This year, healthcare organizations have been plunged into new territory. With the need for health services at an all-time high, paired with important social distancing and quarantine measures, organizations, like LabCorp, are taking to the digital realm to continue their services.

In fact, in a recent conversation with Modern Marketing Today, Paige O’Neill, Sitecore Chief Marketing Officer, shared that COVID-19 has accelerated five years of digital maturation into five months.

“In the middle of March, literally overnight, organizations had to react to having little, if any, in-person contact with their customers and pivot to a digital strategy,” O’Neill said. “Combined with the steady rise of consumer expectation about digital experiences and engagement, this was a lot for organizations to take on and drive success.”

LabCorp, a leading global life sciences company, is one organization that tackled this digital shift head-on to aid in the coronavirus fight. In July, LabCorp announced the first digital COVID-19 testing service in an effort to better both patient and provider experience.

The service sends a COVID-19 test directly to a patient so they can administer the test themselves at home, arrange for the test to be delivered back to the lab, and handle all the data processing to ensure patients and providers have the latest knowledge and can move forward safely with regular appointments.

“The continuing COVID-19 crisis has forced the delay of many appointments, screenings, and surgeries, putting people with serious medical conditions at increased risk.” said Dr. Brian Caveney, Chief Medical Officer and President of LabCorp Diagnostics. “Our LabCorp At Home Service is simple for doctors to order and convenient for patients to use, enabling surgeries and other important treatments to get back on track so patients can manage and improve their health,”

Once these tests are sent to patients, the experience includes that they receive information that will walk them through the testing process, keep them engaged with resources as the test is evaluated, and educate them on practices to stay healthy. With personalized digital content, a service like this can keep patients engaged and supported – before, during, and after the process.

For organizations of any size, powering a digital experience of this caliber requires serving up the right content to the right people at the right time.

“It’s important to never underestimate the complexity of this kind of undertaking,” O’Neill advised. “It requires a clear strategy that’s based on understanding the customer first and then the technology that will help your team roadmap the customer journey and meet their expectations of what their journey with your brand will be like.”

As COVID-19 testing continues and the hopes of a vaccine breach the horizon, it’s important that healthcare organizations continue to move forward with a digital strategy to keep patients healthy. And this strategy needs to focus on the people with personalized, patient-centric experiences.

Find out more on how be patient-centric and respond urgently in the digital age with the eBook: The Patient is Ready to See You.