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Amidst all the hot topics swirling in the health care arena – “Meaningful Use/MIPS”. . . “FPAR” . . . “Opioid Crisis” – one topic off the radar from “bureaucratic speak” has caught our eye:  the impact the generational cohort known as “Millennials” is having on every level of the sector.  As such, Patagonia Health is going to take the next few blogs to dive deep into the ways every health-providing agency should sit up and take notice of this major force of influence; for if we know one thing, Millennials are Change-Makers.

Starting at the surface, here are a few “factoids” one should know about the Millennial generation:

• The term “Millennial” includes people born between the early 1980’s and late 1990’s.
• Millennials, as children of the Baby Boomer generation, have actually surpassed “Baby Boomers” as the “nation’s largest living adult generation,” according to the Pew Research Center in a report published in March 2018.
• Millennials are the first generation to be considered “digital natives”. In other words, they have “grown up using technology fluently and fluidly,” according to a report by Kantar Consulting.

The last fact is significant – -and when it gets “exponentialized” because of the size of the contingent, here’s what it means for healthcare agencies:

Millennials are tech savvy.  And agencies which fail to present a forward-looking, similarly-tech-savvy image and fail to utilize digital tools will be immediately judged by Millennials as “archaic” and “redundant” – and instantly become discredited as a viable and respected resource for healthcare or even as a place of employment.  Utilization of cloud-based electronic health record software which enables “tech-savvy” communication is one critical component to reaching this generation.

Not only are these vital facts already making waves in several key sectors, they are also predicted to resound at even a larger level as Millennials age and take over managing the care of their aging parents.

So . . . stay tuned, as Patagonia Health explores this intriguing and change-making generation. A word to the wise:  Fasten your seatbelts.  When we say Change-Makers . . . we mean it.