Nursing Leader's Role in Patient Safety & Satisfaction

Nursing Leader’s Role in Patient Safety & Satisfaction

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Nursing Leader's Role in Patient Safety & Satisfaction

Nurses play a critical role in patient care and outcomes. While physicians make diagnoses and provide treatment, nurses are responsible for a wide range of essential tasks, including monitoring patients’ conditions, dispensing medication, and assisting with personal care tasks. Nursing leaders have the additional responsibility of overseeing other nurses to help ensure quality patient care. 

Although nursing leaders may have less direct contact with patients on a daily basis, their role is incredibly important for creating high levels of safety and satisfaction among patients. Many of a nursing leader’s duties affect the way the nursing staff as a whole provides care. Here’s how a nursing leader can affect these important factors. 

Nursing Leader's Role in Patient Safety & Satisfaction

Staffing Decisions 

Nursing leaders are typically in charge of hiring and firing new nursing staff. Making staffing decisions is a difficult balancing act for nurse leaders. They have a budget they must stick to, but they also have to hire enough staff to meet the needs of the organization. 

Making good hiring decisions can also be challenging when it comes to finding the right people for the job. There may be many applicants, but if only a handful are qualified or experienced enough, there might be a shortfall. Inexperienced nurses will need to be paired with more experienced professionals while they gain knowledge and confidence on the job, while others may simply lack the dedication and skills needed to be successful. 

However, staffing shortfalls can lead to issues with patient safety and affect the patient’s overall experience. An experienced nursing leader must balance all of these factors when making hiring and firing decisions to ensure a high level of care. 

Training Protocols 

Adequate staffing alone isn’t enough to ensure that patients are well-cared for. A nursing leader should emphasize ongoing training for their nursing staff so that they continue to build new skills and reinforce their current training. 

Professional development is important as the field of medicine evolves. Nursing leaders who look ahead to the future can improve patient care and safety by ensuring that nurses receive ongoing training. 

In addition to creating a more skilled workforce, ongoing training and development can help nurses feel more invested and engaged in their work. This is essential for preventing burnout and offers a win-win for both nurses and patients. 

Clear Standards of Care 

An effective nursing leader must insist that their staff maintain high standards for safety and patient care. While every RN should know and follow the basic ethical and care standards of the profession, every organization sets its own tone and standards as well. 

In order to maintain these standards, a nursing leader must highlight and emphasize them, enforcing compliance when needed. By making standards of care clear and concise, with no gray areas for interpretation, the nursing staff will all be expected to follow and maintain the same protocols, resulting in more consistent patient care.  

Emphasizing Communication & Preventing Errors

Nurses spend a lot of time communicating with patients and their families. Many errors that occur are the result of poor communication, even when there is no language barrier affecting understanding. 

A nurse leader should emphasize the importance of clear communication, even in difficult situations. Preventing errors is a top priority within the field of nursing, as they can be a matter of life and death. In fact, around 2.6 million people die every year due to safety issues in hospitals. 

Since some errors can be prevented simply by asking questions and having conversations, nursing leaders must be mindful of how proper communication affects patient outcomes. Just a few clarifying questions can sometimes make a critical difference. 

Morale Impact 

There are a lot of people in leadership positions across industries who shouldn’t be holding these roles. Unfortunately, poor leadership is not only common, but it also has a massive impact on employee morale. 

Leaders can fail their teams in a variety of ways, but it’s not all bad news. Effective nursing leaders can inspire their teams and boost morale by providing a safe, comfortable, and welcoming environment. 

People do their best work when they’re happy. A good nursing leader knows how to maintain harmony within a team, push people when appropriate, and give them support when necessary. In this kind of environment, everyone knows where they stand and can honor their responsibilities with confidence. 

Cultural Competence

Nursing isn’t just about healing physical illness and wounds. The profession involves connecting with patients and giving them a safe space to recover. As diversity grows in the United States, however, many patients find that they do not get the sensitivity and communication they need to feel safe in the hospital. 

Cultural competence is critical in nursing to ensure that patients are given dignity and respect. Trust is an important component in helping patients to recover and preventing errors, so every nursing leader should help to facilitate this trust by teaching their nursing staff how to provide culturally competent care. 

Nursing Leaders Set the Example 

A nurse leader doesn’t have to be doing all of the day-to-day work to make a positive impact on patient care and safety. Instead, nursing leaders set the standards and example for the entire nursing staff. A nursing leader who takes steps to ensure that all nurses are providing top-notch care will see a strong, positive impact on their department’s safety record, patient satisfaction, and overall happiness among both patients and nurses. 

Latest Telehealth Trends That Will Fuel Your Practice in 2022

Latest Telehealth Trends That Will Fuel Your Practice in 2022

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Latest Telehealth Trends That Will Fuel Your Practice in 2022

In March 2020, the telehealth utilization rates grew by 154% compared to the same time in 2019. While the COVID-19 outbreak gave us a glimpse of the true potential of Telehealth technology, we cannot help but wonder – is the telehealth growth trend going to persist moving into 2022? 

Latest Telehealth Trends That Will Fuel Your Practice in 2022

Getting a custom telehealth solution can help you retain more patients, optimize your workflows, and ease your doctors’ jobs. But it’s also quite expensive, and the industry is not without its challenges. Curious to see if Telehealth is the way to go in 2022? You first need to understand the recent trends and challenges in the remote health sector. So, buckle up and read on to learn about the telehealth industry’s major benefits and challenges in 2022.

7+ Emerging Telehealth Trends & Statistics to Keep in Mind 

Telehealth is a technology that enables medical practices worldwide to provide their services remotely using video and audio-conferencing technology.

In a modern climate, getting help remotely became essential. With that being said, the industry is still in its infancy, and we can only predict how it will develop down the line. Here’s a quick overview of all the latest telehealth trends and statistics shaping the industry to this day:

#1. Increased Usage and Stabilized Growth

The number of telehealth visits increased by 50% in 2020 compared to 2019. At the same time, the industry size is expected to grow from $50 billion to $194 billion by 2023. You might be thinking that the industry is booming solely because of the COVID outbreak, and things will slow down shortly. However,  the growth has only stabilized and become more prevalent since the initial COVID-19 craze cooled down. Right now, the telehealth software utilization levels are 38X times those of 2019.

This means that while the industry is not growing as fast as it did in 2020, telehealth technology is here to stay for the long term. 

#2 Increased Patient Satisfaction & Cost Savings

85% of telehealth patients in the USA reported higher satisfaction with telehealth services and $19 to $121 in cost savings than in-person visits. Telehealth services help patients save money and time, so if your practice still does not offer remote doctor visits – you are likely missing out on a good number of patients. When it comes to getting drug prescriptions or managing appointments with the doctor – over 90% of users reported that they would keep using telehealth technology instead of in-person visits in the USA. 

#3. 360-Degree Care Provision

Gone are the days when patients would have to visit 4-5 professionals in person to get a full picture of their state of health and all their prescriptions. HIPAA-compliant telehealth software ensures the safe storage of patients’ data, which enables doctors to get a full picture of their state in a matter of seconds, fully remotely. With the ability to view the information about all previous patient visits and other doctors’ notes, caregivers spend less time on creating diagnoses. This saves time getting to know the patient’s case and enables doctors to provide a more rounded conclusion in less time. 

#4. Improved User Experience is a Must-Have 

As Telehealth is expanding, the quality standards for telehealth applications are also rising. Older telehealth software had simple, secure video-calling features with limited booking functionality. Nowadays, patients want much more than that. Here are a few important qualities of a successful modern telehealth application that you need to keep in mind:

  • Cross-platform functionality 
  • HIPAA-compliance
  • Integrated booking system
  • Secure file storage for all medical imaging
  • Ratings and review mechanisms
  • Integrated automated chatbot support 

The point here is that standing out from the crowd with your telehealth application is getting more challenging (yet more rewarding), so make sure that you partner with the HIPAA-compliant software developers you can trust.

#5: AI in Telehealth: Automating Prescriptions & Intelligent Diagnoses

When you marry artificial intelligence and healthcare, good things happen. Using machine learning algorithms, modern healthcare solutions will be able to do any of the following: 

  • Calculate the required dosage of patients’ prescriptions automatically
  • Read medical images and highlight any pathologies, making medical imaging analysis a swift process
  • Provide intelligent diagnoses for doctor’s review, based on the information provided on the patients’ file

The advent of AI technology in Telehealth will ease the lives of many patients and medical professionals worldwide. Some modern enterprise-scale businesses already use AI modeling to analyze the patient’s state over time to achieve higher workflow efficiency. 

#6 The Advent of Wearables and IoT in Telehealth

Internet of things is a term used to describe the usage of any physical device to accommodate a software program. In medicine, wearables like fitness trackers and biosensors track patients’ states and metrics in real-time, keeping the doctors aware of prescriptions’ effects on patients’ health. If doctors can monitor your health in real-time – they can devise a better treatment for you down the line.

Moving forward, one of the biggest telehealth trends would be to “marry” the telehealth software with the most popular devices (smartwatches, heart monitors, fit bands, etc.) on a global scale. Therefore, modern telehealth solutions will be built with the most popular wearable platforms in mind. 

#7: Rise of Mental and Chronic Disease Treatment Through Telehealth

Whether it’s diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or cancer – 1 out of 3 adults worldwide suffers from some chronic condition. Despite such high numbers, a large portion of patients worldwide never show up to their follow-up appointments with doctors (most of the time – because it’s inconvenient or they find it pointless). This makes the cost of average health insurance much higher than it has to be. 

At the same time, 21% of USA adults are suffering from mental problems, while the pandemic has disrupted the operations of 93% of mental health centers in the country. 

The problem here is two-fold: 

  1. Pandemic made it harder for care providers to offer their services in-person
  2. Patients do not attend in-person meetings because they are resource-consuming

Telehealth can fix both of these problems by providing timely and cost-efficient appointments for chronic disease and mental health patients. The chances are that both of these sectors will thrive in the modern telehealth landscape for years to come. 

So, What Does it Mean for Your Medical Practice?

You cannot execute a good portion of different clinical procedures without the patient being on-site in the hospital. With that being said, telehealth offers a much better quality of service and price/quality ratio compared to in-person meetings when it comes to simple medical checkups, appointment scheduling, prescription adjustment, and monitoring of patients’ health. It also boosts patient engagement, increases retention, lowers operational costs, and organizes things for your doctors, making their life easier. 

One concern many experts have is that some of the problems of in-person visits will bleed over to telehealth – some of them are medical identity theft and duplicate medical records. Fortunately, touchless biometric patient identification platforms like RightPatient ensure that patients are identified accurately even when they are availing remote healthcare services. When patients schedule remote appointments, they receive a message with a link – all they need to provide is a selfie photo and a photo of their driver’s license or a similar photo ID. RightPatient automatically compares the photos for a match and verifies the patient’s identity – ensuring positive patient identification, preventing medical identity theft, and protecting patient data.

Coming back to the point, if some 10 years ago, telehealth software would have been a nice addition to in-person visits in your hospital, today it became an essential part of any modern medical practice. If you still have not implemented a telehealth solution at your business – then you are likely missing out.

Data in Healthcare and its Impact on Patient Well-Being

Data in Healthcare and its Impact on Patient Well-Being

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Data in Healthcare and its Impact on Patient Well-Being

How Data Implementation Improves Patient Outcomes

Data is a high-growth industry that has penetrated into virtually all areas of commerce. From a strictly business perspective, it’s no small wonder that the healthcare industry has taken to it just as surely as any other market sector. 

But how does data relate to the actual healthcare process? Though data-driven patient care is a relatively young phenomenon – at least in the form it has currently taken – it has an enormous amount of potential to positively shape patient outcomes.

Data in Healthcare and its Impact on Patient Well-Being

In this article, we take a look at how data implementation can be used to improve people’s health. 

An Endless Flow of Information

The majority of healthy people only see their doctor once a year or even every other year. During these visits, they get their vitals taken, and then have a very short meeting with their physician. For years, this standard of care has been the baseline. While it has its merits, it’s also highly subject to variables that can disrupt the results. 

For example, if the patient had a meal shortly before their appointment, their blood pressure will read artificially low. If they had coffee, it will be artificially high. If they are nervous, as many people are at the doctor’s office, their pulse will read very fast. If they are sleepy – and who isn’t sleepy? – it might read as unusually slow. 

You get readings, but they are reflective of one select moment. They don’t necessarily represent your overall health. 

Wearable health technology changes this. There are now devices that continuously log your heart rate and other key analytics that can produce a much more comprehensive view of your health. 

This constant data-taking is a relatively new development, and as such, it hasn’t yet lived up to its full potential. Nevertheless, it’s a very promising prospect. Wearables, coupled with IoT technology produce a constant data stream that can give doctors an unparalleled look at their patient’s health. 

Not only is this useful for people with known conditions, but it can be vital for those who are perceived as healthy. Many conditions require early detection for effective treatment. This is more possible than ever with wearable health technology. 

Hospital Management

It’s no secret that hospitals have a limited number of resources. Covid-19 made this fact particularly relevant as hospitals all around the world had to make difficult decisions about how they could make the most of their equipment and staff during a time of unusually high need. 

These decisions can be made easier using data algorithms. Using data, hospital managers can benefit from an enhanced understanding of where the most need is. 

This could mean diverting more staff to a certain floor of a hospital wing. For example, a program that analyzes Covid metrics may detect the early signs of a spike. The hospital manager will then know that they need more staff on the respiratory wing. 

Data can also be used for assessing what patients even require physicians. Using patient portals and calibrated algorithms, a hospital can view patient complaints by order of their urgency. Some may need to come in to be seen directly, while others may be able to have their needs met through a telehealth module. 

Not only does this save the hospital on resources, but it also costs less money, allowing patients to get the care they need at a potentially more affordable price. 

Faster Diagnosing

Data implementation can also help doctors make quicker diagnoses. Using algorithms, they can take a patient’s health history, plug in their symptoms, and receive a quick list of probable diagnoses. In many cases, a quick turnaround time can be the difference between a patient getting better, or getting worse. 

In this scenario, the doctor still uses their own knowledge, but instead of sifting through dozens of possible scenarios, they are left with a manageable handful of possibilities.  

Blockchain

Naturally, a patient’s health history is very personal, private information. As healthcare drifts closer and closer towards broad data usage, security becomes a big issue. After all, if companies like Marriot can’t keep their customer data safe, what hope does a small rural hospital have?

Blockchain makes data implementation safer. It provides encryption that simultaneously makes data more secure, and easier to share amongst qualified professionals. 

This technology makes it very easy for patients to have access to important health records even when they are far from home. If a person finds themselves hospitalized out of state, or even in another country, they can trust that their records are being shared securely thanks to blockchain technology. 

Administrative Advantages

Data implementation also has significant administrative advantages. While these benefits may not be experienced by the patient directly, they do impact their ultimate quality of care. Administratively, hospitals can use data to make more informed decisions about upkeep, patient scheduling, supply management, and all manner of other features that make a hospital tick and hum. 

Though less palpable, these benefits can have a keen impact on the patient experience. If you’ve ever been in a waiting room where ten people seem to have the same appointment time, you understand the truth of this. 

Community Outreach

Health data can also be an important aspect of community outreach. For example, if data shows that a certain segment of the population is unusually averse to getting the flu vaccine, data can help healthcare professionals identify what sort of people fall into this category, and then help them make an advertising campaign that is tailored towards that section of the community. 

Similarly, healthcare professionals can also use community data to anticipate things like an isolated Covid outbreak. Since March of 2020, we have seen that Covid may spike in certain parts of the country, even when the numbers are very mild overall. 

Data can anticipate and isolate these projected spikes to make sure that the community that is to be impacted by them is aware of the situation ahead of time. 

Accurate Patient Data is Crucial for Positive Patient Outcomes

Since there’s no standardized and effective patient identifier in place, patient misidentification is rampant in the US – leading to duplicate medical records, identity theft cases, denied claims, and patient safety issues. None of the above points will be effective until patient data integrity is ensured – RightPatient helps with the latter.

Several hospitals are using RightPatient – a touchless biometric patient identification platform – to help them ensure that accurate medical records are being selected. It utilizes patients’ photos to identify medical records accurately – making it a safe, seamless, and easy patient identification process for everyone involved. RightPatient prevents duplicates, prevents identity theft cases, and improves patient outcomes by identifying EHRs accurately across the care continuum. 

Dealing With Huge Medical Practice Running Costs

Dealing With Huge Medical Practice Running Costs: How To Bring Them Down

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Dealing With Huge Medical Practice Running Costs

There’s no getting around it – the cost of running a medical practice is high. However, that doesn’t mean you have to accept high bills without hesitation. High running costs slow down your practice and make it difficult to provide quality care to your patients. You’ll be more stressed, and your patients will ultimately be the ones who are affected. Here are some helpful tips to bring down your medical practice’s running costs. 

Hire Virtual Assistants Instead of Full-Time Employees

One way to reduce your running costs is to hire a virtual medical scribe instead of a full-time administration assistant. Virtual assistants work remotely, usually from their home country. They’re experts in a particular area and can help you with various tasks, such as billing, transcription, and marketing.

Dealing With Huge Medical Practice Running Costs

Hiring a virtual assistant is a great way to reduce your running costs because you only pay for their work hours. You don’t have to worry about paying for benefits, such as health insurance and retirement pensions. A virtual assistant is qualified and experienced in the area you need help with.

Use Technology To Reduce Paperwork

Another way to reduce your running costs is to use technology to reduce the amount of paperwork you produce. For example, you can use electronic health records (EHRs) to store patient information. Doing so reduces the amount of paper you need to print out and file.

You can also use online tools to bill patients and manage appointments -most of them will save you both time and money. They’re also more efficient than traditional methods, which means you can see more patients in a day. Technology also allows you to communicate with patients and other healthcare professionals electronically, creating convenience and saving time.

Reduce Costs That Don’t Contribute to Better Healthcare

Analyze your costs and identify which ones are contributing to better healthcare for your patients, and which ones are not. For example, you may want to reduce your advertising budget, or the amount you spend on office supplies. You can also reduce the amount you spend on rent or lease a smaller office. However, make sure the office you lease is still big enough to accommodate your needs.

Other than this, check whether you’re paying multiple subscriptions for software or services you don’t use. You can also save money by negotiating lower prices for supplies.

Reduce Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy can be a major contributor to high running costs. It creates inefficiencies and wastes valuable time and money. Reduce bureaucracy by streamlining your processes and eliminating unnecessary steps. You can also make sure all your employees are trained the same and follow the same procedures.

Involve the Staff in Reducing Costs

Your staff is a valuable resource when it comes to reducing costs. Ask them for ideas on how to reduce expenses. You may be surprised at the amount of money your staff can save you. They may also have suggestions on how to improve your practice’s efficiency. Together, you can develop ways to reduce your running costs without compromising the quality of care you provide.

Adopt Industry Best Practices

It’s always a good idea to learn from colleagues in other industries. Many of them have already found ways to reduce their running costs. Consider their best practices and see how you can apply them to your medical practice. Some of the things that can help reduce costs are:

  • Efficient use of space – can you use less space and still provide the same level of care?
  • Error-free processes – can you eliminate or reduce the number of mistakes made?
  • Staff training and development – is there a way to improve staff efficiency or train new skills?

Reduce Waste

Waste is a major contributor to high running costs. Reduce waste by eliminating unnecessary steps in your processes, recycling, composting, and using energy-efficient equipment.

Ensure Accurate Patient Identification

Inaccurately identifying patients has several disadvantages – it creates duplicate medical records, overlays, patient mix-ups, denied claims, and more – all of which can become significant losses to any medical practice.  This occurs because patients are misidentified when they have common names or characteristics – leading to the patient being treated using an entirely different EHR! The consequences of patient misidentification are catastrophic as the patient’s life is on the line – they might get treated for a condition they don’t have! 

Fortunately, a touchless biometric patient identification platform like RightPatient helps associate EHRs with the appropriate patients accurately. Patients registered with the platform only need to look at the camera – RightPatient does the rest, making it one of the most ideal ways to tackle mix-ups.   

Continually Analyze the Running Costs To Remain Profitable

Implementing some or all of these tips reduces your medical practice’s running costs. This will allow you to provide better care for your patients while still staying within your budget. Remember to continually analyze your costs and look for new ways to reduce them. Doing so ensures your practice remains profitable and sustainable in the long run.

The Modern Viability of Telehealth

The Modern Viability of Telehealth

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The Modern Viability of Telehealth

The healthcare industry has experienced major changes and innovations in the last decade. One of its most prevalent shifts has been the increasing viability of telehealth offerings. Statistics across a range of metrics have shown strong growth and increased adoption of telehealth over the past 10-12 years. 

The Modern Viability of Telehealth

Beginning in March of 2020 when the advent of COVID-19 threw the healthcare industry (and the entire world) into chaos, telehealth visits exploded. Experts expect that a post-COVID-pandemic world will include a much more expanded and regular adoption of telehealth as an effective alternative to in-person healthcare provision. Though much remains to be learned and understood about the long-term ramifications of telehealth practice, its benefits and possibilities look very promising and could also alleviate much of the strain and burden the healthcare industry has sustained in the last 1-2 years.

Reasons Telehealth Looks More Promising than Ever Before

Though telehealth has technically been possible for a longer amount of time than it has been more readily adopted on a wide scale, various limitations had previously rendered it impractical for widespread use. However, several large shifts that have occurred within the last 5-10 years have made it a much more viable option and have set the stage for telehealth to prove a sustainable and widely accessible healthcare provision option.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs)

The prevalence of electronic health records and other digital means of storing and sharing information have made it much easier for multiple healthcare providers to access a patient’s data and health history to provide care. In the past, records would have largely been stored in hard copies, and the process of getting that information to a new health provider so that they could administer care was much more manual. If this was still the case, it would render telehealth provision much more arduous. 

Now that EHRs can be transferred and stored digitally, distance is moot, and being in person to transfer health information or histories is unnecessary. Conducting healthcare provision via online telehealth platforms can sometimes make digital data representations of that care more convenient and arguably contribute to better record-keeping and data analytics that can serve that patient in the future.

Moreover, in the case of EHRs, healthcare providers must ensure that they are feeding accurate data into the medical records. Problems such as duplicate medical records and overlays cause patient mix-ups, denied claims, patient safety issues, poor patient data, and worse – all of which can be prevented with positive patient identification. Fortunately, touchless biometric patient identification platforms like RightPatient ensure that the appropriate medical record is presented each time the patient comes in and verifies their identity. RightPatient improves patient data integrity, enhances patient safety, and prevents patient misidentification at any point in the care continuum. 

The ubiquity of Internet Connectivity

Because video conferencing is still a data-heavy task that requires a strong internet connection, even as recently as 5-10 years ago telehealth would have been impractical or even impossible for all but those who paid premium prices for ample internet bandwidth. 

However, as connectivity technology and availability have increased, telehealth has become accessible for a large percentage of the world’s population. As more and more people enjoy strong regular internet access in their homes and workplaces, telehealth offerings become a convenient and easy healthcare option.

Growing Acceptance of Telehealth in Policy and Insurance Coverage 

Another valuable contributor to telehealth’s increasing adoption rates, especially in the face of COVID-19, healthcare providers and insurance companies scrambled to provide alternatives to in-person healthcare out of necessity. Factors like persons with high-risk health conditions and hospitals overrun with COVID patients meant that thousands of individuals had no choice but to look for alternatives to traditional health visits. 

Even as COVID-19 slows and the healthcare landscape will likely shift away from its resulting emergency measures over the coming year or more, telehealth has proven beneficial for several reasons and will very likely remain and even increase in use over the coming years.

Increase in Technologies 

With an increase in technology, telehealth can propel into the future with various ways to allow for remote healthcare. Even now some diagnostic tests and involved types of medicinal and care administration can be performed remotely, either via mail-in arrangements or through virtual means. The development of new technologies including Virtual and Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will continually offer medical professionals more means of conducting healthcare provision remotely via telehealth platforms.

The Many Benefits of Telehealth

It is because of the many benefits telehealth promises that huge energy and resources are being invested in making it even more available and robust. Though this is not an exhaustive list, the reasons below are just a few of the ways telehealth can provide distinct advantages to the healthcare system:

Its efficiency allows more visits to fit into a span of time. It can often save both patients and sometimes healthcare providers the time, resources, and energy required to travel to healthcare provision locations. Telehealth can sometimes make moving between different healthcare locations unnecessary for medical professionals. And it cuts down on the need for multiple healthcare staff to conduct a single visit, lessening the total work required to provide medical appointments.

Telehealth can increase access to healthcare for a number of individuals. For some demographics including the elderly or those with social anxiety or that live in remote areas, traveling to a healthcare facility is impractical or even impossible. Telehealth makes healthcare provision available from the comfort or security of one’s own home. For others, their life or work schedule makes it difficult to attend in-person appointments.

Additionally, it can reduce strain on hospitals and overburdened healthcare providers. Telehealth can also reduce traffic through in-person health locations, lessening overall contamination and keeping them more insulated for patients in more severe or critical conditions.

Finally, telehealth provision can often create an improved patient experience. Many patients who experience telehealth appointments prefer them to in-person visits. Telehealth can reduce external factors and experiences that can be unfavorable to some patients and provide an alternative that suits some individuals much more favorably.

Because of the many benefits they provide, telehealth offerings will likely become even more prevalent and fully featured in the future. Though they will never fully replace in-person health provision, telehealth can provide a strategic and cost-effective alternative that can expand healthcare provision’s reach and help it cater to more people effectively.

How To Improve Patient Experience When Faced with Overflow

How To Improve Patient Experience When Faced with Overflow

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How To Improve Patient Experience When Faced with Overflow

We all need to keep our patients happy, and it is paramount that you and your staff do everything possible to facilitate this. On a busy day when time is in short supply and your team is rushed off its feet, you may feel like all you are doing is making apologies. But, as long wait times have a negative effect on patient satisfaction, it’s crucial to eliminate the apologies and provide your patients with a good experience. After all, this may well determine how many repeat or referral patients you get in the future, which is fundamental if you want to grow your practice.

How To Improve Patient Experience When Faced with Overflow

1:  Communication is Key

Brushing up on how you communicate with your patients can improve their experience immensely. You should seek to understand how you can improve the experience of waiting and invest in developing patient-centered information and communication.

As a service-based business, you should be setting clear expectations for your patients. If you are having a particularly busy period and appointment times are stretched, make sure your team is aware that they will need to manage wait times. Be honest and up-front with patients if their appointment is delayed and provide them with accurate information about how long the wait may be. Patients can then decide if they want to wait, or they may prefer to rebook. It’s not a perfect solution, but it gives patients the choice.

Today’s technology is making it possible for patients and healthcare providers to communicate in ways we never dreamed of 20 years ago. Voice mail, faxes, and mail are giving way to instant messaging and telehealth video consults. Not only does this enable you to contact patients immediately if you foresee a problem that may result in their appointment being delayed, but it also reduces the time spent in the waiting room. In a pandemic, reducing potential exposure to the virus is beneficial not just for patients but for your team, too.

With all the means of communication we have at our disposal these days, there really is no excuse for not getting in touch with your patients. Unfortunately, technology does not teach individuals how to communicate with patients. Staff training in this area should be a priority as even the most technologically advanced communicator should ensure their face-to-face communication skills are equally as good.

2:  Revamp Your Waiting Room

The waiting room is a crucial part of a patient’s overall experience, and it should be welcoming, aesthetically pleasing, comfortable, and clean. A waiting room with tasteful décor, filled with color and natural light can influence patients positively on a physical and psychological level. It has been found that plants in the waiting room favorably impact patients and staff – even if they are artificial. Let your patients know you care about their experience by creating a modern waiting room aesthetic where your patients feel comfortable and able to relax.

Creating a Relaxing Space

De-clutter your waiting area by removing old magazines and keeping stacks tidy with baskets or magazine racks. Update your seating, choosing fabrics that are functional, comfortable, and match your brand aesthetic. Have a variety of ambient light sources in the room that contributes to a tranquil atmosphere much more than functional, overhead lighting.

Provide WiFi

Reliable, complimentary WiFi will be a huge benefit to many patients who can entertain themselves using their smartphones or tablets. Parents will find it useful to keep their small children occupied and for anyone needing to keep a check on emails or work, Wi-Fi will provide functional and practical service.

Customize TV Content

Customized TV content can deliver a variety of tailor-made messages to your patients. Far from just showing TV programs, you can create local interest content, such as ads from local businesses, or display information about your practice or dental health issues.

3:  Mitigate Long Wait Times with IT that Suits Your Business

Scheduling Tools

It is a common misconception that if you cannot see patients expediently, then it is because the practice is too busy. From time to time, this may well be the case, but one of the main reasons for limited appointment options could be due to inefficient scheduling. With the right healthcare scheduling software for your clinic, you can improve wait times for your patients and minimize staffing shortages that can contribute to overflowing waiting rooms.

  • For patients, filling in long forms in the waiting room should be a thing of the past. Digital health tools include portals that allow patients to fill in their information securely online before they arrive for their appointment – resulting in less time in the waiting room. What’s more, the information can integrate seamlessly with the dental management software suites you use to streamline other processes, such as administration, appointments, patient records, treatment planning, test results, billing. This saves you and your staff time so they can concentrate on patient care rather than administrative tasks.
  • For even greater improvements, staff shift scheduling can present your whole team with a valuable tool for managing their time. The fact is, you and your team must juggle patient waits, treatments, medications, insurance procedures and administration among other things and things can go awry swiftly if members of your team are absent. Shift scheduling software enables all members of your team to manage their work schedules and as practice manager for you to see at a glance who can step in to cover.

Telehealth

Although telehealth has been around for some time now, the pandemic has brought it truly into the mainstream. It is now an essential tool to aid communication between healthcare practitioners and patients, helping to keep patients and your staff safe and eliminating congested, chaotic waiting rooms. It has been estimated that 20% of emergencies can be seen using teledentistry, which itself can have marked improvement on congested waiting areas.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is already saving time for patients and for your staff. Rather than having to phone in and wait in line for your office to answer, a website chatbot can often answer questions frequently posed by patients – even out of hours. Additionally, it saves both your team’s and your patient’s time.

While AI is still in its infancy, machine learning will transform patient care in the future with algorithms that will be paramount in the way we treat patients – from diagnostics to holistic treatment plans. There will be numerous benefits to patients, including spending less time in a waiting room because AI-driven systems will be able to accurately detect their problems and prescribe a course of treatment.

The Bottom Line

In the world we live in today, patients have high expectations. They want to be seen with little wait times; they want their treatment options explained simply, and they want their dentist to be attentive and caring. Moreover, healthcare providers need to ensure that they are providing the appropriate treatment to the right patient. A touchless patient identification platform like RightPatient can help with that, preventing patient mix-ups, duplicates, and overlays in the process. 

Making improvements for your patients is just as likely to be beneficial to you and your team, too. The pandemic was not good for dental health and has already changed workflows dramatically with the increased use of technology solutions. But, moving forward it’s important to know your business and invest in the most appropriate technology and training that meets your practice’s needs, rather than the latest “cutting-edge tech” that may not fit in with your workflow.

Easier Ways to Guide Patients to Healthcare Services

Easier Ways to Guide Patients to Healthcare Services

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Easier Ways to Guide Patients to Healthcare Services

In the healthcare industry, it is extremely crucial that patients can easily find the right information at the right time to ensure the highest quality of Healthcare Services. Here are some tips to make crucial information easier available online.

Healthcare communications are becoming a crucial part of making sure the patient will get the right treatment. Quick access to the right information can be crucial for starting the right treatment, even before the patient will encounter the healthcare system. Therefore, providers in the healthcare industry can take a service check on their online services to make sure that the most important information is easily available to patients.

Easier Ways to Guide Patients to Healthcare Services

Avoid Specialized Language

A primary task in healthcare information is to convert medical terms into simpler terms that can be understood by laymen. Few of the patients have the right education to understand the doctors’ language and will probably not obtain it before it becomes crucial information for the patients. The main task here is to simplify without giving wrong information.

Use Easy-to-remember Intuitive Domain Names

When a patient sees a doctor and gets advised to read more information on a webpage, it’s important that this webpage is easily accessible. Some companies tend to have special shortenings of names that are difficult to either spell or remember for the patients. Therefore, it can be useful for health care services to use a premium domain name.

A premium domain is living up to the criteria for a user-friendly experience. Such domains might already be occupied or bought by other companies. But at Domainify, you can find some of the best healthcare domain names. These names are all living up to the criteria for a premium domain name, and it even comes with a pre-designed logo. It is even SEO-friendly and all of them are easy to remember and spell for patients.

Make Communication More Visual

Medical terms can be abstract and difficult to understand for patients. Many people don’t know about the body’s mechanisms. They can feel pain and discomfort but might not know exactly how a knee or stomach is functioning. Therefore, doctors and health care personnel have a big task of communicating this information in an easily understandable way.

For a lot of patients, descriptions of the body can be quite abstract in words. Often a feeling in the body is difficult to translate into words. This is leading to a huge potential in visual communication like infographics in health care. Here health care providers can more easily give instructions, communicate about specific body parts or symptoms.

The brain is processing visual communication thousands of times faster than text according to TechSmith. Research also shows that people are more likely to remember communication when it is delivered visually instead of by text. The explanation is not so weird. Visualizations show things like they are. Text is a transformation of events in the world transformed into letters, that are forming words, sentences, and texts. Texts might be easy to write, but visuals are easier to use for learning.

3-Innovations-That-Can-Improve-Your-Patient-Experience

3 Innovations That Can Improve Your Patient Experience

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3-Innovations-That-Can-Improve-Your-Patient-Experience

Being in the healthcare business, it’s a timeless trend to improve your patient experience at all costs. It’s not just about how you interact with them when they’re visiting for an appointment. Instead, the overall patient experience encompasses an array of interconnections that your customers have with the healthcare system as a whole. While it’s good to invest in establishing excellent interpersonal relationships with patients, the health sector should seek more ways and innovations that can make the experience better for patients in every aspect possible. 

3-Innovations-That-Can-Improve-Your-Patient-Experience

If you’re wondering what these innovations are, here’s a list you might find helpful: 

Modern Health Supplements   

Back in the day, the supplements marketplace was pretty simple and with not a lot of options. From delivery forms to specialty ingredients, consumers can make a quick stop at the supplements aisle and settle for what’s available. Today, a plethora of dietary products are manufactured and offered, not to mention more specific and targeted, giving patients more flexibility and preference when deciding which ones would suit their health concerns better. 

Modern health supplements are now available to help contribute to improving patient experience. Consumers can pick based on what particular health aspect they want to focus on – skin, hair, immunity, bones, etc. – then choose from multiple product types, from essential multivitamins to probiotics, energy bars, and herbal drinks. Among the modern health supplements gaining momentum right now are cognitive enhancers which can help improve an individual’s cognitive abilities such as memory, learning, and concentration. The product is also said to improve mental alertness, concentration, and energy levels. 

Examples are natural nootropic products known to help in productivity and motivation. They can give you the boost you need to get things done, specifically when working on critical tasks such as studying or working. Some people use nootropics to boost their social abilities, thereby helping them increase their confidence, especially in public speaking and doing presentations. If you want to learn more about their potential and how such products can help your patient, you can read this great post by WholisticResearch.  

Online Therapies 

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapy that can effectively treat a variety of psychological conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and the like. CBT works by regularly targeting negative thoughts and behaviors that can have a detrimental effect on your daily life. It can help you learn how to use your problem-solving skills effectively to cope with different situations, learn how to calm your mind when stressed, and gain a better understanding of your surroundings.  

Now, CBT can be done online through online chats or video calls. The internet can serve as a means of communication between patients and mental health practitioners. Online CBTs can be used as an alternative to face-to-face sessions. It can be done through video conferencing, instant messaging, or online forums like group therapy, thus significantly contributing to improving patient experience even from the comfort of each other’s homes.  

What used to be books, videos, or audio series can now be adapted into websites that publish interactive content. Online-based therapies, as the core concepts of CBT, can be done through text, video, or audio instructions. There are several self-help programs guided by cognitive behavior therapists that can be done online. However, do note that online CBT providers must keep the patient identities confidential and secure, especially when storing and transmitting patients’ information online – a touchless biometric patient identification platform like RightPatient can help with that, as it can be used to remotely authenticate patients as well. 

Telehealth 

Technology continues to transform multiple industries, including healthcare. What used to be impossible back in the day is now readily available for patients to enjoy and take advantage of, such as the innovation of telehealth. Telehealth involves using communication technologies and digital information so both patients and providers can work together in managing health care remotely.   

Devices such as computers and mobile phones are utilized to support and improve patient experience. Take, for example, a patient who has diabetes. They can use their mobile phone to keep track of their food intake and blood sugar levels with the help of a nurse who interacts with them electronically. There’s also an online portal where patients can schedule appointments, access their test results, and request a prescription refill when needed.  

As you can see, telehealth reduces the need for physical contact or consultations. It makes the interaction more technology-based, but without eliminating access to information and specialists that the customers need to learn more about their condition and make progress with their treatment. 

The Bottom Line 

Industry trends come and go, but one thing will always stay the same – keeping customers happy and satisfied never gets old. The same goes for the healthcare industry, where you deal with countless patients every day. No matter what service or treatment they undergo, their overall experience must remain positive. Satisfied consumers equate to higher revenues for the business, but in healthcare, there’s also the priceless fulfillment you get when you contribute to your patients’ well-being.

The Wave of the Future - The Importance of Digital Health

The Wave of the Future: The Importance of Digital Health

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The Wave of the Future - The Importance of Digital Health

When it comes to healthcare, it hasn’t exactly been the easiest path for both patients and physicians. Present circumstances have made it challenging for patients to find the treatment they need, as most medical professionals are often overworked due to understaffing issues. Moreover, issues such as medical identity theft, duplicate medical records, and patient mix-ups make it hard to provide accurate treatment to the appropriate patients – many are using patient identification platforms to prevent these problems.

The Wave of the Future - The Importance of Digital Health

It doesn’t help that when it comes to traditional channels, most people prefer to wait until there’s something serious to get medical advice. However, such things are slowly but surely changing for the better, thanks to the digital health movement. Here are just a few reasons why digital health is such a vital piece of the puzzle in the world of healthcare.

It allows medical professionals to breathe and get the job done

With the digital health movement, there are more and more options for medical professionals to do what they do best without suffering from extreme burnout in the process. For example, more and more people are getting used to the idea of online consultations – something that eases the burden for most physicians.

It has also paved the way for new ways to tackle the same career. For example, locum tenens companies are convincing physicians, new and old, to give the alternative career a chance. Locum tenens is all about traveling to a medical facility of choice and filling in their desired role for the duration of their assignment. It is a less stressful career overall and one that gives medical professionals much more freedom. Digital health eases the burden all around, giving physicians the chance to tackle alternative routes to their careers.

A move toward preventive measures

As stated above, most people prefer to wait until something is truly wrong before getting medical advice, which may be understandable due to long wait times and catching potential diseases from spending too much time at the hospital.

The most significant advantage of digital health is the accessibility of doctors and medical advice from the comfort of your home. The result is that most people are now comfortable speaking with doctors about the small things – a path toward preventive medicine rather than looking for solutions to big problems. While it doesn’t fix everything, it’s a habit worth having as prevention is always the better option.

Accessibility and affordability

With the dawn of accessibility and convenience comes affordability. For example, trying to get a consultation with a doctor used to be a lengthy process of back and forth, but these days it’s far more straightforward and more affordable. As healthcare becomes more readily available for patients no matter the location, especially with a preventive mindset, it opens the possibility for an easier and more affordable solution.

While there are still issues that need to be ironed out regarding digital health, the move toward digital patient care is a good one. It’s a direction with plenty of possibilities, and it’s bound to get even better as time goes on. Digital health benefits both patients and medical professionals alike, as it eases the burden for both and makes it easier to get the desired outcome.

Understanding Patient Engagement and Its Importance

Understanding Patient Engagement and Its Importance

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Understanding Patient Engagement and Its Importance

Understanding Patient Engagement and Its Importance

Being actively involved in your overall well-being helps you manage your current condition better, prevent chronic illnesses in the future, and avoid significant healthcare expenses. However, patients need professional support or intervention to implement this better, which is where patient engagement comes in.

Patient engagement is a term that describes the partnership between patients and providers to facilitate better health outcomes. Patients are trusted with decision-making in different areas, including symptoms for their illness and treatment options. The information below gives you more insight into what patient engagement involves, including its benefits.

What does patient engagement involve?

Patient engagement can be categorized into direct patient care, where patients fully understand their health problem and state their preferred treatment approach after weighing the risks and benefits. The second level is where caregivers decide according to clinical judgment and after factoring in the views or opinions of a patient.

The third level is about governance, including regulations governing patient engagement. Understanding the different strategies used in patient engagement broadens your perception and may help you view patient engagement from a different lens. The frameworks for engagement include:

  •  Joint decision making

Shared decision-making applies when a patient and specialist cooperate to offer the proper medical intervention while considering the consumer’s preference and clinical judgment. They judge the patient’s condition, go through the available treatment options and narrow it down into the right one based on one’s preferences and the risks and benefits of the said intervention.

It is consistent in the first level of engagement which is direct patient care. A good example is a choice to treat knee pain with either surgery or pain medications. One may prefer surgery due to the taxing nature of regularly taking medications, while surgery may not be an option for others due to its risks.

Information is a prerequisite for patients to be participants in decision-making. As such, facilities should create various modalities through which this can be conducted. For example, using books and leaflets to educate patients on the importance of annual medical check-ups.

Some organizations reach out to clients through websites with information regarding different medical concerns or other times through interactive media. For this reason, health organizations have to create better and user-friendly educational platforms for patients.

  • Patient activation

Patient activation is a concept that describes patients’ ability, skills, willingness, and confidence to manage their health conditions. Such patients have better engagement with providers and facilitate a seamless health experience. For example, patients who follow doctors’ prescriptions are more likely to recover and have fewer complications.

Low activation scores equal more significant health expenses. Because of negligence and lack of knowledge, such patients can hardly tell when they are sick, or when they do, fail to seek medical attention. Emergency treatment is required in most cases, which is way more expensive than a consultation with a primary care provider.

Implementation of patient engagement

The activation strategy used determines the efficacy of the concept. Various factors like patients’ background, including religious beliefs, cultural differences, sex, age, and personal belief, need to be considered. Since most people factor in cost before seeking professional help, organizations need to give patients alternatives to choose from.

Why is patient engagement critical in healthcare?

Patient engagement facilitates behavior change among patients – an essential component in managing lifestyle diseases like diabetes and preventing chronic illnesses. A healthy relationship between providers and patients also influences better decisions like eating healthy, exercising regularly, and quitting smoking. Informed people translate to improved population health.

While the benefits may be so many, integrating patient engagement with actual care may be challenging for most health organizations. The cost of developing interactive systems between providers and patients is excellent. A provider may also need to spend more time with one patient, resulting in reduced earnings for a medical facility.

Although this may seem to harm the business side of the health industry, that might not be the only case. Patients that are more involved in healthcare tend to frequently visit or consult with specialists in case of any health suspicions. More engaged patients also observe preventive care and are quick to seek help than low-engaged patients.

While the importance of patient engagement is obvious, more research is necessary to determine the best approach or practices for this concept. There is also a need for resources to facilitate patient participation. The good news is more and more facilities are looking into patient engagement to facilitate better health outcomes.