EXPERIENCE
Is the Cutt ing Edge the Only Place to Innovate? Innovation Doesn’t Always Have to Be About Technology Written By:
MATTHEW TOBIAS
Healthcare Program Manager, Bottle Rocket
What comes to mind when you visualize
While my stepson was having his experience,
Innovation doesn’t have to be a fancy new
innovation in healthcare?
You might think
I was having one as well. That piece of paper
piece of technology. It can be anything that
of a robot that zooms around a hospital
that I picked up at the beginning had all of
makes your experience better. That’s why
like a drug-dispensing Roomba or one of
the answers to all of the questions I didn’t
I love working at Bottle Rocket. We’ll work
those scanners that takes your temperature
even know I had about the vaccine for kids:
with you and your customers to map out
as you walk in just by staring at an iPad.
what was in it, how it was different than the
what a good experience is and then help
Cutting edge technology is cool.
adult version, what to expect that night and
you implement it with both cutting edge
the next day, etc.
technology and existing solutions in the
Or fire.
Or whatever the kids say these days. (As a stepparent I’m often told that I’m saying that But is the cutting edge the only
place to innovate? Shortly after Pfizer’s vaccine was approved for 5–12-year-olds I took my stepson for his first shot at a local clinic. With any healthcare touchpoint a good experience can build trust in a provider, or a bad experience can send the patient seeking another provider. No matter how much I reassured him on the drive over that the needle was no big deal, my stepson was convinced it would be the
perfect sequence.
“ Innovation doesn’t have
to be a fancy new piece of technology. It can be anything that makes your experience bett er. “
wrong).
worst pain in the history of pain. When we walked into the room, I picked up a piece of paper while he was greeted with colors, Marvel super-heroes on the wall, and a smiling staff.
The nurse that
administered the shot reassured him it hurt less than the flu shot and was able to poke him and get him a DC super-hero sticker (my healthcare provider apparently has no brand loyalty to comic book universes) before he even knew what was happening. 15 minutes of SpongeBob later and we were out the door.
The boy’s experience was
as great as could be, but there is nothing particularly innovative about bright colors and distractions for children.
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Again, a piece of paper with after-care instructions is hardly innovative.
You get
one every time you leave a clinic, but when did I get this one? it.
Right when I needed
Instead of growing my own anxiety as
I waited in line and peppering the poor nurse with all of the questions and scenarios I was dreaming up I was able to feel like my stepson was in good hands and move through quickly.
