Emerging technologies have transformed many aspects of the healthcare industry, from how care is delivered to when and where patient interactions take place. Gone are the days of strictly in-office visits and phone-only support using legacy technologies.
Instead, today’s consumers want and expect healthcare organizations to deploy digital-first engagement strategies to accommodate both evolving patient preferences and an ever-increasing reliance on mobile devices. According to a recent article in HealthTech magazine, the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated patients’ expectations of mobile devices being the primary communication tools for healthcare organizations.
For example, a McKinsey report revealed that 80 percent of MedTech companies shifted some of their marketing expenditures—in some cases, more than 20 percent—to digital channels in 2020. What’s more, two-thirds of MedTech companies expect online channels to account for more than 20 percent of their revenue by 2025.
As a result, modernizing patient communications by using omnichannel technologies has become a priority for healthcare leaders looking to align with patient preferences, streamline communication workflows, and improve the overall patient experience. Learn more about how omnichannel technologies can improve patient care.
Enhancing Patient Outreach and Communications
Implementing an omnichannel patient engagement strategy that incorporates several preferred channels—including text messaging, email, webchat, direct messaging, video, and phone—can greatly enhance your patient outreach and communications. Both healthcare patients and staff can benefit from seamless, omnichannel digital experiences.
But how? Well, because interactive omnichannel communications both engage patients and empower care teams to focus less on manual processes and more on positive health outcomes.
Streamlined internal processes also reduce patient wait times, allowing for more frequent messaging and enabling staff to be more responsive through each patient’s preferred contact method. No two patients are exactly the same, so taking a one-size-fits-all approach—such as strictly offering phone support—simply won’t cut it in today’s climate.
Inspiring Patients to Be More Engaged in Their Care
Patient engagement is a growing area of focus in healthcare, with countless organizations deploying different strategies to drive improvements. The good news is, with greater responsiveness and personalized patient outreach comes increased engagement.
When prescribers, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals frequently communicate with their patients, collaboration improves and relationships strengthen as a result. By using an engagement strategy centered around digital channels, patients are much more likely to be engaged in their own care.
Improving Treatment Adherence and Health Outcomes
By improving your outreach and involving patients in care decisions, you can increase adherence to prescribed treatments and ultimately improve health outcomes. Here’s how Brian Eastwood, an analyst at healthcare IT consulting firm Chilmark Research, explained the relationship between more frequent patient messaging and clinical outcomes:
“Messaging complements the level of engagement necessary to support a provider’s larger care management and population health management goals, which often rely on frequent communication to help patients avoid 30-day hospital readmissions or achieve care plan goals tied to clinical outcomes.”
In other words, personalizing engagements to meet patients where they are most active can have a direct, positive impact on both medication adherence and health outcomes.
Using Technology to Personalize Patient Engagement
When all is said and done, omnichannel engagement strategies are driven by technology. Smart data powered by artificial intelligence (AI) provides invaluable insights on which patients are most likely to respond to various engagements, and which channels they most prefer. This allows for more personalized patient support programs with frequent patient-provider communications to improve overall care.
Curious about using smart data and technology to inform your patient communications, interventions, and support programs? Request a demo to see how AllazoHealth can help.
