Mid-office reinvention builds on history

Today’s medical practices face a decidedly nonmedical dilemma: They need to adopt new technologies to better cope with the effects of a worldwide pandemic and its economic fallout. At the same time, they are so busy trying to survive they may feel they lack the time to implement new tools and procedures.

The way we practice medicine continues to evolve. As patients become more tech-savvy and curious about their health, keeping their patients engaged will become increasingly important. Delivering a quality experience for patients starts by establishing an effective strategy with the tools at your disposal.

The challenge of coronavirus isn’t just coronavirus

Everyone knows an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but what happens when you have difficulty finding that ounce of prevention?

For weeks Americans have missed their daily routines, some of which we’ll catch up on over time. But it can be harder to make up for missing check-ups with doctors and dentists, which often detect conditions that need attention.

Patients are busy. Having a quick and efficient means of setting up an appointment online through healow Open Access® can help you reduce no-shows, keep schedules full, and reduce administrative burdens on staff, all while giving patients the convenience they want of setting up appointments that work with their schedules.

What would a healthcare practice be without patients to care for? Well, probably not much of a practice at all. National Patient Recognition Week is a time for practices to celebrate patients, focus on patient satisfaction, and learn how to keep patients happy and coming back to their practice.

An October 2018 study commissioned by the referral management platform Fibroblast found that 87% of healthcare executives say that addressing the loss of patients to their competitors is a high priority. At the same time, the survey found that about a quarter of executives either do not track so-called patient “leakage” or don’t understand why it occurs and what to do about it.

The healthcare industry is undergoing dramatic efforts to improve the delivery of care. Lots of changes have already occurred that have expanded access to quality care. Now, the challenge is to shift the conversation to focus on optimizing health that emphasizes patient-centered care.

A recent report by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) determined consumers should remain at the center of care to keep them engaged and healthy. CMS describes an optimal patient-provider relationship as one that “[gives] consumers access to their records, [enabling] them to be more active participants in their care, making care more person-centered.”

To thrive in today’s healthcare environment, a strong online presence is vital for quality patient care.

Communication & Connectivity

With value-based care the new standard in medicine, attention is increasingly focused on what healthcare organizations can do to improve Patient Engagement. A clear strategy for retaining patients and attracting new ones is a key part of delivering consistent, quality care. 

An outstanding EHR is essential but not enough. Providers today must respond to patients’ demands for convenience and access — including online portals and telemedicine. 

Successful engagement comes from a commitment to clear, effective communication. That requires paying attention to the technological and human sides of the patient encounter. 

Patient safety is something I could talk about over and over; patient safety has always played —and always will play — a central role in the success of Eagle Physicians and Associates down here in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

Telehealth provides convenient care for patients and offers healthcare professionals a more efficient and effective way to treat them.

July 1996. It’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit with a broken air conditioner in your car. Work starts in five minutes, and you slam on the breaks two inches away from the rusting Nissan Maxima in front of you. 

You can feel the sweat dripping down your forehead as you reach for the eject button on the tape player and feel an insatiable need to scratch your forearm. You scratch and scratch and turn your arm over. There’s a bumpy red rash running half the length of your arm. You won’t be able to see the doctor until Friday. It looks like poison ivy, but who knows?

Today, the most pressing problem you may have in this situation is finding the best time that works to schedule a TeleVisit with a healthcare professional.

Matt Cady, Chief Innovation Officer at Florida’s Adult Medicine of Lake County, says that before his practice began using eClinicalWorks to track patients moving among care settings, they had a system in place: Post-It® Notes and spreadsheets.

In other words, in spite of having the cloud-based eClinicalWorks EHR, when it came to keeping track of patients moving from a hospital setting to home, they were still, in effect, using paper records. Each provider knew what was going on with their patients, but communicating that information to colleagues was cumbersome and time-consuming.

Healthcare has tremendous power to do good, but its very complexity can also bring complications. Nowhere is that clearer than when patients are moving from one care setting to another.

Why do medical practices reach out to their patients? The answer seems obvious — because patients who are engaged in their own care tend to be healthier, which makes the job of the physician easier and helps control costs.

But if the answer is so obvious, why don’t more practices have effective Patient Engagement?

Many physicians and their staffs pride themselves on being able to do lots of different tasks. Their intentions are excellent. Doctors, after all, are in the business of helping patients. So, helping as many as possible in the shortest amount of time can’t be a bad thing, right?