The call is coming from inside the waiting room

Today’s consumers now can, and generally expect, to have a seamless user experience with any application/service from any mobile device and want their healthcare providers to follow suit—with convenience and support that extends beyond the traditional patient portal.

When it comes to their healthcare experience, 80%¹ of consumers put a premium on convenience and would switch to another provider if it is more convenient for them. Additionally, the same percentage expect providers to communicate with them via the channel(s) they prefer, which overwhelmingly, is by text message.

For healthcare providers, meeting patients’ mobile-first expectations requires investing in technology that supports patients with a robust digital ecosystem that engages them securely and safely at every point in the healthcare experience—from searching for providers and scheduling appointments to accessing records and refilling prescriptions.

And while there’s no spoonful of sugar to help with the often-high upfront time and resources needed to implement such technology, the long-term ROI from increased patient engagement and appointment volume helps patients and providers in three key ways:

1. Patients get a boost from greater control of and confidence in their personalized healthcare journey.
2. Provider staff get a break from the daily hours of manual appointment reminder calls.
3. Providers and systems reap revenue benefits from enhanced efficiency and patient empowerment.

Patients get a boost
Patients want their healthcare experience to resemble other types of digital consumerism; younger patients in particular, are more than twice as likely² to choose a provider based on access to digital tools. However, the digital tools available among most providers are not meeting this expectation. More than a quarter³ of consumers say they “never” access their patient portal, or don’t think their provider even has one.

Beyond portals, though, patients want the end-to-end care experience to be more accessible and convenient anywhere and everywhere— starting with making appointments. Two-thirds (67%)⁴ of patients overall (including 60% of those age 65 and older, who make up the lion’s share of scheduled appointments) want to self-schedule/reschedule, but only 37%⁵ have the ability to do so.

Even though patients want self-service, they still want support: The number one reason patients give for missing appointments? “I forgot.” And nearly one in ten⁶ patients blame not being reminded for their appointment no-shows. These reminders still can be provided digitally, via automated calls or text messages, from a holistic solution that allows patients to confirm, cancel or reschedule appointments without provider staff.

Provider staff get a break.
Speaking of staff, professionals in a medium-sized practice may spend up to three hours per day⁷ conducting appointment reminder calls, taking their attention away from other important office tasks that require human communication and interaction. 

Because they require humans, manual appointment reminders are unreliable; if a provider is short-staffed on a given day, reminder calls may lag or not get made at all, which contributes to patient no-shows. Plus, healthcare staff shortages and worker burnout⁸ are forcing providers to do more with less; automating reminder calls and refill requests alone could save up to 130 hours per year (assuming 30 minutes of call time per staff member, five days a week for 52 weeks). 

Providers and systems reap significant benefits.
Providers investing in self-service patient engagement technology stand to gain not only more patients but higher engagement from those patients, resulting in greater ROI than the current patient portal model alone. Patient no-shows alone equal roughly $150 billion⁹ a year in lost provider revenue.

Savvy healthcare administrators can recoup those losses and then some through investments in technology that meets consumer demand, increases patient engagement and loyalty, reduces staff burden and burnout, and lowers revenue drain from no-shows and staff/resource inefficiencies.

Ready to transform your patient engagement strategy? TeleVox can help.
TeleVox is a leading provider of omnichannel digital patient engagement technology. Our solutions are used by more than 10,000 healthcare organizations—from hospitals and health systems to community health centers—to engage, educate, and empower patients throughout their care journey. Our patient engagement platform integrates with the electronic health record (EHR) to support automated, personalized, two-way interactions with patients. And our pharmaceutical team partners with life science companies to develop strategic disease state awareness, education and vaccination reminders by reaching more patients through customized communication. All of these exchanges are possible via text, virtual assistant, interactive voice response (IVR), email, and postcards. For 30 years, TeleVox has helped preserve care continuity, reduce the operational burden on staff, and drive revenue while making the healthcare communication process easier for everyone. Learn more at www.televox.com.

Sources
1. Are these three patient-loyalty myths holding your organization back?; NRC Health, 2018.
2-5. 3 Reasons Healthcare Organizations Aren’t Meeting Digital Patient Experience Expectations; Health IT Answers, 2022.
6. Patients’ reasons for missing scheduled clinic appointments and their solutions at a major urban-based academic medical center; National Library of Medicine, 2020.
7. The Importance of Automating Your Patient Appointment Reminders. The Health Science Journal, 2020.
8. Confronting Health Worker Burnout and Well-Being; New England Journal of Medicne, 2022.