The medical industry has seen a massive selection of critical changes over the past several years due to the rapid global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the enormous increase of patients needing quality medical services. Thankfully, the rapid advancement and adoption of new tools and technologies within the healthcare realm have helped soften some of the impacts on the industry, especially regarding the dynamic digital front door.
Below, our healthcare experts from Clearstep will explore the nature of digital front doors within the medical world and how your health system can implement one successfully in the future.
Related: Pushing the Boundaries of Virtual Care
What is a Digital Front Door?
In short, a digital front door refers to how patients interact and engage with their healthcare system via virtual means. This can sometimes involve a literal digital front door that patients must go through to receive necessary care, like conducting online provider research, using patient portals to book appointments, and connecting to a digital platform for a telehealth visit.
However, in many cases, the concept of a digital front door in healthcare goes far beyond that.
According to many experts, a digital front door is an important way for the medical world to meet the needs of rising consumerism within the healthcare industry. For example, it allows consumers to interact more easily with their healthcare system via multiple touchpoints for increased convenience. It also allows many patients to get the medical advice and treatment they need from the comfort of their homes via telehealth and other modes of connectivity.
Checking Symptoms Digitally
Rather than needing to go into a hospital right away whenever they start experiencing problematic symptoms, patients can leverage specially designed digital symptom checkers to help them assess their condition. These systems can also evaluate the patient’s symptoms, take them to appropriate care sites, tell them how to ride out their symptoms at home optimally, or inform them that they need to visit an urgent clinic or the ER as soon as possible.
Many digital symptom checkers are powered by advanced healthcare chatbot technology that can deliver triage services through automated means, leaving healthcare providers free to give their attention solely to patients with the most severe needs.
Related: How AI chat increases health systems’ clinical capacity and builds brand loyalty
The Importance of Vetting Vendors for Digital Front Doors
When selecting a top-quality partner to create a dynamic digital front door, there is a wide range of vendors for health systems to choose from. However, some offer far better services than others, so health systems need to vet their vendors and locate the best possible provider to meet their unique needs. In general, vendors should be vetted based on several details, such as ease of use, interoperability, clinical expertise, reliability, and the quality of their websites, apps, and portals.
It’s usually best to rely on vendors who are dedicated to;
Creating a Seamless Digital Experience
Healthcare is an incredibly complex and dynamic field that can be difficult for patients to navigate effectively when they need help. Because of this, healthcare systems should prioritize working with digital front door vendors who create a seamless web experience for the patient, making website browsing and research as easy and accessible as possible.
Developing Easy Portal Access for Consumers
Things move rapidly in the modern world, especially when it comes to the internet. Because of this, people are now more concerned with speed and accessibility than ever before, whether it comes to their online shopping orders or the care they receive from healthcare systems, Top-quality digital solution vendors should always focus on developing practical, easy-to-use portals to deliver the best results to patients as quickly as possible.
Clearstep is here to help you personalize your patient care efforts.
Leveraging Useful Apps for Convenience
There are now thousands of mobile healthcare apps available on all types of devices, and quality providers of virtual front door services always take advantage of this fact. Healthcare systems should seek out vendors who have developed a quality healthcare app that can give patients easy access to their care portals and allow them to contact medical professionals if needed. Apps should also integrate and share information with the vendor’s website portal to ensure cross-platform consistency.
Updating Their Telehealth Services to Keep Up With Trends
During the pandemic, government healthcare studies found a nearly 63-fold increase in the use of medical telehealth services. Other reports have noted an increase from 840,000 telehealth visits in 2019 to more than 52.7 million in 2020. This drastic increase necessitates continual improvement from digital front door vendors so they can keep up with the rapidly growing needs and demands of patients and healthcare systems alike.
Providing Secure Digital Billing to Help With Costs
Digital front door vendors should not just be speedy when providing fast connections and search results for patients; they should also be quick when providing secure billing solutions for patients who need to pay for their healthcare services. Secure payment options should be available across all platforms, including websites and apps, so that patients can settle their fees and copays as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Related: The Role of APPs in Telemedicine and Digital Health
Concluding Factors to Consider
Our team of passionate healthcare experts at Clearstep hopes that the above article has helped expand your understanding and appreciation of the dynamic digital front doors leveraged by health systems while encouraging you to incorporate your own digital front door in the future. Doing so can significantly help improve patient care and satisfaction while making it easier for them to interact with their healthcare providers as needed.
Please consider browsing our wide selection of other great healthcare resources for more information on major medical industry topics. Also, feel free to message us on our website to learn more about our top-quality services.
Are you looking for ways to improve your patient retention and satisfaction? Clearstep is here to help!
