Overview
Patient-centered care encourages active collaboration and decision-making between patients, families, and providers. Together, they create and manage a comprehensive, custom care plan for the patient.
Over the past few years, patients have increasingly communicated a desire for healthcare companies to improve and invest in better patient engagement solutions as a way to be more collaborative in their healthcare.
Even simple tasks, such as scheduling appointments and paying bills, are more convenient to do online without the concern of office hours or busy staff.
While some healthcare companies have begun providing patients with more online options, sometimes they use different programs or apps for different tasks, creating a disjointed experience for patients that also increases the risk of data breaches.
To truly provide patient-centered care, providers should offer their patients a more streamlined patient-centric solution that allows for safe and efficient interactions.
What is a Healthcare Digital Front Door?
A digital front door is a comprehensive digital solution that consolidates patient engagement self-service tools in one place that patients can access via a single login. A truly patient-centric digital front door should be simple, intuitive, secure, data-driven, and client-branded.
An estimated one in three patient interactions will be digital in the next year, making the physician no longer the automatic first touchpoint, and 38% of patients would like to see a consolidated patient portal in the near future. Healthcare companies can invest in a healthcare digital front door with the confidence that it will enhance the patient experience.
How can a Digital Front Door Empower Patients?
A digital front door empowers patients because it provides them with a streamlined way to access all of the tools and features that they need to proactively and independently engage with their providers. According to a recent study, the top three requested digital features include appointment scheduling, appointment reminders, and contact overview of all involved providers.
Patient self-scheduling software and patient appointment reminder solutions allow patients autonomy for scheduling and keeping up with their appointments. Bidirectional patient messaging allows patients to keep in contact with their providers in real-time, while telehealth options allow patients to maintain consistent care with their providers when in-person appointments are unnecessary or unavailable.
Patients can take more control of their healthcare maintenance with the prescription refill solution, and a remote patient monitoring solution allows patients to measure, track, and share healthcare metrics, such as weight, blood pressure, and heart rate.
Patients can also use the portal with the assurance that all interactions with their providers are secure. Considering that just over half of patients still do not trust healthcare companies to keep their online data safe, it is important for healthcare companies to provide patients with the peace of mind that all interactions between patient and provider are HIPAA compliant.
The Digital Front Door is Truly Patient-Centric
Preliminary data indicate that when providers share health information with patients digitally, they are more likely to understand and agree with physician instructions. Furthermore, one study found that portal use was associated with reduced hospital visits, and reduced time in the hospital overall. It is in the patient’s best interest, and that is why healthcare companies need to provide patients with a singular digital healthcare access point that provides them with a one-stop-shop that meets them where they are.
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