In a world where health care systems are struggling to stay afloat with patient engagement often paying the price, virtual care solutions have come up as an important aid to steady the ship. These not only enable the uninterrupted continuity of care but also help build stronger patient-doctor relationships, which are key to improving the quality of services and profitability. At Aura Health Solutions, our top goal is to simplify care for better health, and here’s how our virtual care technology connects patients and doctors like never before.
1. Routine reminders to reduce missed appointments
Many patients are often no-shows for their appointments, with studies indicating that the rates of missed appointments across the US could be as high as 55%. Although that number also combines canceled as well as outrightly missed appointments, it still doesn’t negate the severity of the problem.
The research cites some of the reasons for missed appointments as:
- Forgetfulness
- Bad weather
- Transportation challenges, among others.
From no-show fees to derailing health progress, missed appointments can have many consequences for both you and your patient.
Aura Health’s virtual health solutions step in to remedy the problem of missed appointments with routine reminders. These can be delivered via text messages to patients and or their families, thus ensuring that important checkup dates never slip from the mind.
This becomes increasingly vital especially when you’re dealing with long-term patients suffering from chronic illnesses that require regular attention.
2. Virtual care enables daily tracking for assured compliance
A variety of reasons sway patients to be noncompliant with their treatment programs. Among the core whys and wherefores you may have come across include:
- A misunderstanding of the program
- Cognitive challenges
- The fear to ask for clarification
- Little understanding of the health benefits
Basically, most patients’ non-compliance boils down to a frail relationship between the physician and the patient.
Remote patient monitoring can flip the tables, helping both parties to keep in touch while availing connected care that serves to keep an eye on the patient. This allows you as the doctor to slip into the driving seat, and accurately gauge patient adherence.
When things are going off track, you can quickly get wind of it and get to the root of the problem to ensure seamless care and safeguard the quality of treatment before the program reaches the point of no return.
What’s more, through remote patient monitoring you can usevisual aids such as videos and diagrams to improve the patient’s understanding of the treatment program as well as their role in it.
3. Virtual visits cut down on waiting time & improve Patient engagement
Depending on who you ask, the average patient waits approximately 18 minutes before their turn comes up at the doctor’s office. In certain cases though, waiting times can soar to the hour mark and beyond.
Some of the reasons behind today’s increasing waiting times include:
- Time constraints inflicted by legacy EHR systems
- Hospitals being understaffed
- Surges in patient numbers during times of great need
With virtual care, patients don’t have to spend time in waiting rooms, getting exposed to other infections. What’s more, patients can access appointments conveniently during and after hours without using work off days.
Digital healthcare solutions such as virtual visits provide a safer and more effortless way to reduce in-hospital visits without negating the purposes of such visits. It’s a win-win for everyone involved!
While virtual visits don’t necessarily do away with in-center appointments, they ensure more opportunities for you to connect with your patients at a more personal level.
4. Virtual care guarantees quick access to medical data
Long turnaround times during data collection is one of the biggest obstacles to good patient engagement.
When retrieving patient information- or medical data needed to conclusively make a diagnosis- requires tedious and lengthy accessibility to the required data, perhaps from legacy care management systems, the result is extended waiting times before patients get service.
In the worst-case scenario, patients may even switch healthcare providers if they feel the service is not always forthcoming. That’s where virtual care can swoop in to save your day.
As a virtual care solutions provider, Aura Health offers the technology that puts vital medical repositories at the fingertips of physicians. You can access the information you need with just a few clicks, on the fly, which bodes well for patient engagement.
When data becomes easily and quickly accessible, service delivery is similarly fast. The speed of communication also improves as a result, with doctors and patients now able to stay in touch easily.
5. Virtual booking and scheduling ensure greater dependability
Oftentimes, the fault for missed appointments can lie squarely at the caregiver’s doorstep. Scheduling conflicts can arise especially when doctors solely rely on a manual or traditional system that lacks the capabilities to identify and prevent:
- Double bookings
- Changes in workflow shifts that cause unavailability
- Other conflicts arising from human error
These vulnerabilities can hamper the patient-doctor relationship, as missed appointments resulting from booking challenges can lead the patient to develop negative perceptions toward the doctor and the practice at large.
Reserving appointments and scheduling consultations becomes a piece of cake with modern virtual care solutions such as those that we provide. You can implement a digital booking system that ensures better accountability and management of consultations.
It becomes impossible to schedule two patient meetings for the same slot, while it gets easier to plan around your sudden changes in availability. Doctors, therefore, become more dependable and available in their patients’ eyes which goes a long way to improving your relationship with the patient.
Conclusion
Patient dissatisfaction is growing in 2022, and part of the reason behind the burgeoning discontent traces back to poor, tedious, and lengthy patient engagement processes that just aren’t working out. Virtual care annihilates most of the barriers that stand in the way, helping you to forge trusting and more fulfilling relationships with your patients. What’s more, virtual care also gives greater control to patients who now have a bigger say in their health goals and outcomes. With the improved quality of delivery, the result is healthier and happier patients. Trust Aura Health, one of the best virtual healthcare companies today, for virtual care solutions to improve your practice’s care satisfaction rates. Schedule a call now to get started.
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