Best Patient Engagement Software for Modern Hospitals
Patient engagement is an increasingly critical segment of the larger medical software marketplace. According to a recent study conducted by research firm Markets and Markets, the patient engagement solutions industry is projected to reach $70.5 billion by 2028, up from $11.9 billion in 2020. This is even more remarkable considering the marketplace was valued only at $5.5 billion in 2014. It’s no surprise, therefore, that healthcare organizations are looking to improve, upgrade and streamline their patient engagement practices.
Technology is changing, and your hospital can benefit from leveraging industry advances rather than being left behind. We believe healthcare organizations shouldn’t have to wonder how they can best take advantage of all that patient engagement software has to offer. In this article, we’ll explain the basics of patient engagement solutions, and we’ll cover the most common features that you’ll want to look for in a great patient information management system.
What can Patient Engagement Software do for Your Organization?
Patient engagement software helps hospital staff and practitioners alike connect with patients, but it can serve as much more than a communication tool. Patient engagement software can also help facilitate patient education. When used correctly, it is equally beneficial to the health system staff, to the organization as a whole, and most importantly, to the patient and his or her loved ones.
The various components of a patient engagement solution are what make it truly worth implementing. Here are some of the most common and most helpful features of great patient engagement software:
Automated Outreach and Engagement
Automated outreach is a helpful tool in aiding providers’ missions to meet patients where they are. Automated phone outreach through voice and text messaging connects providers with their patients and leads to more efficient scheduling outcomes. With automated patient outreach, more patients can be contacted in a shorter period of time, increasing efficiency for your organization and freeing up your staff members’ valuable time to focus on patient care. Patients appreciate reminder notifications, which help to decrease the number of missed visits. Automated patient engagement is tailored to patient preferences so patients can respond when they are able.
Learn more about automated outreach and how it fits into an omnichannel access strategy.
Secure Messaging
To ensure patient information is protected, make sure the software you select offers encrypted messaging. Secure messaging should facilitate seamless communication between staff members and practitioners.
Easy Online Patient Scheduling
To make staff lives easier, your patient engagement software should facilitate patient scheduling, both by staff members and by patients themselves. The system doesn’t necessarily give patients free reign but can alert staff of incoming scheduling requests, which can either be approved or denied. Once approved, a confirmation email can be sent to the patient verifying the selected day, time and practitioner if applicable.
Appointment Reminders
Appointment reminders are appreciated by all members of the care team – your employees, your practitioners and especially your patients. Automated reminders sent directly to a patient’s phone or email reduce the risk of a patient forgetting his or her appointment, and therefore allow more efficient scheduling. An automated reminder component of your patient engagement system reduces phone time and rescheduling efforts for your administrative staff, and it also saves money associated with delayed or canceled visits.
Regulatory Compliance
As a successful healthcare organization that is chiefly patient-centric, you know the importance of keeping up with complex industry regulations such as HIPAA. It’s logical that a move away from a paper and clipboard approach to a digital interface is the first step to making sure patient data remains secure and accessible only to authorized individuals. Your patient engagement software should be guarded with features such as a unique username and password for all users – both staff members and patients – and end-to-end encryption of patient data.
Looking for a Patient Engagement Software Platform that Does it All?
We know you strive to provide the best possible care for your patients, and meaningful patient engagement is critical to this endeavor. Vyne Medical® supports your efforts to improve the patient experience by helping you make the most of every encounter. The Trace® platform is an integrated communication exchange engine that helps your organization create a more complete patient record, prevent lost revenue and refine workflows by collecting and integrating digital voice, fax and image data. With Trace, you can consolidate and centralize content from virtually any medium, and easily find it using patient account number, document type or any custom field.
Patient-Centric Encounters
Trace patient engagement software makes capturing every patient encounter across the continuum of care simple, from pre-service to time of service to post-service interactions. With Trace, your staff will have recorded phone calls and in-person encounters with patients at their fingertips. Trace indexes these encounters in an encrypted patient account for easy search, retrieval and playback across your healthcare system.
Objective Quality Assurance
The Trace Quality Assurance™ feature arms you with the ability to monitor and score patient touchpoints. In turn, Trace promotes consistency and quality throughout your organization. Trace features a unique audio search function that allows a keyword search of recordings. This can be used to ensure the appropriate use of scripting and communication methodology during patient encounters. Trace also provides your organization with the ability to capture screen recordings and ensure that accurate data collection procedures are correctly followed. Recordings of phone calls and face-to-face interactions can be used for issue resolution, coaching, and performance evaluation.
To learn how Lowell General Hospital has used Trace to standardize patient financial communication and improve the consumer experience, click here.
Find out how Trace patient engagement solutions can help you improve your consumer experience. Contact us to schedule a call with one of our Vyne Medical healthcare solution professionals today.