This article was written by Carrie Liken, Head of Industry for Healthcare at Yext. Carrie leads all initiatives related to healthcare, including strategy, product and partnership development, marketing and sales. 

While our lives are very different today than they were a year ago, changes and innovation continues in healthcare, even in a pandemic! Over the past few months and in speaking to hundreds of healthcare organizations, no two organizations have reacted in the same way to the pandemic and its aftermath. Out of all of these conversations, we’ve seen three trends consistently rise to the top:

1. Conveying safety. Some health systems have seen a return to almost normal patient volume, whereas others are still struggling to drive patients to in-person visits. Key questions we are seeing in search as well as among our healthcare clients include questions around how safe it is to go to the hospital. The more health systems can help patients and consumers convey this safety -- on your website, via marketing campaigns and more -- the more patients can gain confidence in the care they will receive in person
2. Increased interest in “local” healthcare. In a September analysis of our customers’ analytics data, we have seen an 80% YoY increase in people searching for “healthcare near me” or “healthcare [town]”. In our April 2020 analysis, that number was only at 25%! Given that we are moving into the winter months, we anticipate that people will continue to seek healthcare locally, so it will be even more important for healthcare organizations to employ the proper digital strategies to capture a patient or consumer anywhere she is seeking care -- from search engines, to listings, to your website’s pages or your find a doctor, too. This means that you can maximize opportunities to take a spot from a competitor and gain a patient in the process.
3. Digital is more important now than it ever has been. As we’ve seen in recent months, digital is functionally the only pandemic-proof experience. Never before has it been more critical to know where your providers work, what specialties and conditions they treat, who accepts virtual visits, and beyond. Having command over your provider and facility data -- in a knowledge graph and in other data management systems, can help set you up for success now and for future emergencies and pandemics.

This pandemic has changed the healthcare landscape. Well, it’s changed the industry! And digital has never been more important to conveying safety, driving local discovery and ensuring you have a command over the data that helps drive revenue for your system.