By Dave Bennett
Dave Bennett, CEO of pCare
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated pivotal digital transformations across most sectors but has become more important than ever in health care. The World Health Organization (WHO) is now even emphasizing the adoption of digital health technologies in an effort to create a more ethical, equitable, safe, reliable and sustainable health care experience. As the WHO notes, digital transformation is more than a buzzword. It provides new ways to deliver value and ensure quality care for all patients. Implementing emerging digital technologies modifies a company’s essential operations, processes and services to ease the staff workload, improve outcomes and enable the organization to withstand future challenges.
At its core, digital transformation is accelerating health care with a focus on patient engagement and staff satisfaction, creating the value health care systems need and the experience patients now expect based on their consumer experiences in other industries. According to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, health care organizations consider emerging digital technologies as the conduit to positively transform their relationship with consumers and increase staff efficiency and satisfaction. In fact, 92% relayed that increased consumer satisfaction and engagement are the top outcomes facilities aim to achieve from digital transformation, followed by improved care quality, patient experience, clinical care delivery and staff satisfaction.
Between providing valuable outcomes and personalizing the experience, emerging technology and digital health platforms need to be a top consideration for decision-makers at health care organizations and facilities. Emerging technology such as interactive patient care systems (IPS) support staff to ensure patients gain faster access to health services, obtain better quality of care and receive customized education to actively engage in their health.
Providing a Focus on Outcomes
Patients today want personalized experiences that meet their needs and result in better outcomes. Digital transformation makes this possible in support of an improved experience for both the patient and staff. When implemented correctly, digital solutions address patient expectations by making care delivery more customizable, accessible, efficient and understandable for each individual patient.
Data-driven solutions can lower the length of stay, reduce avoidable readmissions, improve safety and enhance the overall experience by providing patients and loved ones with an engagement roadmap during their initial admissions. Transformations with data-driven solutions ensure patients are prepared with clear expectations and guided through a smoother journey focused on their specific care. To make the journey more efficient and patient-focused, advanced digital patient engagement systems integrate with other devices and technology such as EHRs to offer universal access and further connect facility-wide. From infusion centers to emergency departments and even beyond the walls of the facility, the technology is working to keep patients and providers seamlessly connected.
Going beyond the health care organization’s walls, cross-continuum patient engagement systems pair with physicians to provide patients the information necessary to guide them through their specific care episode, such as elective surgery, or provide tailored details for the at-home management of a chronic condition. As systems become more integrated, connected and allow patient information to become less siloed, health care teams can offer even more precise, targeted patient care to benefit the outcomes.
Health care providers are constantly looking for ways to create the best environment for patients to flourish. With the promise to re-direct processes that don’t add value for patients and automate tasks that are increasingly difficult and time-consuming for clinicians, patient engagement systems allow clinicians to redistribute their time towards patient care. This modern approach is a major win for patient outcomes, health care staff satisfaction and the facility’s bottom line.
Personalizing and Optimizing the Experience
Evidence suggests that modern patient engagement solutions best assist in tailoring care to the unique needs and preferences of each patient. These systems integrate with in-room television technology and existing HIT applications to create data-driven solutions that are cost-effective and open the door to an enhanced patient experience with customizable educational materials, easy communication methods, collaboration tools and patient independence through meal ordering and environmental controls. Integrations on the patient’s television involve patients with their care using a familiar interface, lowering costs and elevating satisfaction on all levels of the facility.
For greater comfort and personalization while within the hospital walls, in-room digital whiteboards inform a patient of their status toward discharge and provide the daily schedule. This proactively lets them know how they can work toward returning home, giving encouragement throughout the journey. When patients gain access to their health information, they’re empowered to make more informed decisions about the kind of care they would like to receive during and after hospital admission. Through open and supportive communication, patients can have better experiences. There are also opportunities for staff to receive real-time feedback from their patient and make immediate adjustments to improve the patient experience. This fosters collaboration and personalizes care, building a patient’s self-efficacy while enhancing their trust and engagement.
The integration of patient engagement technology in health care provides versatile offerings and has appeared in various clinical settings throughout recent years. This technology places an emphasis on patient-centered care, empowerment and shared decision-making. Patients who are actively engaged in their health and informed of their care journey see more improvement than passive participants.
To fully consider the patient journey and personalized care, health care teams can securely leverage de-identified data to access similar patient demographics and health histories and gain care recommendations much closer to 1:1. This information goes beyond sharing general care details and instead considers the individual person and their unique social determinants of health. For example, the data may show that a patient with certain demographics – medical, socioeconomic, genomic, etc. – responds best to specific care protocols. Those personalized protocols then become the recommended course of care management and the basis for the educational information shared with the patient.
Keep Digital Transformation Top of Mind
More and more health care facilities are implementing emerging technologies to meet patient and staff needs and create the digital hospital of the future, both assisting in improving care and empowering the patient’s involvement in their own recovery. Quickly transforming health care ecosystems requires a trusted end-to-end service provider to be equipped in delivering value to patients. A partner with a secure and universal patient engagement system will help health care teams seamlessly collaborate with patients and families.
Digital transformation is designed to complement staff efforts and increase efficiency while improving patient care. Among the primary goals of digital transformation in health care are the desires to improve outcomes and experiences for all stakeholders. With a focus on the patient, digital transformation is accelerating health care for better outcomes and delivering new value for providers.
– Dave Bennett is the CEO of pCare. His approach to patient engagement, digital and mobile technologies, and IT integration ensure continuous innovation of the #1-KLAS ranked pCare platform and a company culture dedicated to delighting customers.
