To Connect with Gen Z Patients, It Helps to Know What They Want from Healthcare Providers

Much is made of differences perceived among patients born into one generation or another—Gen Xers do this, Millennials don’t want that…. There’s more to it than simplified stereotypes, though. According to an article recently published by Becker’s Hospital Review, reaching  Generation Z patients and motivating them to visit urgent care when they have healthcare needs may require you to adapt your offerings, or at least your messaging. Drawn from research conducted by the management consulting firm Oliver Wyman, based on 2 years of focus groups and an online survey of 10,000 participants in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, the article notes that Gen Z patients are twice as likely as other age groups to seek medical information through social media platforms. So, intuitively, having a strong presence on social media may give you a leg up on other healthcare facilities that don’t if you want to draw patients 18 to 25 years of age (the parameters of Generation Z per the parameters of the research). You may find that age group more conversant about their own perceptions of healthcare, as well; 63% of Gen Z patients are more willing than other groups to talk about menstrual cycles, 41% are more willing to discuss addiction, and 20% percent more willing to talk about mental health. If you missed the articles JUCM has published on attracting patients of various generational groups, read To Appeal to Millennials, You Need a Purpose and Urgent Care Looks to Find Its Identity Through Gen Z and Millennials in our archive right now.