Memo to the state highway administrators in Ohio—the sign for exit 24 should come after the sign for exit 22, not before it.

Anyway, where were we?  I had a wonderful call this week with the Chief Marketing Officer of one of the leading Children’s Hospitals.  She mentioned that the average age of their patients’ mothers is twenty-seven years old.

That prompted me to do some research.  The PEW Foundation has all sort of information about people of all age groups including twenty-something moms and dads.  And guess what?  They have computers (+90%) and smart phones (+85%) and tablets (+30%).

I am visiting a hospital in the Cincinnati area today.  I walked around, visited the lobby, went to the cafeteria—the food was very good, dropped by the gift shop—they do not sell ear plugs; not good, and I generally observed people.

The Roemer Foundation reports the following—everyone from the staff to the patients to the visitors was doing something electronic.  Moms, dads, kids, and for the “old people don’t use the internet” naysayers, yes, even the grandparents were online.

They were texting and talking and reading and emailing and downloading and watching.  The only thing they were not doing was interacting with the hospital on a mobile device.  Why?  In large part because the hospital does not have an app that is worthy of their time, an app that would allow them to do anything.

The whole of America has gone wireless.  This is how we interact, how we communicate, and how we do business.

Riddle me this Batman—if Americans in ever increasing numbers are conducting all of their business affairs online and your hospital does not allow them to do that, won’t those people find a hospital who allows them to conduct all of their business online in much the same way as Amazon?

There is no patient experience without experiencing your patients.