Modern Patient and Staff Engagement
Overview – Extending Patient Engagement
Generating the Ideal Outpatient Experience
Modern patient engagement refers to the active involvement of patients in their healthcare decisions, treatment plans, and overall management of their health. It has become a crucial aspect of contemporary healthcare, emphasizing a patient-centered approach that empowers individuals to take charge of their well-being and collaborate with healthcare providers.
However, in our experience, and that of those publishing research on the topic, it is essential to expand the scope of information delivered, methods of information delivery, and the population of authorized persons receiving that information. The reasons are simple: patients and their guests are alienated by the status quo of poor communication, rating most hospitals with 2 to 3 stars on a 5-star range. This has led patients in non-acute scenarios to select providers with good online reputations.
Economic Realities of Healthcare: Patient Expectations Exceed Healthcare Resources
There exists a gap between patient and guest expectations and the capabilities of healthcare providers to deliver timely information and follow-up on care delivery. Historically the task of keeping patients and families updated on their pre, at, and post-op status has mostly fallen on nurses and front desk staff receiving incoming phone calls or physical visits to a desk or kiosk.
In 2020 we began researching the viability of using AI to take over the role of humans providing patient and guest updates on their loved ones. Our thinking was: there are not enough human beings nor enough money to pay them, to deliver the experiences that modern consumers expect. We knew technology was the answer to the labor shortage and costs of delivering quality and compassionate care to patients and their loved ones.
Can AI Understand and Explain Clinical & Logistical Workflows to Lay Persons?
To successfully deliver the new modern patient engagement communications service, our AI needed to understand all the longitudinal logistical and clinical workflows a patient encounters. We then had to properly express logistical and clinical information to various people (roles and existing medical knowledge) at an appropriate frequency.
We also had to consider our confidence that the information was authoritative and would not change due to practitioner or patient cancellations or changes. Another issue to be dealt with in AI tracking was the injection of human errors or anomalies in workflows that created impossible scenarios.
To automate the resolution of workflow logic issues, we provided failsafe logic and hysteresis to delay or abort messaging to assure sanity and confidence based on the EMR’s current state.
Yes, Front Desk and Nurses Don’t Have To Be On The Phone All the Time
By 2023 and after years of testing on real clinical operations, we achieved excellent results that have dramatically reduced incoming phone calls to nurses and front desks, created grateful patients and families that all feel they are now treated with care and compassion, and a continuous stream of 5-star reviews by patients and guests on Google and Yelp.
These positive outcomes have been achieved without adding staff, no additional staff tasks, and no operations changes. Because we use AI to operate in real-time against EMR data, there are no scalability issues, and results are consistent.
Compare This to Your Current Appointment Reminder System
Typical appointment reminder systems have a single message workflow for the simple appointment process (pending, booked/confirmed). In our system, we have constructed over 43+ workflows tracking appointments, full cycle ADT, appointment types, labs requests, encounters, and more, to ensure the proper message goes to the right person at the right time with high confidence.
How Does it Work?
Our product development has focused on improving the patient and guest experience and outcomes using data continuously harvested from the EMR, a knowledge of clinical workflows, and AI to construct continuous contextual messaging to patients, caregivers, families, and other guests. The technology creates a continuous string of voice calls, emails, and text messages containing logistical updates and support information based on where the patient is in their journey.
Part 1 – Features: Modernize Your Front Desk Automation
- Scheduling/rescheduling/cancellations/no-shows
- Transmitting pre-op electronic care plans
- Transportation logistics (with Uber and Lyft links)
- Generating calendar files
- Appointment reminders with confirmations
- Alerting family and caregivers on arrival/departure
- Transmitting electronic post-op care plans,
- Patient wellness checks
- Pathology completion status updates
- And More…
Your Staff Would Do All This If They Had the Time – They don’t, So It Does Not Get Done
This happens automatically and is transmitted, as appropriate, via Email, Text, and Voice Calls. This is transmitted to the patient, caregivers, family, and friends as authorized by the patient automatically with no staff effort.
Support Most Modern EMRs
To achieve the broadest product EMR compatibility, we selected the open FHIR data standard, compatible with the oldest and most widely deployed standards (STU2 forward). This means fast deployment on EPIC, Cerner, ModMed, AthenaHealth, and others.
Getting To, Visiting At, Going Home
AI Goes Geolocation and Resource Hunting
Here is a funny story. We were visiting a loved one at a hospital and wondering if we parked in the best place; we wanted to find out where to get a cup of coffee, where to get a meal, any places to shop, and when the visiting hours would end. We could not find any of this information on the hospital’s website. It turned out that this information was available in a printed notebook next to the bed of our family member, who was not conscious. As it turned out, the book was mostly out of date, and the book could not be taken home to be used to plan our next visit.
We realized this lack of location knowledge existed for virtually every healthcare provider. The information was transmitted to every visitor manually as a pre-visit phone briefing. The information delivered was uneven, depending on each staff member’s knowledge. Where are the bathrooms, keys to the bathroom, WiFi name and password, best parking, validations, which entrance to use, etc?
So we automatically build custom websites for each physical location that have everything a patient or guest needs to know using AI technology and geolocation information from the EMR, combined with Google and other data sources. The information is supplemented by your staff’s knowledge of amenities not known on the web and tips and tricks to get around.
Links to this well-organized rich data and resources are transmitted to every patient and their guests via SMS/MMS and Email on every message they receive. This resource to all patients and guests reduces the incoming phone calls for routine information and removes the need for a pre-visit location briefing call.
Part 2 – How Do I Pay For Your Cool and Amazing Services?
This technology increases your revenue multiple times the cost of the service – immediately measurable.
If you are interested in increasing the daily outpatient volume in your hospital, word-of-mouth praise of our excellent communication technology is better, cheaper, and more effective than paid advertisement, and your discharged patients can’t wait to tell their friends about how you use technology to improve their stay. We turn patients and guests into ambassadors of your brand.
Excellent Google Reputation = Lots of High-Value New Patients
First, you will notice same-day postings of real 5-Star Google/Yelp reviews from patients and guests (earned media). Each review is between $200 and $1000, depending on the value you put on each patient. We have documented over $50K+ in earned media per week from a practice of 25 offices.
Your highest-value patients (fee for service and private insurance) can go anywhere for their outpatient services. They rely on Google to help them decide. We reliably deliver those reviews and more.
You are probably doing GSR and its HCAHPS scoring, thinking that is enough, but by neglecting Google and Yelp, you are damaging your cash flow from your most valuable potential patients. Our AI technology allows you to generate both internal and online reviews.
Handle No-Shows and Cancellations = Recover Lost Slot Revenue
Most offices don’t have a process to get no-shows, and cancellations rebooked automatically-we do, and we entirely automate it. Consider the amount of money you spend on Google ads that result in no-shows or last-minute cancellations. We bring that lost revenue back to your practice.
The mean no-show rate of appointments is between 9% and 16%, with a loss value of $196 per patient. We fully automate handling appointment no-shows, cancellations, rescheduling, and new appointments. Patients are reminded automatically and repeatedly to rebook their appointments via provided links in our emails and SMS/MMS texts.
We ALSO message caregivers, family, and friends about missed appointments and urge them to get the patient to rebook. Does your staff have the time to chase down no-shows and cancellations? AI is happy to do the job.
Part 3 – Resources
Here are links to additional articles and other resources on our site.
Automated Patient Logistics Updates
How to Reduce Patient No-Show Rates
Healthcare Facility Navigation and Amenities Website Management
Pre-Op and Post-Op Care Plan Online Reminder Management
Quickly Improving Medical Practice Online Reputation Scores
Brief: Improve Your Practice’s Online Reputation on Google and Yelp
