Ill and in need of care? Then there is often a long wait in Sweden at the emergency where the risk for additional health issues is greater than the chance of getting better. After the visit is a desperate hunt for an open pharmacy. That is often the scenario in health care today. Hours pass from the first contact to the prescription and the drugs in your hands. Long travels for the person who is ill is part of the solution. With digitalisation, new ways of thinking about the care taker (customer) are created from a customer perspective.
Today there are already several alternative for health centrals online. One in Sweden is KRY. KRY offers doctor consultation in an app in the mobile device, either as drop-in or at a specific time. The consultation consist of meeting a physical doctor in a web meeting with your mobile camera. The time is 15 minutes, the same as in a regular visit. The cost is 250 SEK which can be compared to the cost of a visit at a regular health central which differs from where you live. In Stockholm a visit is 200 SEK, but 100 SEK in the region of Västra Götaland. For children and youths under 20 years, the service is free. The doctor can then write a prescription which you can pick up at a pharmacy or order online. You identify yourself by Mobile BankID. There are regulations on which drugs that can be prescribed by net doctors and which symptoms that can be treated online. Drugs that are classed as narcotics are not prescribed, and not drugs that requires a regular contact with the health care, or a physical examination. To take the concept the entire way, KRY has recently started a collaboration with Lloyds pharmacy and have now added the service that after the doctor’s consultation, you can order the prescribed drugs in the app and also add anything else that you need, for example tissues or tablets for a sore throat. You can have the order delivered home with express delivery or other delivery options.
The process can be described:
- The care taker is ill and schedule a time at the digital health central online.
- The doctor has a dialogue with the customer and diagnose.
- The doctor prescribes medicine when it is suitable.
- The customer than decides to pick up the prescription physically, order it online and pick it up or having it home delivered – in the best case immediately.
- The customer ends the mobile dialog.
- At a certain time the doorbell rings and the medicine is delivered if the customer selected home delivery.
The customer can manage the entire process with the mobile unit, from home. The time for the doctor’s consultation, and the time when the products are delivered are selected by the customer. The customer never has to leave the home. For the millennials it is natural to use the mobile unit. To be able to reach the doctor in the mobile unit makes it less dramatic. The customer is not in risk for other diseases in an emergency waiting room, or ending up for hours without food or proper rest. Long travels when you are ill are cut off and you can focus on resting. The care is on the customer’s terms in the customer’s environment instead of the care giver’s.
Is it service? Yes.
New sweet world? Yes.
Kry is a good example when services are combined with e-commerce for a complete service for the customer, where different services are bricks i a total service delivery. It is a way of thinking that increases today and that I am convinced will be more common in the future despite business. In Uppkopplat nr 13 Åsa Lundborg Ling gives another good example of the new player in White Goods in Sweden, Vitvaruexperten.com that successfully combines e-commerce of white goods with consultation, home delivery and installation. Your order is an overall commitment for the supplier creating new collaborations between the main product and other digital services. The order overall is easier for the customer and it well worth paying extra for.
When it comes to defining a new business process and questioning an established, new players are having an easier time competing, since established companies already have processes that works, and are harder to change. By identifying the right process for the customer you can quickly cut market shares and shake the market. It is called disruptive. Disruptive means a total change, a total questioning of old processes and it makes it hard for the established actors to keep up with the rapid change. Disruptive is a word that is everywhere in the trend spotting in 2017. With an escalating digitalisation in the society disruptive will be more common and happened in a faster pace. Players in the market will need to keep an eye at their competitors intensively and create their own disruption. For us as customer it will mean that we will see easier and more customer focused services. We look forward to this.