Blog Posts

Is your patient engagement strategy missing these core objectives?

My passion for digital consumer engagement and provider solutions has only intensified over my 20 years in this field. I see healthcare headed in the direction of enabling the next-generation digital front-door strategy.

An effective patient engagement/digital front-door strategy can achieve many things. It can drive patient acquisition and retention, improve the patient relationship and experience, and eliminate gaps in the patient experience.

There are keys to mastering this strategy, starting with a mobile-first approach that complements and extends beyond the traditional patient portal experience. Why? Because incorporating patient engagement and mobile technology beyond the traditional walls of the hospital or practice guides the patient through the enterprise—pre-care, point of care, post-care.

The new age of healthcare consumerism

 We sometimes forget that patients ARE consumers. Patients live in an on-demand economy. Because of the technology we use to transact every day, patient engagement opportunities are not limited or bound to a physical doctor’s office.

Other industries, such as finance, retail and entertainment, employ omni-channel techniques to create a holistic, unified experience. Think about your most recent experiences with Netflix, Amazon or your banking institution.

Whether patients are at the hospital, a clinic or in a virtual visit, the access to their information should be unified and ubiquitous.

I’ve heard leaders say they are less concerned about the traditional competitors down the street. They are more worried about the new market disruptors (Amazon, CVS/Aetna, Google) who have known how to connect with the consumer for the last decade.

Health systems can prepare for this shift by going beyond the portal

Patient engagement’s role in value-based care is significant. CIOs count on patient engagement to increase patient acquisition and retention, patient experience and patient flow.

For digital front-door strategies to be successful, a health system should prioritize business drivers, core principles and patient-relationship management.

 

• Business drivers
  • Meet advanced MU/MIPS/MACRA or any regulatory criteria
    • Coordination of care
    • Patient Access
    • HIE
  • Drive patient acquisition and retention to network providers and services
  • Improve quality of care and support value-based opportunities

 

• Core requirements
  • Integration with financial and clinical initiatives and workflows
  • Push technology (mobile solution) vs. current pull technology (portals)
  • Ability to interact with patients on the devices they use
  • Consolidate patient technology footprint and increase utilization

 

• Patient relationship management
  • Context of all interactions to the patient
  • Identifying/automating the engagement/navigational opportunities
  • Interventional pathways to the patient based on exceptions

A patient portal alone doesn’t create a well-rounded engagement strategy. Patients are turned off by disjointed technologies. Healthcare organizations suffer because costs are higher when implementing and maintaining multiple solutions, diminishing ROI as a result.

Meeting patients where they are

A great engagement platform enables hospitals to easily transition to a mobile-first model while also incorporating omni-channel capabilities and ensuring the patient experience is never interrupted. The platform engages the patient through every step of the patient experience. I’m excited about these tools that are providing patients a convenient, digital-first experience they are expecting.

To hear Mr. Khirsukhani discuss this topic in depth, listen to the webinar recording here.