Is a “Culture of Happiness” Key to Health Care’s Future Success?

At a conference on cancer care, one might expect a futurist to discuss the use artificial intelligence (AI), or genomics, or new discoveries into the nature of chronic disease. And Nick Webb, a medical technologist and inventor turned disruptor and business consultant, touched on all of those things in his keynote address Wednesday at the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) 51st Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, in Washington, DC.

Nick Webb | Image: LAI

But Webb, whose most recent book is Chaotic Change: Embracing Chaos to Drive Innovation and Growth, predicted that while outstanding clinical care will matter in the future, the best scalable delivery models will offer something else: a “beautiful human experience.”

Building a “culture of happiness,” both among the workforce and the consumers—which is Webb’s word for patients—is a key to future health care models, Webb says. This involves a combination of wider consumer choices, lower price points, asynchronous “shopping” times, and eliminating unproductive stretches in the waiting room. He offered a few examples that already exist, such as ordering contact lenses or eyeglasses online.

“We're in a time of chaotic innovation,” that Webb called both “hypercomplicated” and a “tremendous opportunity,”

Whether it’s a health system, medical device company, or a practice, he said, “I can tell you that the ones that have the opportunity to have predictable, scalable revenue growth while having the highest level of human impact and clinical impact, are leaning into this amorphous, disparate, and asymmetrical blur of chaotic change.”

While saying he “would never minimize, the importance of clinical care,” Webb continued, “the truth of the matter is, there is no way that a patient can determine your clinical skill set, but they always know your experience.”

“You could look at the studies from Deloitte, you could look at the studies from Accenture, from any major research organization,” he said, “I can tell you that revenue flows to where the experience goes. Always.”

The other area that merits attention is emerging technology, because much of what is happening with AI and devices could save time or money or improve experience, Webb said. “We need to reduce costs very proactively.”

Finally, he said it will be important to gain more value from “human capital,” as the phenomenon of “quiet quitting” and other terms to characterize low productivity are not sustainable.

Webb said younger consumers are looking for health care solutions that offer the least amount of friction, such as Amazone One Medical, which offers both in-person and virtual primary care appointments. (That evening, CEO Trent Green stepped down after less than 2 years.)

“More and more companies are looking to own a piece of healthcare, and these are people who have one principal core expertise. Their expertise is delivering exquisite human experiences,” Webb said, noting that it’s not uncommon in many places to take 30 days to get a primary care appointment unless it’s an emergency.

Moving Toward Multimodal AI

Webb said the word “artificial” can mean “fake,” as if it’s not valuable. That’s not the case, he said. “We are quickly moving towards multimodal AI,” which Webb predicts will have a “massive impact in the next 36 months. Multimodal AI refers to systems that can integrate different types of data with video, audio, images, and other media.

When this type of AI is combined with real intelligence or collaborative intelligence, Webb said, “that’s where the magic happens. This will never, ever, ever replace anybody in this room. But I think the adoption and utilization of these incredibly affordable and tremendously impactful technologies will have a big, major impact on organizations that have a wrong philosophical ideology around AI.”

He explained that within any health care organization, there are “spectators” as well as “innovators,” and so far, some health care groups have been skeptical about AI. Webb believes the innovators are poised to gain the upper hand, and this will allow huge savings by using robotic AI processes, freeing staff from monotonous tasks and allowing them to practice at the top of their license.

By pursuing 3 things—a consumer experience strategy, AI automation, and a culture of workforce happiness—Webb says health systems have the chance to improve care delivery and improve the bottom line.

He shared the story of a health system that hired his consulting group to unravel the mystery of high attrition rates, which persisted even after the board authorized millions for extra compensation. Webb’s team gathered feedback.

“They quit because of parking.”

Webb’s consultants suggested a shuttle bus to alleviate the staff headaches, but the board would not implement it.

He shook his head at the foolishness of leaders who would spend millions to keep losing talent but would not spend a fraction of that on a solution. The future will look favorably on those who create the “culture of happiness,” he said.

“These are the things that are kind of low-hanging fruit.”