,

uploaded by Vice News, 17 July 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QftFQfJrE

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