Second Annual Report from NRC Health Highlights Major Trends in Pediatric Care

Findings from survey of pediatric consumers reveal shifts in parental needs and healthcare trends crucial to serving pediatric patients and their families in a post-COVID world

LINCOLN, Neb., March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NRC Health, the leading provider of in-depth customer insights in healthcare, today released its 2022 Pediatric Consumer Trends Report, the second installment of its annual report focused on the evolving sentiments of pediatric consumers and their caregivers through the lens of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and against the backdrop of a potential post-COVID era for healthcare. Based on millions of data points captured from hundreds of thousands of consumer households, the report discusses several topics of crucial importance to pediatric healthcare leaders today, including the decrease in pediatric healthcare deferment, the rise in telehealth adoption, and the emerging mental-health crisis in youth.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a light on the critical nature of patient care, especially for our pediatric community and the need to drive change where we can,” said Helen Hrdy, Chief Growth Officer at NRC Health. “It’s important that we look at what we did this past year in healthcare and identify a path moving forward for growth and success in an ever-evolving and ever-challenging industry.”

This year’s report takes a look at what the pediatric consumer population needs and wants from its healthcare providers and the benefit of incorporating Human Understanding into an organization to transform its pediatric healthcare output for the better. This includes but is not limited to working with families to keep children up to date with all recommended vaccinations, prioritizing provider time, attentiveness, and financial transparency in telehealth offerings, as well as maximizing communication in offering mental-health resources and preventative mental-health services to help decrease pediatric hospitalizations.

Report Highlights:

• Parents are delaying healthcare less for their children – The rate at which parents are resuming services has risen by 135% from 2020 to 2021 across all major service lines, with the largest increases occurring in urgent care (+170%) and emergency service (+158%) settings.
• There is a strong sense of excitement around telehealth – Before the pandemic occurred, telehealth was in existence but it wasn’t as widely utilized, especially in pediatrics. Now, telehealth adoption has jumped 5.2% since pre-pandemic and excitement has increased amongst parents compared to those without children by 10.8%.
• Pandemic hardships have had a drastic impact on mental-health in children – Between 2020 and 2021, mental-health hospitalizations have increased by 163%, with suspected suicide attempts also on the rise.
• Healthcare recall is rising across the healthcare industry in general but not in pediatrics – For adults visiting healthcare organizations, marketing recall has increased 4.8% from its lowest point of 59.4% in 2020 to 66.3% in 2021. However, for pediatric facilities specifically, that percentage has remained stagnant (at 1.5%) in both 2020 and 2021.
• Consumer Net Promoter Scores (NPS) in pediatrics is not climbing – In fact, the pediatric patient experience peaked during the onset of the pandemic—with an NPS at 69 in April 2020 for hospital inpatients and emergency departments—but has been declining since, resulting in an NPS of 53 in December 2021.

The 2022 Pediatric Consumer Trends Report is based on the single largest database of healthcare consumers, with sentiment data from more than 300,000 American households sourced from more than 580 healthcare organizations across all 50 states.

About NRC Health
For more than 40 years, NRC Health (NASDAQ: NRC) has been committed to achieving Human Understanding and bringing healthcare organizations closer to their customers than ever before by illuminating and improving the key moments that define an experience and build trust. Guided by their uniquely empathic heritage, proprietary methods, skilled associates, and holistic approach, NRC Health helps its customers design experiences that exceed expectations, inspire loyalty, and improve well-being among patients, residents, physicians, nurses, and staff.

For more information, email info@nrchealth.com or visit www.nrchealth.com.

Press Contact:
Jennifer Lyle
Barokas, a FINN Partners Company
nrchealth@finnpartners.com