Paula Blomquist grew spent most of her career in retail, not healthcare. And that background, she will tell you, is exactly the point.
She worked in consumer marketing learning what she calls retail magic: the ability to anticipate a customer's need before they know they have it. Today, as Chief Experience Officer at GoHealth Urgent Care, she is on a mission to bring that same instinct into clinical settings. Her conversation on The CereCore Podcast is full of practical ideas for how to do it.
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Blomquist has heard the pushback before. This is healthcare, not retail. She takes it seriously. But her argument is simple: a consumer mindset is really just about meeting the needs of people as individuals. It does not replace clinical judgment. It supports the experience around it.
Healthcare is also starting to compete in the way retail does. Patients have options, and they notice when something is hard to use. Health systems that are actually executing digital transformation are proving the point. The ones that are not are feeling the gap.
At GoHealth, the consumer lens shows up in small, practical ways. An IVR system designed around why patients actually call, not just what is easiest to build. Online scheduling and prepay that cuts friction before someone ever walks in the door. AI scribing embedded in the EMR so clinicians can focus on the patient in front of them. "Our goal across all of our digital solutions is to remove as much of the non-clinical tasks from our staff as possible," Blomquist said. "Their need is to provide care, and anything that's not doing that, we've got to try and reduce it."
One of the most practical things Blomquist said had nothing to do with AI or digital transformation. It was a call for process discipline first.
Her observation: organizations tend to throw technology at problems while the underlying process stays broken. Especially in organizations growing through M&A or managing multiple brands across diverse markets, adding tools without fixing the foundation just speeds up the mess.
"I'm a data and math person," she said, "but the biggest thing I've learned over the years is what's not in your database." The point: getting curious about the actual customer experience, walking the centers, watching how people work, reveals things no report ever will.
When GoHealth engaged CereCore for project management, Epic services, and workflow documentation, Blomquist said what made the difference was not just execution. It was prioritization. "They helped us identify the priority areas," she said. "They took my guidance. I always say, you can do anything, but you can't do everything."
The work has compounded. Systems that came out of that engagement are now predictable and stable, which has opened the door for the next layer of automation and AI tools. Some solutions helped cut new team member onboarding time in half.
For leaders looking to improve the patient experience without boiling the ocean, Blomquist offered one practical place to start: get curious about your customer. "Are you in your communities? Are you in your centers? Are you really being curious about your customer?" she asked. "We look at a lot of reports. We spend a lot of time on Teams and Zoom. But what's not in your database?"
Her recommendation: start with scheduling and access. Find where it is hard to do business with your organization. Map the journey. Find the friction. Then, and only then, decide whether your current technology needs to be adjusted or replaced.
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