Operational Excellence

Going paperless can provide multiple benefits to the healthcare stakeholders. From relieving Hospitals, Practices and administrative staff from maintaining massive volumes of patient data— to helping them elevate Patient Experiences (PX), improve Patient Satisfaction Index (PSI), increase ROI—digital patient engagement solutions can liberate care providers from tedious manual processes—letting them focus on other critical aspects in care. Here’s our take on how paperless patient management solutions can bring holistic (clinical, operational and financial) benefits to your healthcare organization.

The global pandemic has pushed healthcare leaders to reimagine care delivery—enabling them provide safe, secure and outcome-driven solutions to mitigate the impact of the rising caseloads across the globe. However, on the downside, it also exacerbated challenges in terms of operational inefficiencies, patient-centric care, Physician burnout—as a result of manual workflows and inefficient paperwork.

As Hospitals and Practices look to the future, there are three main focus areas: improving health outcomes, driving patient engagement & experience through patient-centric care and increasing revenues—while driving down the operational costs.

While these goals may seem like a tall order, a well-orchestrated strategy that includes seamless integration of paperless solutions and digital patient engagement platforms can go a long way in eliminating manual and repetitive administrative tasks.

Manual Paperworks Vs Paperless Solutions: How They Stack Up?

There’s a whole world of difference between manual and automated methods of data capture in healthcare. Here are three ways how manual paperwork could slow down processes and impact operational efficiencies.

• 1. Cost Impact and Paper Wastage. A “Healthcare administrative costs in the U.S and Canada report” indicates that U.S insurers and providers spent about $812 billion on paperwork alone, annually. What’s more, an average Medical Practice adds 1,200 pieces of paper every month to their overwhelming stack of huge volumes of medical records.
• 2. Loss of Time. An average person spends about 18 minutes to sift through medical records to find the exact information they need, while it takes less than two seconds through automated patient management solutions. 18 minutes vs two seconds. You can do the rest of the math yourself—on the time loss due to manual processes—and its effects on a Practice’s operational efficiencies
• 3. Patient Dissatisfaction. A whopping 80% of patients prefer digital intake forms that could easily be filled in at a convenient time, preferably on the go—prior to doctor’s visit than manually filling out forms in the waiting room. From conversational AI to chatbots and mobile-first technologies, patients as consumers are attuned to high-touch digital Customer Experiences (CX) and they expect the same from their healthcare providers too

Reimaging Digital to Simplify Healthcare Workflows

Confining digital to specific areas of practice management may provide ad hoc solutions to certain operational issues. However, Medical practices and hospitals need to broaden the horizons of digital adoption—to achieve sustainable results. Here are three ways to shift the focus from going paperless to achieving holistic digital transformation.

• 1. Looking Beyond the Electronic Health Records. EHR implementation has become a common practice among Hospitals and Medical Practices. However, care providers need to look beyond EHR to digitize and automate multiple processes. Consider automating these critical documents—Patient intake forms, medical forms, medical claims, patient consent forms, e-signature collection—to streamline and simplify workflows
• 2. Facilitating Interoperability. The ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule is aimed at fostering data interoperability among the key healthcare stakeholders. Providing safe and secure patient access to their critical health data—helps in proactive patient engagement— thereby improving medication adherence, patient involvement in healthcare decision making—while cohesively engaging patients to improve quality of care.
• 3. Enhancing Virtual Healthcare Experiences. The global pandemic has pushed Practices and Hospitals to embrace telemedicine solutions to deliver safe and secure care to their patients. However, with increasing consumerism and patient-centric care in the era of value-based care, patient expectations are rising in terms of paperless experiences. Care providers need to look beyond the siloed approach to automation and digitization. From automated appointment reminders, online scheduling, patient education and secure messaging to electronic statements and medical billing automation—paperless solutions can reduce no-shows, improve engagement and adherence to care plans—ultimately improving the clinical, operational and financial efficiencies of your healthcare organization.

Want to Digitize your Patient Engagement Solutions?

SolvEdge is a trusted patient engagement solutions provider with an experienced team of technologists, Doctors, SMEs, PhDs and certified experts who work together to deliver seamless digital experiences—day in and day out, to our clients. SolvEdge has partnered with over 400 Hospitals, Fortune 500 healthcare brands, 3500 Physicians and millions of patients around the globe to simplify patient engagement.

Get your personalized and free consultation on how we can automate patient engagement solutions and drive up your operational efficiencies.