Today’s patient expects convenience — and your success depends on it. Digitization has radically reshaped consumer expectations around convenience, ease, and personalization. And these expectations have now reached the healthcare industry in a rapid manner.
Digitization helps healthcare organizations gain patient trust and loyalty by meeting them where they are. To thrive in the era of convenience and immediacy, hospitals and medical groups must be able to humanize patient experiences — at every step, and at any scale. This includes in-office visits, virtual interactions, and any kind of communication.
In this article, we dive into how you can leverage the power of technology to move your healthcare organization from reactive to proactive patient care by eliminating repetitive manual tasks.
How Healthcare Organizations Can Leverage Technology to Improve Patient Experience
New solutions are emerging to enhance patient experience and improve satisfaction. Technology companies today innovate new products around scheduling and notification, as well as bridging their customers with the rest of the healthcare processes.
Here are some tips for improving patient satisfaction:
- Give patients access to voice, web, chatbot, and SMS scheduling. The fastest way to improve patient satisfaction is by giving patients access to user interfaces that help them manage their health in convenient ways. This allows patients to speak to their doctor through text chat, and receive appointment reminders through SMS or email.
- Provide smart care routing and one-click scheduling for existing patients. It allows for a streamlined communication interface for coordinating appointments and follow-ups.
- Adopt integrated on-demand care options (Telehealth) for fast-tracking and care delivery arbitrage. Virtual appointments and telecare options are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to traditional visits in the wake of COVID-19. Patients can easily see their doctors without having to drive to the health facility.
- Adopt integrated modern communication tools. Patients expect super-fast, responsive service and better care coordination. Tools such as email or 2-way SMS can help doctors and medical staff with a responsive service.
- Replace digital fragmented experiences with personalized and convenient care. To create a personalized experience, create a seamless customer journey across devices and channels.
- Provide connected patient experiences along with all the operational workflows and processes in the healthcare ecosystem. Healthcare organizations should stay up-to-date with their patients’ situations and know where they are throughout the stages of the journey.
- Phone call automation with smart virtual voice assistant to handle existing patient requests 24/7. Patients want to be able to get help at any time of day which is why it’s of utmost importance for healthcare organizations to provide round-the-clock help using the right customer support channels.
- Smart care alerts based on specific encounter reminders, patient prep, and care gap closures. Smart care alerts are designed to provide personalized and proactive care to lessen the likelihood of emergencies.
- Elevate the voice of the patient by engaging them pre-visit, during, and post-visit. Digital feedback is crucial for improving processes and quality of care. The data analyzed through ratings and reviews can be used to develop appropriate strategies for improvement.
- Help patients feel informed, engaged, confident, and empowered with automation. Automation helps them stay updated with relevant health-related information every time there is a new medical update in their area of interest.
- Referral automation. This ensures an organization can meticulously track the patient experience since it includes the time from when a referral was received to when it’s scheduled and when they meet up for an appointment. With this data-driven approach, a health facility can identify opportunities for improvement that will drive more efficient service delivery.
The Push Toward Proactive Patient Care
Proactive healthcare prevents risks and reduces the intensity of an illness. Patients get earlier access to critical and relevant health information and medical practitioners can amply prepare ahead.
Steer patient experience and growth platform is designed to meet the consumer-centric needs of the modern healthcare practice, catering to today’s patient. By using a single, integrated platform to manage your online and in-person workflows, you can personalize the patient experience to keep people engaged, and keep them coming back.
