(Written for Grayduck Health)
If you tab through the doctor reviews on Healthgrades or other online sites, you’ll quickly discover something: Patients appreciate a personalized experience, and it shapes the perception of the quality of the care they receive.
The quality of care that patients receive in the doctor’s office is paramount, but if the care pathway is limited to in-office visits, patients can lose momentum between visits. Technology can be a factor for an improved patient journey. Read on to learn more.
How Multiple Chronic Conditions Impact the Patient Journey
Chronic health conditions play a significant role in quality of life and mortality. According to the World Health Organization, 60% of patient deaths are associated with chronic conditions. And, unfortunately, poor patient engagement can be a risk factor in achieving ideal health outcomes. Patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) are especially likely to be sidetracked on the care pathway. For these patients, the road to successful therapy is often long and filled with frustration as they try to balance various treatments and therapies to manage the totality of their healthcare needs.
This puts a large portion of the population at risk. Forty percent of US adults have MCC. Among adults over the age of 65, nearly 75% have MCC.
The Rise of Technology in Patient Communications Spoiler alert: Technology has changed how people are making decisions. Consumer decisions, whether related to retail products or healthcare, are increasingly influenced by technology. According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 79% of Americans shop online — and not just for retail products.
A recent survey noted that nearly 40% of patients used the internet or mobile applications to search for healthcare. And, there’s an appetite for even more technology in patient care: 45% of Americans are open to their physician using artificial intelligence to inform care decisions.
The Emergence of Patient Engagement Technology
This has led to the rise in patient engagement technologies designed to streamline the process of delivering individualized care. While these technologies come at a cost, the promise of saving is even greater. A recent report estimated a $100 billion in annual savings from building new tools that help meet the promise of more individual care.
One factor is the need for more robust, digital platforms for educating and connecting with patients through individualized communications along their care pathway. Big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and wearable technology are other critical factors in the future of patient care.
Personalization in the Patient Care Pathway
While many aspects of patient engagement require a robust digital transformation process, some initiatives drive outcomes sooner rather than later. One strategy is multichannel marketing to support the care pathway from diagnosis through maintenance. By using consistent messaging across email, text, and phone, there is an opportunity to close the treatment gap related to chronic conditions such as pain, overactive bladder, and hearing loss.
The vast majority of Americans view automated communications as a convenient way to keep their care on track. In one survey, 83% of patients indicated they would appreciate reminders from their physicians about activities such as checking blood pressure, completing rehabilitation exercises, taking prescribed medications, scheduling follow-up appointments, and other similar events.
But personalization is essential in the success of these efforts.In the same way that consumers get annoyed with irrelevant messages, patients are frustrated with impersonal messages that don’t reflect recent appointments or care decisions. In contrast, personalized healthcare delivers results that matter.
Case Study: How ReadyPath™ Technology Improved Patient Engagement Our client, a fortune 100 medical device company, wanted to improve awareness of advanced therapy options for a chronic medical condition. While they had an established awareness program, patient communications were one-size-fits-all. The company turned to Grayduck Health to personalize the patient experience using our ReadyPath™ technology solution. The transformed experience includes integrated, segmented, modular, personalized communications that are continuously optimized based on detailed patient data.
The results of the awareness program have also been transformed with increased conversions — 8% of new contacts now consider advanced therapy — and improved engagement — a 63% unique open rate for support in emails.
Using Technology to Engage Patients
Improving patient engagement boosts health outcomes. By incorporating personalized multichannel communications throughout the care continuum, you can help ensure that patients with chronic — or hard-to-treat conditions — aren’t left behind.
ReadyPath patient activation technology can automate the care pathway, helping you connect with highly segmented audiences through a carefully curated content journey across channels such as email, text messages, inbound or outbound calls, and direct mail.
Contact us to learn more about our ReadyPath technology and other marketing services that can help you make better patient connections.
Blog published on www.grayduckhealth.com