eHealth Technologies Blog: Steve Malta, Vice President, Enterprise Sales, eHealth Technologies
We all can agree on one thing – the expectations of both providers and patients have changed in many ways since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year. But one thing has remained constant – patients’ expectations regarding their relationship with their provider.
The Deloitte 2020 Survey of US Health Care Consumers’ findings reinforced the 2016 study in which a “trusted clinician relationship remains paramount.” Stop and think about that in the context of how patient care has shifted during the pandemic. More telehealth visits, more patient portal communication, and more room for error in terms of how health systems support patient experience expectations.
How can hospital departments ensure that the patient experience is not impacted by these changes? Three pieces of the patient experience puzzle can make a big difference:
- Give clinical teams access to a complete medical record
- Provide fast viewing of key information in those records
- Enhance the clinical team’s ability to prepare for new patient appointments
Let’s break these down one by one.
- Access to a complete medical record – How many patients referred to your department come from outside the health system, or received outside services? Lab tests, radiology or pathology reports, or physician visit notes – whether recent or dating back to five or more years ago – contain critical information your clinical team needs today. Without a comprehensive medical record, your team cannot adequately understand a patient’s full story and recommend the most effective treatment during their initial appointment. No one wants to ask a patient to delay an appointment, repeat tests , or obtain medical records on their own. How will that affect your patient satisfaction scores?
Partnering with eHealth Technologies can alleviate the need for patients to track down their records and ensure that the clinical team has each patient’s medical history in plenty of time to prepare for the initial patient visit. And here’s the best part – our team can deliver records and medical images directly into your EMR and PACS for easy access by your entire team.
- The ability to quickly identify key information from medical records – You know what it’s like when new patients are referred to your department. They come with volumes of medical records. How long does it take your clinical team to organize records in a way that’s efficient to review and easily access vital patient information? If the process takes longer than 15 minutes, you’re invited to learn more about how eHealth Technologies helps clinical teams prepare for patient appointments more efficiently and effectively.
eHealth Technologies organizes medical records to maximize a clinician’s time. To start, we take hundreds of pages of records, categorize them by record type, and put them in chronological order. Clinical teams can then search records by select keywords. Imagine having a full set of records compiled for each patient and navigating directly to the History & Physical/H&P section to find specific information (such as a patient’s BMI) in about 60 seconds!
- Solid preparation for a new patient appointment – How many times have you been forced to delay an initial visit because you’re missing key information? How often has a patient been required to return for another appointment, track down medical records, or repeat medical tests? These setbacks can negatively impact the patient’s experience and delay the timely creation of a treatment plan. Why take these risks?
With a complete medical record that providers can navigate quickly, clinical teams can be more prepared for a patient’s first appointment. Having information at your fingertips is a win-win for clinical teams and patients. When we get off on the right foot with a new patient, it sets the foundation for a positive provider-patient relationship, builds patient confidence, and ultimately leads to higher levels of patient satisfaction.
During this unprecedented time when health care administrators face heightened pressure and patient care methodologies continue to evolve, we cannot underestimate the potential negative impact of these changes. Ensuring that patient medical records are readily accessible, easily searchable for key information, and complete before the initial visit are vital to a positive patient experience.
