5 Digital Patient Engagement Tools You Should Know About

Patient Engagement

July 14, 2022
A doctor talking to a patient over telehealth while a patient holds up their medication.

Digital patient engagement tools are becoming essential to successful patient engagement strategies as we move forward in a post-pandemic world. Changing patient expectations has become more important than ever. The pandemic put an extreme amount of stress on healthcare providers and now most patients assume they will receive poor healthcare services and communication. Over the last three years, patients have been battling limited access. Now they are looking for digital patient engagement tools to help them communicate with their providers and stay engaged in their care. Seventy-six percent of respondents in a recent study shared that they are interested in using one or more digital engagement tools to help them track their health and communicate with their providers (1). While there are countless new digital solutions emerging in the healthcare industry every year there are five that have been proven to exceed patient expectations by boosting patient engagement and enhancing communication.

    1. Patient Self-Scheduling

Looking for a solution that can raise patient engagement levels, decrease no-shows, increase staff productivity and help your organization allocate time more efficiently? Healthcare organizations that have implemented patient self-scheduling tools have achieved this and more. Medical practices schedule hundreds of appointments every week, but this task takes considerable time and skills to complete. 

Patient self-scheduling tools improve experiences by engaging patients, reducing care delays and decreasing wait times. Implementing self-scheduling reduces the overall workload of your staff by streamlining the scheduling process. This gives healthcare providers more time to focus on high-complexity tasks and gives patients the ability to schedule visits through a patient portal at any time of the day. 

    2. Automated Appointment Reminders

Recent research by the American Osteopathic Association found that no-shows can cost up to 14% of a healthcare provider's revenue (2)? Missed appointments can also lead to poor care outcomes. Fifty-seven percent of patients who missed their appointments said a text message or email reminder would have helped them attend it (3).

    3. Curbside Check-ins

Implementing curbside check-ins is another simple way to engage patients, improve experiences, reduce mundane tasks, and prevent crowded waiting rooms. With curbside check-ins, patients can complete all pre-visit intake tasks, such as filling out appointment forms, submitting insurance information, and notifying the provider that they have arrived. Curbside check-ins also promote social distancing, preventing illnesses from spreading from patient to patient. Interested in learning more about curbside check-ins in action? Read more about how Frist Choice Neurology created a winning patient experience by implementing the QliqSOFT platform.

    4. Automated Test Result Delivery

Looking for patient engagement tools that will also help you with surge management? Automated test result delivery helps clinics deliver patient test results faster than ever before. It can take even large teams hours to make outbound calls to provide patient test results manually. This is a beneficial tool for organizations during situations like COVID-19 surges. During the pandemic, one health clinic implemented this solution to improve their health systems and the speed of test result delivery. The results were astounding. They were able to provide their workforce with relief while improving patient satisfaction by helping their patients receive their results more quickly.

   5. Pre-Visit Telehealth Intake

This tool will help your organization improve patients' experiences virtually. Although in person visits are beginning to gain popularity again many people are still opting for telehealth visits.  Virtual visits are especially helpful for basic check-ins and follow up appointments. They are also helping to bridge gaps for patients with limited mobility and lack of transportation. Automating pre-visit intake helps patients complete all pre-visit information, forms and test the audio/visual functionality before the appointment ever begins providing patients with a seamless experience even if they are not tech savvy. With telehealth visits, patient access to healthcare has never been more convenient.

Developing a Digital Patient Engagement Strategy

Implementing digital tools to engage patients throughout their healthcare journey benefits healthcare providers and creates better patient outcomes. Looking for more information on real-world applications and implementation best practices? Learn how Virtua Health, a nonprofit community health system serving more than one million patients a year developed a winning digital patient engagement strategy leveraging the QliqSOFT platform that resulted in a Net Promoter Score of 80, and a 32 percent reduction in hospital readmissions. Using a Single Platform to Drive Patient Engagement

The Author
Ben Henson

A lifelong communicator, this Tennessee native got his start in broadcast news before branching out into public media, corporate, communications, digital advertising, and integrated marketing. Prior to joining QliqSOFT as the company's first marketing team member, Ben shared his talents with organizations that include the University of Alabama, iHeartMedia, and The Kroger Company.

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