Source: Forbes
Delighting Patients Through Digital. Today, the world of planned, non-emergency procedures such as knee-replacements is often complex and confusing for patients. Health systems ask individuals to be the “general contractor for their own care” as Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) Chief Clinical Officer Amy Compton-Phillips says.
Patients organize finding the right doctor for their problem (covered by their insurance), getting appointments and procedures scheduled, coordinating pre-surgical prep, post op care and rehab, and managing the bills – all while suffering from the ill health that brought them to seek care in the first place. The situation is equally complex for the caregivers (physicians, nurses, and staff) charged with taking care of the patient – each individual patient is unique, but rules vary by insurance payer, and practice routines vary by hospital and doctor.
Imagine a different world in which PSJH patients planning non-emergency surgery are prescribed a program making the entire process much simpler and more transparent. It starts with ensuring the patient has all the right information to make an informed decision about the procedure, then guiding him or her through the experience front-to-back. Patients can choose an in-person or telehealth visit with a specialist who can walk them through the tradeoffs of treatment for their condition using a shared decision-making platform.
From there, they can build a treatment path forward together. Prior authorization is taken care of automatically, making it easy for patients to get referred to the right specialist quickly. If surgery is the right choice for the patient, the patient is coached through activation of a program in their PSJH mobile app that then guides them through their entire care journey step-by- step before surgery, during their stay, and all through recovery when they return home.Patients can access the digital concierge solution via any device: mobile phone, tablet, digital voice assistant like Alexa or Siri, or their computer. The app is powered by an interactive care pathway tailored specifically to their needs providing relevant patient education content, trackers, and proactive prompts for patients to assist them across prep before, in hospital self-care and every step of self-management after a procedure. Answering “Should my incision look like this 5 days after surgery?” is made easy with a smartphone in one’s living room rather than a trip to the doctor’s office across town.
The app also involves the patient’s community of caregivers and support network with regular updates and the ability to communicate with the patient and his or her family. We know surgery is often a family affair; if the patient wants his/her caregivers to get their health info or be able to ask questions of the care team, the tool would simplify the communication. The technology provides dynamic, flexible pathway management which takes inputs from the patient and provider, and adjusts the pathway as clinically appropriate in an automated, evidence-based way while simplifying workflow for clinical care teams.
The digital concierge also…
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