7 Tools to Enhance Patient Engagement
Improving the quality of care for patients has always been a challenge for medical professionals. Medical tools enrich patient engagement by 73%. Consumers get accessibility to the portal and understand their situation better.
The patient’s quality of care is defined by the extent to which individual and population health services increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.
Medical tools such as an EHR, telemed, and patients portal enhance the quality by reducing readmissions, improving outcomes, and achieving even higher patient satisfaction.
This blog will study the various tools and strategies that can boost your profession and provide better patient care. If you’re looking for an opportunity to start your clinic, read till the end, as there’s a perfect solution to your concern.
1. Appointment Scheduling App
The world is advancing, and so is our technology. Today, more than 63% of appointments are scheduled online. Patients need not visit a clinic, stand in queue for hours, and book an appointment.
Instead, they can log in to their doctor’s website, find a suitable date and book their appointment within a few clicks. Also, 68% of patients prefer professionals who allow patients to book, change, or cancel appointments online.
The online free appointment scheduling feature is the best way to improve the quality of care. After covid, many patients refrain from visiting the hospitals, spend hours in the long queue, and book appointments.
Also, when others cancel at the last minute, it allows new patients to see you sooner. This is significant because, according to Patient Pop research, new patients who wait more than a month for their appointments are twice as likely to cancel as those who are scheduled within a week. This is a win-win situation for your company and your patients.
2. Appointment Reminders
No-show rates are a significant concern. Due to constant work pressure and never-ending hassles, patients tend to forget more about their health than their deliverables. This is one of the reasons why the quality of care is improvised significantly in developing countries.
After booking an appointment, patients often hop back to their daily hustle and need help keeping track of their commitments. One of the best features that can help your clinic stand out from others and increase revenue is reminders.
Choose the one that will benefit your health system:
- 1. Reduce absenteeism.
- 2. Encourage patients to cancel if they are unable to attend.
- 3. Make sure that reminders are seen.
- 4. Make some room in your schedule.
- 5. Reduce the workload of front-office personnel.
Note: Do not spam the patients with unnecessary information, as it may create a wrong impression.
Best practices at Healthtech Zone recommend sending patients no more than three appointment reminders. Manage to space out these reminders periodically.
Prioritize user experience and patient satisfaction in your patient engagement strategy.
3. No-show outreach
No-shows cost a health system a lot of money and can mess up your team’s workflow by taking an appointment away from another patient and disrupting a smooth walk-in visit. Digital patient engagement tools can send a reminder to the patients and make sure they turn in when it’s their appointment.
One of the most successful measures to reduce the no-show rate is to take follow-ups before an appointment.
In a case study published by Patient Engagement HIT, NYC Health, Hospitals used short text messages to touch base with patients before their appointments, asking them to confirm that they were coming. After the successful implementation of the follow-up technique, missed appointments dropped to 27%. They shrank to 21% in another six months — quite low for such a large health system.
Aside from encouraging patients to make appointments, you should look for patient engagement tools that will allow you to learn when they won’t be able to attend — and do so in time to schedule another appointment. Your Care Management platform should integrate with your call center so patients can manage their care online. Frontline staff can see canceled appointments in real-time and schedule new ones quickly.
4. Patients Portal
Presently, most Patients Portal are willing to inquire about their situation and prefer to be kept informed. A platform that summarises their medical journey, doctor’s encounters, prescriptions, and medical bills can help them get a better understanding.
Most hospitals have a portal that provides them with the patient’s history through a unique code. Patients will have access to this portal using the credentials that have been assigned to them. It is advised that they must access the portal through their devices and never share it with anyone else. As it may cause an information breach.
Multiple vendors provide a 360-degree platform that allows them to book appointments, schedule virtual meetings, make payments, and store records.
When patients have control over their healthcare, they communicate more frequently, and their satisfaction rises as they feel supported between visits.
5. On-call support
A route to customer satisfaction goes through incomparable customer support. Patients face many dilemmas considering the required treatments, bills, appointments, and documents.
Each clinic should appoint a person that can help others to sort out the confusion. They can even expand their business and appoint a full-fledged customer support team..
According to McKesson, pharmaceuticals can generate a three-to-one return on investment, driving revenue and patient loyalty to health systems. They return again and again when they are helped quickly in their time of need. That is the highest return on investment for any practice.
An experienced individual can handle the entire transaction, freeing up time for the clinical team to interact with their patients on their terms.
6. TeleMedicine Services
When the patient and the provider are not physically present, telemedicine provides care to patients remotely. Technological advancements allow doctors to consult with patients using HIPAA-compliant video conferencing tools.
Telemedicine services increase patient engagement and make healthcare consultations more practical and affordable. Additionally, patients without access to urgent care or a nearby hospital can receive a professional consultation virtually.
Each patient is required to respond to a series of questions from the doctor. After that is finished, medical professionals inquire about their regular activities and record information in their EHR system. They assess the information in light of what they know and quickly make a suggestion.
By using telemedicine software, patients do not have to schedule an appointment to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. Online consultations allow patients to consult a doctor at their convenience.
7. Payment Gateways
Over the past few years, the adoption of an EHR by office-based physicians has nearly doubled, rising from about 40% to 89%. Why is that? because they are receiving better and quicker payments. Although it is prestigious, volunteering for a cause or a group cannot be done solely for financial gain. Therefore, a clinic and patient management system EHR is required to support daily expenses and increase earning potential.
With modern client billing and payments, you can easily get paid more quickly as a medical professional. Utilizing the simple bill-generating feature simplifies payment. Patients may also create their invoices. Additionally, they can modify it as needed and pay the fee.
The tool supports numerous payment gateways, including UPI, cards, net banking, and others. You can collect payments using the integrated Paypal integration.
Not only that, but you can support WooCommerce payment gateways with the premium version. Even email can be used by a medical professional to share invoices. The invoices can be sent via email with just one click.
A Perfect Solution!
All these tools are summed up in a meticulously framed industry-driven tool that is intuitive and well-structured. Presenting Kivicare, a WordPress clinic and patient management system that can simplify the process with a few mouse clicks.
All these tools are summed up in a meticulously framed industry-driven tool that is intuitive and well-structured. Presenting Kivicare, a WordPress clinic and patient management system that can simplify the process with a few mouse clicks.
KiviCare’s Complete Clinic Management Solution self-hosted EHR solution is the most cost effective and simple solution for growing practices. This plugin makes it easy for you to set up an online clinic and manage the entire process, from booking to billing.
You can also manage multiple clinics and save hundreds of patient profiles. Additionally, you can get video conferencing facilities through their advanced telemedicine add-ons.
Start your virtual clinic today!