How Mobile Apps Are Changing The Healthcare Industry!
 

High growth in the number of smartphone users has brought new opportunities to many industries over the years. Medical industry is no exception.A Demand for new type of products created plenty of space for software development companies specialized in mobile apps development, offering more and more advanced tools for the industry.

It is predicted that between 2014 and 2020 the number of smartphone users will almost double.

 

What does it mean for the healthcare industry?

One of the crucial aspects of this revolution was opening new lines of communication between patients and healthcare providers. Telemedicine, all sorts of health tracking, calorie counting, weight watching apps are one of many children of this revolution, helping us, patients and customers, in our everyday life.

 

Is Telemedicine the future?

According to ReasearchAndMarkets report ( August, 2018), the global Telemedicine market accounted for $21.56 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach $93.45 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17.7% during the forecast period. Telemedicine is considered as the most adaptable technology accessible to deliver health education, health information and healthcare are at a distance.

Telemedicine offers large amount of benefits:

 

●        Improving patient outcomes

●        Providing remote or rural patients access to specialists

●        Increasing patient engagement and satisfaction

●        Reducing unnecessary emergency department visits

●        Reducing cost of care delivery

●        Providing 24/7 access to specialists

●        Improving specialist efficiency

 

Reach Health, one of the Telehealth providers, carried out a survey in which one of the key challenges pointed out by physicians and nurses is lack of EHR integration.

Despite the hype for Telehealth services and all the accompanying buzz, other research has zeroed in on its rather low utilization rates. The Avizia-sponsored report released in December 2017, found 82 % of consumers do not use telemedicine. (No sufficient data for the current year).

 

One of the key reasons?

46 %  of consumers said they would find a video less comfortable than an in-person appointment at  with their physician's

This shows that there is still plenty of space for improvements in Telemedicine in the upcoming years. Research also stipulated  that video will never replace an in-person visit, however the number of online visits is growing every year.

 

A bridge between healthcare providers and patients.

With the growth in smartphone usage, patient expectations for instant access to services and health technology adoption are on the rise. We can see that from the past research and the newest one as well.

 

●        72% of consumers said the use of technology is important when it comes to managing their health (Accenture)

 

●        54% of patients want to use their smartphones to communicate with healthcare providers (Accenture)

 

●        79% of respondents were more likely to select a provider who allows them to conduct healthcare interactions online or on a mobile device (Medical Economics)

 

●        71% of millenials would like their providers to use an app to book appointments, share health data and manage preventive care (Salesforce)

 

Increasing the communication and interaction with patients not only leads to higher engagement and healthcare quality but also reduces the costs associated with care.

 

Is Patient Portal the answer?

Patient engagement and increasing customer satisfaction is just one side of the coin. Our experience in implementing Patient Portal to CMP ( Polish chain of medical clinics) shows that the majority of medical clinics, both in the public and the private sector, face similar challenges.

 

No-shows. The absolute number one.

The average rate of missed appointments often reach 10% —a situation that affects both access to health care services and physician revenues. This translates to estimated losses of $140,000 annually for a medical clinic with six full-time physicians.

 

Contact centre waiting time.

It takes approximately 162 seconds on average to book an appointment for a patient over the telephone, which represents about four hours of work each day for a medical clinic with five full-time physicians. Putting potential customer on hold can give them a reason to choose a competitor .

 

Administrative workload.

Most repetitive tasks can be automated, thereby increasing staff satisfaction by freeing them up to perform value-added tasks. More and more clinics are automating appointment reminders, registration and online bookings.

 

Poor communication with patients.

Some tasks require a phone call or even multiple phone calls. Having a good mobile version of the patient portal, where patients can request appointments, referrals, and prescription refills as well as view test results, provides up to 96% growth in customer satisfaction.

 

I talked to Paweł Walicki the President of CMP ( Polish chain of medical clinics) about what are the benefits of Patient Portal and what was the real impact on their business after we developed a mobile application for patients and doctors.

 

 

Why did you decide to implement this type of solution in the first place?

" CMP our chain of clinics is developing dynamically. Such a development rate results in a big technological challenge. We have  noticed that our patients and personnel need a new tool. The  tool that will improve our work. After we had done  a detailed analysis of all important processes ( scheduling appointments, new patient registration, receiving test results, cancelling appointments), we came to the conclusion that we can definitely streamline the majority of them and in some cases we can entirely remove a human factor."

 

How implementing this kind of solutions changed your business?

" We have observed a big growth in customer satisfaction. Our patients no longer have to wait on a line to talk to the front desk  and book an appointment or test. Our patients can do that in just a couple of seconds by themselves  using our app- the Patient Portal. We have also recorded smaller number of  no-shows, as a result we were able to improve financial results of particular medical sites. We are able to plan doctors' schedule efficiently."

 

What were the biggest challenges and major concerns you had? 

" One of the biggest concerns we had, was integration with the software that was  in use by the whole chain at that time. That was a key requirement we had. Changing our current HIS system would result in building the whole system from scratch and led to significant increase in total cost. We knew it’ was crucial and would require lots of work and careful planning."

 

What key problems did the Patient Portal solve?

" Our main goal was to move with the times and offer our customers modern solution where they can use our services quickly and in a secure way. Implementation of the Patient Portal saves our patients a lot of time. Patients are happy to use our application, thanks to that our telephone lines are more available and we do not see crowded medical sites any more.

One of the biggest problem in the industry is a No-Show rate. Patients sometimes have so much on their shoulders that they might forget about the appointment and forget to cancel it. The app reminds about upcoming appointments and if they  cannot make it, they can cancel the visit with just one touch. Thanks to that we increase accessibility of our services because other patients can use available date."

 

Does it pay off?

" We have to be able to see a big picture when we talk about the project of this size. The resources we put in restructuring our system and building the Patient Portal will translate to significant increase in customer satisfaction. As a consequence more and more people will be interested in our services. The application enables users to rate the visits, thanks to that we have already collected tens of thousands of reviews from our patients, right after the visits, that helped us to improve- today 97% of our customers are satisfied from the level of services we provide. We no longer have to deal with paper surveys, spending countless amount of hours to check them all and analyze them. The key factor here is constantly growing amount of smartphone users, if we want to attract them to use our services, then we have to live up to their expectations and offer them convenient alternatives - like Patient Portal."

 

What to begin with?

How fast this type of solution can be implemented? It depends on a lot of different factors. First of all what kind of HIS does your clinic has and what other system are currently in use. Implementing such a complex solution for your patients, requires experience, competence and careful planning but it pays off. If you would  to know what  it might look like, step by step, we would  be happy to tell you about that, prepare a plan and define potential risks.

One thing is certain, if we are not able to keep up with the expectation of more and more digitized patients, those patients will be more likely to choose providers that can offer comfort, speed and accessibility of service, utilizing the newest technology at the same time. Drop us a line if you would like to learn more!