Top 10 Reasons to Implement a Patient Engagement Solution

We all saw many changes in how healthcare delivery has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. New workflows were adopted to keep patients and staff safe, while continuing to deliver top-notch care. Many of these changes have been embraced by both patients and staff for improving communications, automating redundant tasks, improving operational workflows and efficiencies, and they are here to stay!

Patient engagement – or two-way automated communication solutions – have grown in use and are quite popular in today’s marketplace. However, many of those solutions may not solve the specific needs of your busy radiology practice, so before selecting a solution, you should define your business objectives, understand what problems you want to solve, and investigate radiology specific patient engagement solutions.

But what features should you look for? To help you get started, here are our top 10 things you should look for in a patient engagement solution:

Patient engagement leads to better outcomes not only for the patient but for your staff as well. Capturing data prior to the patient visit, reducing how many people the patient engages with once they come for their appointment, and offering a more personalized engagement experience, are a few ways workflows can be improved.

Eliminate the bottlenecks and need for your patient to check in and wait in a busy room for their radiology exam. Imagine your patient getting an automated text once they arrive at your radiology practice asking them if they have arrived, then communicating with your patient while they remain in their car. Virtual waiting rooms provide a more streamlined way to allow your patients to wait in comfort until you are ready for their exam!

While the patient is waiting in their car, have them complete digital forms typically filled out in person during every visit; even have them submit their co-pay all before they arrive for their exam. Early data capture also provides a better patient experience because your staff can engage with your patients prior to their arrival, allowing issues or concerns to be addressed early and ensuring a smooth experience when they arrive.

Providing patients the tools to schedule or reschedule their procedures, complete digital forms prior to check-in, understand their responsible portion of the bill, and much more, provides greater efficiency for your staff by catching issues prior to the patient’s arrival. Freeing up your staff also allows them to be more efficient with tasks that are more meaningful to your clinical operations.

Post procedure patient engagement builds loyalty to your practice because patients know you care about their opinion and are interested in improving your services. Patients communicate with other potential patients and when they see changes that improve their care, their word of mouth is your greatest marketing engagement ever. Understand what your patients need, improve your workflow, and engage with your patients once they leave your facility.

Informed patients tend to be happier patients, even if a delay is going to occur. With two-way texting capabilities to your patient, you can let them know what the situation is and keep them informed and updated for when it’s time for their exam. Then once they leave, you can customize your follow-up survey, or use two-way texting once again, to apologize for the delay and explain what you are doing to avert issues in the future.

Bi-direction secure automated texting services integrated into your radiology patient engagement solution can announce their arrival, instruct them to wait in their car, and contact them when it’s time to come into the practice for their exam, reducing unnecessary contact with staff.

Providing your patients with timely knowledge of what their insurance will cover for their radiology exam and what their responsible portion will be prior to coming in for their visit keeps them informed and more in control of their healthcare. Provide a way to capture payments securely from their phone and pay their co-pay prior to their visit.

Your patients can certainly benefit from having the ability to schedule their exams without knowing the complexity behind radiology scheduling. Make it easy for them to schedule their studies, even across modalities and locations, while streamlining your internal scheduling process as well. Provide real-time insurance verification as well.

Automated reminders can assist with keeping patients informed while decreasing workload for your staff to keep on top of patient reminders. Send patients driving directions or notifications about special needs (like transportation or wheelchair access) to help improve patient satisfaction and decrease no-shows.

Patient engagement solutions can help improve your satisfaction ratings and provide your patients with more control over their healthcare. Automating processes frees your staff and improves efficiencies and workflow. If you are looking to improve your patient engagement initiatives, check out our patient engagement solutions at www.abbadox.com and start a conversation with one of our experts to see if our solution can help you out.