In recent years, the healthcare industry has adopted digital communication tools that fundamentally changed the way providers interact with their patients, improved patient outcomes, and increased the efficiency of healthcare delivery. Tools like emails, text messaging, apps etc. facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients and offer several important benefits.
Digital communication tools enable patients to be more involved in their healthcare: communicate with their healthcare providers, schedule appointments, receive post-procedure information, or provide feedback on their healthcare services. Greater patient engagement results in increased patient satisfaction and, therefore, loyalty to their physician. Research by AutoRemind shows that one of the easiest tools to stay in touch with the patient base is bulk messaging that can be customized for the occasion of choice and easily used by the practice staff. This could be a quarterly newsletter with the practice update, a sales message promoting a popular product or service, or a holiday greeting. These messages show patients that their doctors care about them and help doctors to stay top of mind with the patients.
Increased Efficiency
Digital communication increases efficiency in healthcare delivery by automating healthcare practice workflow, especially as it comes to routine, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks like phone calls or paperwork, and allows healthcare providers to focus on quality care. AutoRemind works with many healthcare and wellness clients across various specialties, and all of them across the board report notable time savings when using digital communication tools. Most popular tools are various types of reminders (appointment reminder, wellness checkup reminder, payment reminder, etc) but once our practices discover the ease of use and time savings, they ask to try additional features.
Based on client feedback, one of the most impactful tools is two-way texting, which eliminates lengthy phone calls and annoying phone tags. Most times, Rx refill requests can also be handled via two-way texting. This type of automation also reduces the likelihood of errors that may occur when tasks are done manually, resulting in improved accuracy and better patient outcomes. It also results in cost savings for healthcare practices, allowing them to reduce or repurpose staff hours.
Improved Accessibility
Digital communication improves the accessibility of healthcare services: by enabling patients to communicate with their doctors remotely, reducing the need for in-person visits.
Last but not least, it allows healthcare practices to be discovered and assessed by potential new clients. After researching patient online behavior for over 10 years, we learned that over 90% of new patients check out a healthcare practice of interest online—both their website and their reviews. This emphasizes the importance of managing online reputation by healthcare practices that are looking to grow.
As healthcare providers embrace digital communication and practice automation, AutoRemind is here to help. We have 15+ years of experience in the field and are happy to offer a free consultation to the practices that want to improve their digital tool chest. Contact us at sales@autoremind.com to discuss how we can assist your practice.