Improve Patient Satisfaction and Communication With Digital Technologies
Patient satisfaction is a top priority for both doctor and patient and in this digital day and age, achieving this is easier than it’s ever been. Emerging innovative digital technologies are intended to improve the lives of all who utilize them. Throughout recent years, new digital technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have made their way through various different global industries such as manufacturing, media and entertainment, retail, and healthcare. While these new and innovative technologies have begun to greatly influence a more efficient digitized workflow across all industries, the healthcare space utilizes these innovative advances to make great gains in improving patient satisfaction, engagement, outreach, and access.
Understanding how to manage health with wearable technologies improves patient satisfaction.
Achieving Successful Patient Outreach
Patients who are actively engaged in their healthcare tend to experience greater satisfaction than those who aren’t. The introduction of digital technology to the healthcare space has given patients greater access and allows them to feel more in control of their health and outcomes. Hospitals and clinics have begun using AR and VR technologies in the workplace with the ultimate goal of improving patient access. Healthcare providers believe the key to improving patient satisfaction is to provide adequate patient care access, a modern and efficient experience, and a more sophisticated workflow. Most importantly, they believe the key to improving patient communication lies in the proper and efficient use of these new technologies by hospital administrators.
Hospital administrators have been using data and communication technologies to improve patient outreach before and after specific procedures. They believe this collection of data will allow them to better understand exactly what factors throughout the patient experience are most impactful to patient satisfaction. In addition, they believe an effective patient communication platform will inherently increase overall patient satisfaction simply because patients should be and would have an interest in staying up-to-date regarding any possible future treatment or procedures they could end up needing to undergo.
Clear and concise communication between family members, hospital administrators, doctors, and nurses can also not be understated. Hospitals are utilizing digital platforms to ensure family members of patients are able to stay informed and maintain a positive experience.
Patient satisfaction increases with convenient access to provider communication.
What Types of Technologies Are Being Utilized to Promote Patient Satisfaction?
Wearable technologies are among some of the new technological and digital innovations currently being utilized within the healthcare industry. Patients who are required to wear some form of wearable technologies often report a positive patient satisfaction score. This is most likely due to the fact that patients feel informed by their wearable technology. In addition, it seems to elicit feelings of control and comfort knowing that they are able to self-monitor.
Hospital administrations are also implementing massive digital data operations to ensure that patient data is protected and readily available for doctors and patients alike. Some hospitals and healthcare providers allow users to access this data through the use of mobile apps. These apps can also be used to schedule a doctor’s visit, pay a bill, track a treatment protocol, or receive other health-related information and updates. Essentially, healthcare providers are looking to improve the patient experience as well as the doctor-patient relationship by placing each individual patient’s healthcare history in the palm of their hand.
Each of these actions taken by healthcare providers to successfully engage with their patients ultimately improves patient safety. Clear communication between healthcare providers and patients, wearable technologies that permit self-monitoring, innovative and convenient mobile applications, and patient-centered care have all been shown to have a positive and significant impact on overall patient satisfaction. The healthcare industry is expected to continue developing and adopting emerging technologies in the near future to continue to improve overall patient satisfaction.
READ MOREThe Detrimental Impact of the Physician Shortage on Patient Care Access
Physician and nursing shortages have become a major cause for concern affecting hospitals, clinics, and potential patients. The draining work environment and subsequent lifestyle physicians and nurses are subjected to, have led to physician burnout and an increased turnover rate which hospitals and clinics cannot afford. It is imperative that they find a way to retain these crucial healthcare workers to further improve patient access to much-needed health care. The physician shortage has plagued the healthcare industry for some time and is expected to continue growing exponentially by 2030, severely limiting patient care access.
A study released in March 2017 by the AAMC revealed that the United States could potentially find itself with a physician shortage upwards of 104,900 physicians by 2030. Due in part to population growth, an increase in the number of aging Americans and retirement of practicing doctors, this potential shortage has healthcare providers, hospitals, clinics, and private practices racing to discover and acquire long-lasting talent. Hopefully, this concerning effort will result in keeping the industry afloat throughout the next two decades, ensuring patient care access remains readily available for those who need it.
How Will This Physician Shortage Affect Patient Care?
Should a physician shortage persist for a sustained period of time, it would prove detrimental to patients and doctors. Patients will experience longer wait times at hospitals. It will become more difficult for patients to be admitted. Physicians and doctors will not be able to adequately treat patients due to extended shifts and patient overload. Ultimately, a physician shortage will negatively and dramatically impact the overall quality of healthcare across the United States.
While patients have always faced significant barriers to patient care access, this shortage will produce more widespread and long-lasting effects. A physician shortage not only affects hospital patients but even those who regularly visit their primary care physicians and family doctors. Overall patient satisfaction will drop and the risk for negative health consequences will rise.
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has been urging members of the United States Congress to design and craft federal initiative programs that extend outreach to hospitals and medical schools in order to help support them during this predicted physician shortage. The AAMC is hoping that the US federal government can help, at the very least, to alleviate or reverse some of the adverse effects the physician and doctor shortage will continue to have on patient care access. In addition, they hope the initiatives can increase medical knowledge and attract younger generations to the field of medicine through educational programs.
The Physician Shortage Study and Debate
While patient care access has decreased in recent years due to a number of factors, some argue that there really is no physician shortage whatsoever. For instance, The Institute of Medicine released a study in 2014 claiming that there was no statistical shortage of physicians or doctors in the United States. However, the system was criticized as being extremely inefficient, therefore possibly skewing the accuracy of the results. The study reflected poor ratings in patient satisfaction, physician workplace satisfaction, and patient care access.
In addition, it was suggested that new, innovative, and emerging technologies had not previously been accounted for. In essence, it was proposed that any decrease in the number of physicians and doctors in the United States could be due to new medical technologies negating the necessity for a human physician, in some cases.
Regardless, more research should be conducted to determine if there really is a shortage, how small or large it is, and the impact this suggested physician shortage is having and could continue to have on patient care access. For individual healthcare facilities to have an influence on physician burnout, being aware of what’s important to your contingent healthcare providers to ensure greater workforce satisfaction would be wise.
