Healthcare Technology – Improving the Patient Experience
May 11, 2021
Healthcare Technology
The modern-day healthcare industry is more consumer-driven by the patient’s perspective of the hospital environment, and the overall quality of care and experience. The healthcare industry is becoming robust due to medical progress and headway in technology. The ongoing demand and an aging population are guiding in vital changes to improve patient experience and engagement, becoming paramount.
From enhancing scheduling and appointment check-ins to reducing paperwork, administering remote visits, taking lab results through patient portals, and implementing two-way communications with providers in between visits, healthcare providers and tech companies are finding substantially new ways to contribute to care experiences. Let us look at what has emerged in healthcare and health tech due to this devastating pandemic.
Health Tech Strategies
Leaders in today’s healthcare environment are leveraging technology for everything from organizational functions to clinical decisions and analysis. We can denote five areas where healthcare technology, which can dramatically augment patient engagement and healthcare outcomes.
1. Streamlining major administrative processes
A recent study on healthcare consumers discovered that the majority of patients are frustrated and disparaged with their current provider’s digital administration processes. These services include appointment scheduling, online bill adjustments, and access to their insurance data. With the growing consumerization of healthcare, it is plain that patients solicit extensive patient experiences that gradually prolong beyond patient well-being.
With an increasingly digitally aware consumer population, this trend of healthcare patient satisfaction is likely to transpire. This reality makes it imperative for healthcare organizations to reinvest in technology and online patient portals that generate more dependable patient experiences.
2. Enhancing clinical and operational decision-making
Healthcare analytics can dramatically improve patient satisfaction in two fundamental areas: operational effectiveness and clinical decision-making.
Operationally, healthcare organizations, especially large hospital systems, are composed of hundreds of workflows, such as admissions and provider documentation. If even one workflow fragment, delays are disseminated throughout the system, formulating confusion and stress that realistically and negatively impact patient outcomes.
Predictive analytics can help with such workflow difficulties by anticipating resource needs and streamlining the processes of patient admittance and discharge. When correctly stationed in real-time, healthcare analytics can decrease costs, lessen wait times, and enhance the overall patient experience.
In a clinical setting, it facilitates more personalized care and expedites medical diagnoses. Supported by data-driven Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS), physicians can optimize references and medical determinations to the individual.
3. Patient Relationship Management Platforms
The modern healthcare experience has a swiftly growing number of touchpoints and data inputs, building a patient journey that is more intricate in terms of data. While more data can improve the quality of care and thereby patient satisfaction, more erudition is advantageous only to the scope of it used in clinical settings. Thus, healthcare organizations now need active data management tools to captivate patient data to improve the coordination of care and patient-centered outcomes.
Given this evolving need to leverage patient data, healthcare organizations are adapting to patient relationship management (PRM) platforms creating a more holistic patient profile. These tools collectively bring the totality of patient information such as medical history and socioeconomic status, so healthcare providers have access to as much data as possible during patient diagnosis and treatment. PRMs also facilitate shared decision-making because physicians and staff better surmise the actual environment in which their medical recommendations exist. PRM tools provide the quality of care that patients increasingly expect, as concepts like patient-centered outcomes and family-centered care enter cognizance.
4. Enhancing Patient Experience through In-Room Tablets and Smart Displays
Patient engagement during in-patient stays is quite an underappreciated circumstance in the overall patient experience. In healthcare environments, technology can improve this by offering several utilities that consumers use at home. Smart TVs and tablets present access to educational materials about future surgical procedures or discharge instructions.
Patients can also access their health information through mHealth apps, and these uses of everyday technology can very well result in measurably improved outcomes. A brilliant example of a virtual assistant helping patient engagement is at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles.
Conclusion
Today, digital technologies are paving the way for an enhanced patient experience, and medical practices must contemplate strategies that embrace technology and make effective use of tools their patients necessitate.
To sum up, improving patient experience has become a healthcare priority, and the industry is also adapting to these dynamic changes. Health professionals can equal patient expectations through deeper engagement and concentrate on loyalty cultivation and technological immersion.
