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Digital patient engagement tools are providers’ solution to the labor shortage

Rather than continuing to pour scarce resources into additional salaries, bonuses, benefits, and recruiting, providers should consider investing in digital patient engagement tools that enable existing staff to work more efficiently and at the highest of their abilities.

Providers such as doctor’s offices, hospitals, and health systems – like virtually all other employers – have been left reeling from the national labor shortage. Staff shortages have hampered providers’ ability to deliver adequate access to timely care for their patients. The unfortunate result is increased pressure on their staff and their cash flow.

A recent report from Moody’s Investor Service found that Covid-19-related staffing challenges are straining hospital profitability and will encumber budgets well into 2022. As a result of the labor crunch, hospitals are being forced to spend more on employee recruitment and retainment, sweeten benefits packages, and increase signing bonuses – all at a time when many hospitals have been forced to cut back on lucrative elective procedures.

What’s different this time, unlike previous healthcare labor shortages, is that today’s shortage pertains not just to clinical staff, but also non-clinical workers such as front desk and billing staff, dietary and environmental services workers, according to Moody’s. Increasing the strain on providers, the healthcare workforce is retiring at a faster-than-anticipated rate while demand is increasing, with some leaving behind careers in the field due to burnout from coping with the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a recent report from Mercer.

Clearly, providers need a way to blunt the labor shortage’s impact on their finances, operations, and patient care. For many providers, digital patient engagement tools may represent the solution to the labor crunch that boosts staff efficiency, reduces operational overhead, and enhances the patient experience.

Patients show enthusiasm for digital tools

For providers, digital patient engagement tools including patient-self-scheduling capabilities for appointments, automated appointment reminders, online pre-service check-in, and post-visit payment plan options, offer a plethora of benefits such as improved collections, greater operational efficiencies, and integration with third-party software applications including electronic health records (EHR) systems.

In general, patients are eager to use digital tools in healthcare, a trend that is illustrated by their rapid adoption of telehealth during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, an Accenture survey of nearly 1,800 people in the U.S. found that in early 2020 only 7% of people had experienced a virtual consultation with a provider; by mid-2001, that number had climbed to 32%.

Encouragement from medical providers helped fuel the shift to virtual visits and can similarly help drive increased adoption of other digital tools. For example, when asked what would make them more likely to use digital tools to manage their health, patients’ most-frequently cited answer at 33% was “recommendations from my medical provider.”

Opportunities to digitize the patient experience

At each of the following key steps of the patient journey, digital engagement tools deliver tangible and substantial benefits to providers:

Self-scheduling:  By presenting patients with an option to schedule appointments that they can access at all hours of the day – as opposed to having to call during office hours – practices reduce barriers to patient access while enhancing patient satisfaction. Freed from having to answer phones to schedule all appointments, practice staff can devote greater time and energy to patient-facing activities.

Automated appointment reminders: Many providers use automated tools to send appointment reminders to patients at specified intervals prior to the appointment time, such as one week or one day. These tools often provide omnichannel options to cater to individual patient preferences for communicating reminders, such as text messages, emails or phone calls. Automated appointment reminders can help practices protect revenues by providing a helpful nudge to prompt patients to show up for appointments, resulting in fewer no-shows. The same technology built for the delivery of appointment reminders can also be used to provide driving directions, customized patient communications, and invitations to digital check-in without requiring the patient to log into an app or website.

Pre-service check-in: When performing digital pre-service check-in, a link is sent to a patient that enables them to enter or confirm in real-time several key pieces of information, including demographic and personal data; insurance and benefits coverage; and a cost estimate based on copay and visit type. Digital pre-service check-ins save time for both patients and providers by removing the need to fill out paper forms or confirm information with staff. Providers can move patients through more efficiently, enabling them to boost revenues by seeing more patients in the same amount of time. Having the patient validate or update demographic information can also reduce the number of denied claims due to information errors.

Post-visit check-out: During the post-visit check-out process, practices bill patients or provide payment plan options. Next, payments are processed upon receipt. By offering flexible payment options to patients, providers can improve collections, reduce the need for costly follow up activity, and reduce bad debt sent to collections agencies. Third-party integration prevents double-posting of charges and improves the patient experience through better price transparency.

Unfortunately, the effects of the national labor shortage will be felt by most providers and the patients they serve into next year, and possibly beyond. Rather than continuing to pour scarce resources into additional salaries, bonuses, benefits, and recruiting, providers should consider investing in digital patient engagement tools that enable existing staff to work more efficiently and at the highest of their abilities.

Photo: sdecoret, Getty Images


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Rajesh Voddiraju

Rajesh "Raj" Voddiraju serves as President, Patient Engagement Technologies division (Health iPASS, a Sphere company). In this role, he manages the Division's P&L, sets the strategic direction/vision, and oversees all business development, sales, operations, marketing, and technology. Mr. Voddiraju has over 25 years of experience in founding and leading fast-growth businesses in the B2B Software, Healthcare IT and Fintech industries.

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