Healthcare is in the throes of great change; the transition highlights rising patient’s frustration with how to access and interact with their healthcare providers and payers. Consumers expect the same seamless digital interaction and experiences in healthcare as they have with online banking, travel booking, etc. To meet their needs, healthcare needs an equivalent system where the same level of access and interaction is possible.
Today, to access any healthcare services, patients must make an appointment with their healthcare provider, wait for that appointment to get scheduled, then continue to wait for referrals to or from other healthcare providers.
The whole process is disintegrated, slow, opaque, and burdened with risk of errors. Now is the time for technology to disrupt the industry and address these challenges allowing patients to quickly reach providers and receive the right care, at their convenience.
Improving patient access to the right
A better digital front-end empowers patients to interact with their healthcare system effectively and efficiently at a time and place convenient to them. It provides patients with access to all the tools needed to manage their own healthcare, as well as their dependents’ health and wellbeing, from their own location, while seamlessly guiding them through their health journey.
Empowering patients with this type of access to digital services in healthcare promises to be as transformative as digital access in other industries saving time, money, and frustration.
Registering on a patient portal software
Many health systems commonly use physical signatures and IDs before giving access to healthcare. But with today’s technology, a patient may pre-register themselves through a secure portal. This allows them to book appointments with a single click, review test results, order prescriptions, and securely engage with a medical professional in the chat-box outside the healthcare setting.
This option allows the patient choices to access their health care and gives the healthcare system providers a consistent record of information and communications with the patient. Choices and ownership for the patient equal a better experience.
How COVID-19 escalated the need to address patient challenges to access
Because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems had to escalate investment in technology to deliver virtual access to high-quality care in new ways.
The pandemic acted as a catalyst in the transformation of healthcare access and now offers patients’ numerous ways of digital interaction. Technologies such as remote patient monitoring and telemedicine solutions were universally instituted, and now drive the change that patients have long desired. For example, with virtual care platforms and appointment booking through Electronic Health Record (EHR), patients can easily, efficiently, and effectively interact with their healthcare providers. They can also securely share their health-related information.
By putting patients at the center of the healthcare delivery system and empowering them to navigate through disjointed, complex healthcare systems, digital front-end solutions promise to address some of the challenges faced by today’s patients and healthcare organizations.
iPatientCare has a full suite of innovative healthcare products and value-added services that help physician offices and rural health clinics in improving the health of their patients, enhancing patient care through technology, and reducing costs of care delivery.
