Patient interaction innovations have seen a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a study of around 1,500 adult patients. With regard to wireless patient billing only, text-based billing increased by 200 percent. Meanwhile, e-mail and patient platform payment options increased by 82 percent and 34 percent respectively.
FREMONT, CA: According to a new study, more than a quarter of patients have turned to care services due to poor digital health experience. These results underscore the emphasis on health IT during the pandemic and how this technology can make or break the patient's experience.
Overall, patient interaction innovations have seen a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a study of around 1,500 adult patients. With regard to wireless patient billing only, text-based billing increased by 200 percent. Meanwhile, e-mail and patient platform payment options increased by 82 percent and 34 percent respectively.
However, despite these increases in the use of patient engagement technologies, medical consumers are looking for more from their providers. Thirty-one percent of respondents said they did not agree that their medical facilities had gone far enough to enhance the patient's medical billing process, and about half said they wanted health care to be more seamless.
Patients also cited several user-facing apps like Netflix, Amazon, and Uber as strong examples of consumer technology experience.
In addition, more than two-thirds (68%) said it was important for patients to be able to customize their healthcare experience, according to the survey.
Responding to the remaining demands of healthcare customers would be critical for the bottom line of the hospital and clinic, the study showed. In 2020, 28 percent of patients switched services due to inadequate digital health experience. This is a 40% rise from 2019, which may be credited to an increase in the use of patient engagement technologies. Technology hiccups might be more harmful for organizations, the study reasoned.
Apart from that, 53 percent of respondents said they would change care providers if they could get access to touchless patient intake as well as registration tools, again reflecting the pandemic's effect on patient preferences.
Responding to these demands could make or break the credibility of a healthcare institution, something that could be a major burden, the survey continued. Approximately half (54 percent) of respondents said that they were using online provider reviews to look at their clinicians before the visit, and 98 percent of those respondents said that online reviews influenced their decisions.
In other words, it is critical for providers to ensure that their digital experience is part of their online credibility work. 65 percent of patients conveyed that they would leave a supportive online provider review if that provider provided a great deal of digital experience. A poor digital health experience can harm the reputation of providers.
