Transforming Healthcare: Advocate Health’s Shift to Platforms 

Jeff Gourdji, Senior Partner at Prophet, spoke with a number of healthcare leaders to learn more about the challenges and opportunities for platform thinking in healthcare. Here, he speaks with Jamey Shiels, SVP Consumer & Digital Experience at Advocate Health, on the process of driving momentum for and implementing a platform in a health system. 

Deploying a platform approach will be crucial for businesses to thrive going forward. As our colleagues Ted Moser, Charlotte Bloom, and Omar Akhtar observe in their book, “Winning Through Platforms: How to Succeed When Every Competitor Has One” platforms illuminate parts of the customer journey that have historically been dark by enabling companies to have a better, holistic understanding of how customers engage with the organization. In the last decade or so, health systems have begun to observe customers during the “choose” part of the journey, but platforms could enable health systems to understand the “use” part of the journey and how to personalize it to consumers.     

In this illuminating interview with Jamey Shiels of Advocate Health, he shares how he overcame the barriers to building a platform – from driving organizational buy-in to clearly defining a set of metrics to measure key experiences. He highlights how a clear connection between patient needs and business requirements was key to demonstrating potential impact and showcasing the value for a health system in adapting a platform approach. 

What enabled you to align the leadership that platforms were the right move for the business? 

First, our Chief Marketing Officer at the time, Kelly Jo Golson, made [the LiveWell platform] a priority for our brand marketing and experience teams. She determined we were going to be a consumer first organization and platforms were the way to get there. She was able to onboard senior leadership to that vision and align support across the enterprise. 

Second, we built a consumer-first executive committee that allowed us to bring [together] all the key stakeholders that knew we were going to need — Operations, Medical Group, Finance, HR were all in the room with us as we presented the strategy, got buy in and support, and achieved goal alignment.  

Third, we developed a set of metrics called ‘ease of use’ metrics that measure different encounters patients have on the platform and allow consumers to give feedback. We created a closed feedback loop [that allows us to] make improvements that both benefit the consumer as well as the operational people on the other side. We also built those metrics into our incentive plan, so anybody in the organization who was incentive eligible was very interested in embedding the platform into their day-to-day work.  

How did the business determine implementing a platform strategy was beneficial for the reputation of Advocate Health and its success? 

Our challenge was– especially in healthcare – ‘consume’ means ‘use’ and doesn’t mean ‘choose.’ The idea of a patient as a consumer was difficult for some to understand, so we had to go upstream and find a way to understand consumer choice.  

We first aligned consumer insights to our core business metrics of awareness and acquisition. We wanted to go into market with a brand and an experience that would encourage consumers to choose us before [they] use us. 

The second step was in the form of acquisition. Consumers are looking for their wants and needs [to be met when] finding a physician. Therefore, we looked into some of the metrics that the operations team was using in the onboarding experience and connected those to the clinical experience to demonstrate if we lift consumer metrics, we can lift business metrics. That connection between what matters most to consumers with what matters to the businesses was key.  

“I think that’s where platforms can really play a role, by making those connections and making them much easier than they historically have been.” 

Was there a specific leader whose support was crucial in getting marketing, compliance, and clinical leaders on board with this initiative? 

The key leader was our Chief Operating Officer, who had accountability for the medical group, operations, and P&L for the organization and knew the different parts of the business that we needed to align with.  

A big piece [of getting alignment] was saying: ‘We want to co-create this with your team.’ We emphasized how we’re solving consumer needs as well as the business problems.  

Can you talk about the capabilities you built in the platform as you started to build momentum? 

The core functionality that needs to be in a platform is your EHR and transactional HR data. We wrapped that EHR data with a fledgling platform. That gave us the infrastructure to start to add features that improved the patient and clinical experience – and extended into health and wellness.  

We’re also working on integrating third party products into the platform for care-at-home and digital therapeutics. We want to create a true multi-sided marketplace for healthcare that connects health and wellness creators to consumers.   

What was the role of the clinicians in all this? What role are they now playing in advocating for the platform? 

Whether it was governance or co-creation, [clinicians] needed to have a voice in the room. We designed a partnership with a clinical leadership team [to drive] co-creation across the board. We asked: ‘How does this improve your work and fit into your day?’ The benefit is that now, when you go into one of our physicians’ offices, you’ll hear them talk about LiveWell.  

“We’ve seen continued uptake with LiveWell; it is now fully embedded in the operations of our organization.” 

What operational challenges were you solving for with platforms? 

There are three problem areas that we’ve looked at over the last few years: 

1. Online scheduling takes call volume out. When you can message your provider in a secure platform it reduces call volume at the front desk, but you have to ensure you can manage and service the messages on behalf of physicians. 
2. We have a mail order pharmacy that in our Midwest region generates 7 million calls a year related to prescription refill. We think we can take half of that out through new systems automation feature functionality in the platform.  
3. E-Check-In, self service capabilities built in the platform make the consumer’s life easier and helps the frontline staff.  

Where is the platform going in the future? 

“We think the idea of platforms as a business model [in healthcare] for the benefit of consumers and the business is where the future is.” 

The challenge we’re facing from a healthcare perspective is the battle for the soul of the platform. Is that going to be the EHR? Vendors? EPIC primarily? Or third parties? Or are the health systems going to try to step up? Do you want to differentiate within your market, and do you want to deliver an exceptional consumer experience?  

“We’re going to go big into the platform space because we think it is the right decision for our business, and the future of business.” 

---

About Jamey: As Senior Vice President, Consumer and Digital Experience at Advocate Health, Jamey Shiels leads enterprise activities focused on creating a personalized and seamless consumer experience that improves engagement and health outcomes as well as business value through growth and cost-savings.  

About Jeff: Jeff Gourdji is a Senior Partner at Prophet and is responsible for leading client engagements across the firm’s range of solutions. As a leader of Prophet’s healthcare industry practice, Jeff works with clients across the healthcare ecosystem, including provider systems, payers, healthcare technology and life sciences companies. 

---