How Platform Technology Can Improve the Healthcare
The patient's impression of the hospital staff, hospital environment, and overall quality of care and experience has become increasingly consumer-driven in.
Updated
On this page
Key takeaways
- The patient’s impression of the hospital staff, hospital environment, and overall quality of care and experience has become increasingly consumer-driven in today’s healthcare sector.
- Healthcare analytic have an impact on every aspect of the healthcare system and can significantly raise patient satisfaction in two crucial areas: clinical decision-making and operational effectiveness.
- Patient satisfaction is a key indicator of the caliber of healthcare.
The patient’s impression of the hospital staff, hospital environment, and overall quality of care and experience has become increasingly consumer-driven in today’s healthcare sector. Patients with much more access to the internet seek out the most appropriate medical solutions online, analyze reviews from various resources, and make provider decisions based on a large amount of data accessible.
The market has become increasingly competitive as a result of these digital-first behaviors, and improving patient satisfaction is currently just as important in the healthcare sector as it was in more traditionally consumer-focused ones.
The intensity to which customers are satisfied with their overall experiences is characterized as a patient satisfaction level, and the “patient experience” is becoming an increasingly important indicator for healthcare facilities.
Technologies that improve the patient experience are becoming a significant component of healthcare businesses’ strategic plans as patient-centered care gains traction. Furthermore, patient satisfaction primarily relies on how well a patient is treated, but it also depends on how effectively they expect to be treated.
A healthcare business must have a patient experience strategy in place and although patient satisfaction is a subjective statistic for a number of reasons:
- Patient experience is a competitive differentiator in a crowded market thanks to the consumerization of healthcare.
- Patient satisfaction is often used as a proxy for evaluating the performance of healthcare professionals.
- The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program(VBP). of the U. S. federal government considers patient satisfaction.
To enhance the overall patient experience, more strategic use of technology will be needed as organizations begin to emphasize patient happiness. The firms that successfully integrate technology into both their patient engagement strategy and operational framework will thrive in today’s healthcare market. That entails utilizing technology for all tasks, including administrative duties, clinical judgments, and research.
We’ll outline five areas below where technology can most significantly enhance patient engagement, satisfaction, and medical outcomes.
Simplify Bureaucratic Procedures That Irritate Patients #
In any and every aspect of their lives, consumers demand a seamless experience, and the health sector is no different. After all, why shouldn’t a patient’s healthcare services be accessible at the press of a button, similar to everything else?
According to patient feedback, many healthcare service providers now fall well short of offering top-notch patient experiences.
According to a 2019 study on healthcare customers, almost half of respondents were dissatisfied with the way their current provider handled digital administration tasks, such as arranging appointments, accepting payments online, and providing access to insurance information. The numbers were substantially skewed by age, which would be telling.
Merely 29% of people over the age of 65 indicated the same level of patient dissatisfaction with digital healthcare procedures, compared to nearly two-thirds of people aged 18 to 24. Almost half of those surveyed said they’d think about switching to a healthcare provider who offered better digital patient interaction, and 20% of respondents said they had abandoned a previous healthcare provider as a result of inadequate digital patient engagement.
Utilize Virtual Technologies to Improve Patient Encounters #
Consumers anticipate rapid and simple access to administrative services, just as they anticipate similar access to care. In fact, according to a poll on patient satisfaction, 70% of customers say they put off scheduling medical appointments in part because going to the doctor simply takes too long.
Even though 20 minutes may not seem like a long wait, when added to travel time and real appointment time, it’s enough to have a negative effect on patient satisfaction. In clinical practises, the average wait time in 2017 was 20 minutes. Extended waiting time has an effect beyond just making customers dissatisfied with their wasted time.
Utilize Healthcare Data to Improve Clinical and Operational Decision-making #
Healthcare analytic have an impact on every aspect of the healthcare system and can significantly raise patient satisfaction in two crucial areas: clinical decision-making and operational effectiveness.
Healthcare firms have many of the same operational difficulties as other consumer-oriented industries, especially major hospital systems. They are made up of numerous workflows, including those for admissions, medicine administration, and provider documentation. If one workflow fails, delays will propagate throughout the entire system, causing stress and uncertainty that will have an adverse effect on patient outcomes and satisfaction.
Medical diagnoses are performed more quickly and accurately thanks to machine learning algorithms. A stroke diagnosis takes 30 minutes less time at the Mayo Clinic, for instance, thanks to artificial intelligence. This is a major improvement in an emergency situation where every second counts.
Moreover, Google Cloud offers managed data capabilities that let any organization use analytic and machine learning engines on their patient data, despite the fact that the IT task of adopting these tools may appear intimidating.
“Patient Relationship Management Platforms” would Help with Care Coordination and Communication #
The number of touchpoints and data inputs in the modern healthcare experience is rapidly increasing, making the patient journey more convoluted than ever whilst simultaneously producing more data than ever.
Healthcare data is expected to rise at a rate of over 36% over the next five years, faster than any other industry, based on a recent International Data Corporation analysis. The quality of care and patient satisfaction could both be raised by having more data, but this is only true to the extent that it is applied in clinical settings. In order to improve care coordination and patient-centered outcomes, healthcare organizations increasingly need efficient data management technologies to collect patient data.
With ideas of patient-centered outcomes and family-centered care are becoming more widely accepted, huge organizations that provide everything from primary care to in-home nursing can effectively deliver the kind of care that people are coming to expect.
Patient Experience Improvement Using Tablets and Smart Displays #
A crucial aspect of the patient experience that is undervalued is patient engagement during stays. Technologies can improve the patient experience in healthcare institutions by providing many of the same conveniences that consumers take for granted at home.
Examples of devices that offer access to educational materials about a surgical procedure or discharge/aftercare instructions include smart TVs and tablets.
Together, these everyday technological applications can include patients in their own care, leading to measurably better results.
As an additional tool to engage patients, virtual assistants are now making an appearance in hospital rooms. Amazon Echos allow patients at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angels control televisions and play music. Patients can call for nurses by saying, “Alex, tell my nurse I need…”
These patient engagement strategies are only a handful of the numerous ways that technology is transforming the patient experience in healthcare.
Conclusion #
Patient satisfaction is a key indicator of the caliber of healthcare. However, as ideas like “family-centered care” and “patient-centered outcomes”—which, at their core, simply refer to a focus on the patient as an individual—become more widely understood, there will be more opportunities to use digital tools and technologies to better meet more individualized, people’s needs.
Related reading