Main administrative challenges for 2023: Communication with patients

Editor’s Note: Each year, Medical Economics® asks our physician readers what challenges they face in their practice. And every year, we get the same answer as challenge number one: administrative burdens. For our first issue of 2023, we decided to try to clarify what some of these administrative burdens are and what physicians can do about them in their practice. We’ve focused on five administrative burdens that our readers say are major problems.

Not so long ago, relatively speaking, doctors and medical practices had only a few ways to communicate with patients (and vice versa): in person, by landline phone, or by US mail.

Now those days seem as quaint as the era of horse and buggy travel. Today, medical providers and patients have a myriad of new communication tools, such as text messaging, telehealth, patient portals and social media platforms, not to mention the widespread use cell phones.

The explosion of communication technologies poses many challenges for doctors and medical practices, starting with patient expectations. Patients, especially younger ones, expect the same ease and convenience of communicating with their doctor as when shopping or ordering a meal online. In a recent survey of 2,000 adults, 61% said they wanted healthcare to mimic the experience provided by a customer service app, and 79% said they wished they could use technology to manage their overall healthcare experience.

“Patients want the convenience of connecting to your practice whenever they want – by phone, website, or text message, during or outside office hours,” says Justin Jacobson, vice president of patient engagement solutions. patients for Nuance Communications Inc., a technology company that provides conversational artificial intelligence solutions.

The arrival of COVID-19 has further underscored the importance patients place on communication with their doctor. In a 2021 patient survey by health software company SymphonyRM, now Actium Health, 41% of respondents said they had less confidence in their doctor since the arrival of COVID-19, mainly due to a lack of communication about the disease. Conversely, those who reported more confidence said it was due to their provider’s rapid transition to virtual care, the frequency of communications about COVID-19, and the use of communication tools digital.

For medical practices, the implications are clear. Their success increasingly depends on their ability to acquire and integrate the communication channels that patients expect into other aspects of their daily lives. Practices that meet these expectations can reap benefits such as higher levels of patient engagement and loyalty, a stronger bottom line, and better patient outcomes.

Among the newer communication tools, SMS can offer the most benefits for the least cost and effort. Practices can use automated text messages to remind patients of upcoming appointments (reducing no-shows), share pre-appointment requirements such as fasting, and notify them when to receive preventative services such as colonoscopies and vaccinations.

What’s more, follow-up text messages are more effective than phone calls in reducing hospital readmissions or emergency department visits after hospital discharge, according to a 2022 study published in Open JAMA Network.

Another advantage of texting is its popularity with patients. A 2021 healthcare survey by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society/Solutionreach Inc. found that 65% of patients want confirmation/appointment reminders and pre-visit care instructions via SMS. Additionally, more than a third of respondents – including 64% of those aged 50 and under – said they would be willing to switch providers to receive text messages and other modern forms of communication. Nearly 90% cited convenience as the main reason they preferred texting over other means of communicating with their doctor.

Ultimately, the goal of all patient communications should be to create an approach that “empowers patients to become active participants in their care,” says Gary Hamilton, CEO of InteliChart, developer and provider of patient engagement solutions. “This requires doctors and all other medical staff to develop good communication skills and respond effectively to patient needs.”

Here are four tips for using new technologies to improve communications with patients:

• Try to meet patients where they are. Find out which mode of communication each patient prefers and use it as much as possible when communicating with that patient.
• Install and use as many different communication forms as your practice budget allows, and let patients know you have them and how to use them.
• Assign a staff member the responsibility of monitoring the Patient Portal, including answering patient questions about how to use it and what information is available there, and triaging messages and requests passing through it.
• Check with a health care attorney or your local medical society to ensure that all of your patient communication tools comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.