Digital Health Technology Enhances Patient Engagement and Care Coordination
Patients and providers benefit from digital connected health technology
Philip Blanks
Director of Product Marketing
As the healthcare sector continues to become more consumer-driven in 2019, healthcare providers are challenged with finding new ways to connect with patients and improve the overall patient experience. Patients, too, are looking to exert more control in managing their own care journeys and tend to seek out providers with advanced technology tools for better patient engagement. It’s important that healthcare organizations prioritize digital technology to ensure that patients are more connected and plugged in to their care.
According to a Black Book survey from Q2 2018, “90 percent of patients no longer feel obligated to stay with healthcare providers that don’t deliver an overall satisfactory digital experience, [whereas] 88 percent of respondents under age 40 state they will choose their next medical provider based on a strong online presence.”
With the cost of healthcare on the rise, healthcare organizations and providers are feeling the pressure to provide more value and a better digital experience for patients — better recognized now as “customers.”
This shift to healthcare consumerism is positively changing the way patients connect with providers to engage in their own care. These digital health technology solutions include telemedicine, patient portals and mobile health apps.
Digital connected health technology enhance patient engagement by enabling patients and providers to “connect” with each other to manage the patient’s health outside of traditional hospital walls. Portals enable patients to securely complete their required forms before their care visits via the web or in the comfort of their own homes or anywhere convenient — contributing to greater levels of patient satisfaction and engagement. Not only do these technologies reduce in-office wait times and provide a better digital experience for the patient, but digital connected health tools improve patient-generated health data collection and increase efficiency among providers.
Care coordination is also significantly improved when digital connected health tools are a part of the patient care workflow. When digital health technology can speak to other technology tools, care coordination can more easily drive effective communication through system interoperability – ensuring that patient-generated health data is correct and available at the right time. When they are empowered with the correct patient data, providers can make better informed decisions about their patients’ healthcare.
Digital connected health tool adoption will be essential for providers to retain patients and empower them to be more active participants in their own healthcare. Healthcare organizations that haven’t yet prioritized improving their patient connectivity with consumer-centric technology run the risk of lower satisfaction scores or worse — losing loyal patients.
