Is the Cutting 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 innovation in healthcare? You might think of a robot that zooms around a hospital like a drug-dispensing Roomba or one of those scanners that takes your temperature as you walk in just by staring at an iPad. Cutting edge technology is cool. Or fire. Or whatever the kids say these days. (As a stepparent I’m often told that I’m saying that wrong). 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 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.

While my stepson was having his experience, I was having one as well. That piece of paper that I picked up at the beginning had all of the answers to all of the questions I didn’t even know I had about the vaccine for kids: what was in it, how it was different than the adult version, what to expect that night and the next day, etc.

Innovation doesn’t have to be a fancy new piece of technology. It can be anything that makes your experience better.

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? Right when I needed it. 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.

Innovation doesn’t have to be a fancy new piece of technology. It can be anything that makes your experience better. That’s why I love working at Bottle Rocket. We’ll work with you and your customers to map out what a good experience is and then help you implement it with both cutting edge technology and existing solutions in the perfect sequence.