Patients may not provide complete information needed for diagnoses or may not follow their treatment plans, resulting in poor outcomes. Patients may transition to different providers or fail to attend follow-up visits, which can put outcomes and revenue at risk. Providers remain perpetually at risk of being sued.
However, many of the risks associated with patient-provider interactions can be reduced through more effective patient communication and engagement. The more informed the patient is, the more consistent treatment can be and the more involved patients tend to be in their own care. The more frequently and effectively the doctor or provider communicates with the patient, the closer the relationship becomes. Engaged patients are healthier, happier, and more loyal to their providers.
That level of engagement requires time, a commodity in short supply at busy practices. That’s where technology plays a key role. By using a secure, automated, and HIPAA-compliant patient relationship management (PRM) tool, healthcare providers can improve patient engagement and reduce many common risks.
PRM solutions boost a practice’s communication and engagement capabilities by using intelligent messaging, automatic reminders, secure patient portals, guided communication workflows, self-scheduling, and targeted population communications. Providers can communicate with their patients via customized, secure, HIPAA-compliant e-mail and text messages, while eliminating manual administrative work.
...Engaged patients are healthier, happier, and more loyal to their providers.
Operating a physician practice is inherently fraught with risks.
Patients may not provide complete information needed for diagnoses or may not follow their treatment plans, resulting in poor outcomes. Patients may transition to different providers or fail to attend follow-up visits, which can put outcomes and revenue at risk. Providers remain perpetually at risk of being sued.
However, many of the risks associated with patient-provider interactions can be reduced through more effective patient communication and engagement. The more informed the patient is, the more consistent treatment can be and the more involved patients tend to be in their own care. The more frequently and effectively the doctor or provider communicates with the patient, the closer the relationship becomes. Engaged patients are healthier, happier, and more loyal to their providers.
That level of engagement requires time, a commodity in short supply at busy practices. That’s where technology plays a key role. By using a secure, automated, and HIPAA-compliant patient relationship management (PRM) tool, healthcare providers can improve patient engagement and reduce many common risks.
PRM solutions boost a practice’s communication and engagement capabilities by using intelligent messaging, automatic reminders, secure patient portals, guided communication workflows, self-scheduling, and targeted population communications. Providers can communicate with their patients via customized, secure, HIPAA-compliant e-mail and text messages, while eliminating manual administrative work.
Utilizing an automated, HIPAA-compliant PRM solution allows providers to cost-effectively and easily improve patient outreach efforts, increase patient engagement with the practice, reduce administrative costs, and minimize the risks associated with poor patient/provider communications.
MEDICAL RISKS
By far, the most pressing risks providers face are poor medical outcomes. When the condition is resistant to treatment, or the outcome is not what’s hoped for, it can damage the doctor/patient relationship. Outcomes are becoming an increasingly important part of reimbursement as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and private insurers transition to value-based reimbursement models.
Poor patient communication can affect medical outcomes in a number of ways. If patients do not follow their treatment plans (including medication dosage, exercise, and dietary changes), they will be at higher risk of experiencing complications and additional interventions. Without timely reminders and other types of communication, patients are more likely to miss follow-up appointments and not complete testing/laboratory work. For doctors, a lack of communication also makes it more difficult to monitor patient health status and adjust the care plan accordingly.
This can lead to treatment failures, hospital re-admissions, and more intensive (and costly) medical interventions. According to data from The Doctors Company related to claims against hospitalists, among the top factors that contribute to patient injury are communication between the patient and provider (12%), patient factors (12%), and failure to obtain a consult or referral (12%). All of these risk factors can be reduced or mitigated by the use of PRM technology.
PRM solutions can improve care compliance and health monitoring by sending customized, automatic reminders to patients about referrals, labs, and follow-up appointments. Using a secure patient portal, patients can access information about their care plan, as well as general health and preventive health information.
PRM solutions also allow practices to use newsletters and targeted health communications to provide patient- or population-specific information and tips. Physicians can send HIPAA-compliant automatic reminders to patients about medication schedules, dosages, and referral appointments. The communication platform can put the patient on an information schedule which provides them with disease-specific newsletters, updates, and reminders based on their needs.
Just as important, using an automated solution relieves administrative staff of the burden of managing multiple follow-up phone calls. Manually addressing patient follow-ups can lead to errors and missed appointments. Automated reminders are more reliable and convenient for the patient. They also allow patients to provide updates, confirm appointments, or even re-schedule appointments quickly online.
COMPLIANCE RISKS
HIPAA includes strict requirements when it comes to electronic patient communications. However, these requirements have proved to be an obstacle when it comes to enabling this type of communication.
In some cases, providers have taken an ad hoc approach to patient communication that often involves non-HIPAA compliant methods such as unsecured text messaging or inefficient phone and voice mail methods.
However, communicating sensitive patient information using unsecured methods not only risks the privacy and security of the patient, it can also risk exposing the provider to HIPAA violations. As a result, the provider may face costly fines as well as damage to the reputation of the practice.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR), among the most common HIPAA compliance issues investigated are a lack of safeguards for protected health information and a lack of patient access to their protected health information.
HIPAA Privacy and Security rules allow (and, in fact, encourage) electronic communication with patients, provided that electronic patient health information is encrypted. (Providers must provide documentation to show why encryption would not be “reasonable and appropriate” if they opt to use an unencrypted solution.)
A HIPAA-compliant PRM solution provides a way to communicate via a secure patient portal (which requires a log-in/password), as well as encrypted text and e-mail. As long as the solution is certified as HIPAA-compliant, providers no longer have to worry about whether their communications are sufficiently protected.
This type of platform improves security and reduces the risk of violations, while also providing a way to document these patient contacts to improve health monitoring. Patients are also able to easily access their own PHI, further ensuring compliance with HIPAA rules.
BUSINESS RISKS
Without an effective means of engaging patients, providers are also putting their business at risk. According to an article in the Harvard Business Journal, the average healthcare practice loses about 50 percent of its patient base every five years. Retaining those patients can help keep the practice profitable at a much lower cost than that of attracting new patients. Doing so requires the practice focus on patient engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.
Without active patient engagement, patients are less likely to be satisfied with their provider or their care. As a consequence, they will feel much less “attached” to the provider when adverse events occur. Those adverse events don’t have to be as dramatic as a poor health outcome; they can be as simple as a scheduling error, long wait times, or a chart/exam room mix-up.
If there is a problem, unengaged patients are more likely to look elsewhere for care, less likely to provide referrals or positive online reviews, and are potentially more likely to sue the practice if there is an adverse health event. This puts a considerable amount of potential revenue at risk along with the reputation of both the clinic and the physician.
An automated PRM solution not only streamlines patient engagement (making it easier to develop a closer provider/patient relationship), but also improves the quality of patient interactions. PRM solutions provide the convenience of electronic communication with patients, including automated, noninvasive appointment reminders, scheduling tools, and ASAP messaging to let patients know when an appointment slot opens up.
Using patient portals and social media connections also helps keep patients up-to-date on changes at the practice as well as health information, educational materials, and even localized health updates. For example, a pediatric practice could alert patients about an uptick in influenza cases. Practices can even e-mail birthday wishes to patients automatically, letting patients know that you are thinking of them even when they don’t have an impending appointment.
This level of communication also helps provide faster response when patients have problems or questions. HIPAA-compliant e-mail, text, and messaging tools make it easier to contact physicians and nurses without playing phone tag or waiting on hold. Online resources empower patients to obtain important health information at their convenience.
More importantly, the patient is more connected to the practice through these regular electronic interactions, which can improve patient retention. Open, timely communication also helps reduce the risk of malpractice suits because patients who feel their caregiver has their best interests in mind are more likely to forgive errors. Improved follow-up on diagnostic test and specialist referrals also reduces malpractice risks, because patients are more likely to complete their care plans.
The tools available in the PRM solution can also help reduce lost revenue and reimbursements. Scheduling tools make it easier to quickly fill gaps caused by cancellations or no-shows by alerting patients on the waiting list that a time is now available for them. Automated appointment reminders can also improve follow-up appointment completion rates. In some cases, practices have been able to reduce no-show rates by up to 80 percent using automated reminders.
Getting patients to follow through on additional visits and other care plan steps is not only key to capturing additional reimbursements, but will also be an important part of the quality measures increasingly used by payers to evaluate providers.
CONCLUSION
While there is no way to completely eliminate risk in the healthcare industry, using an automated, secure PRM solution can help physicians and other providers mitigate some of the most common risks they face. By improving communication with patients, they can increase the likelihood that a care plan will be completed successfully. This improves outcomes and overall patient health, while also strengthening the provider/patient relationship and reducing the risk of poor outcomes or malpractice suits. The automation available via a PRM solution also reduces administrative costs for the practice, while potentially increasing revenue by keeping the schedule full and reducing no-shows. Finally, secure patient communications improve HIPAA compliance and reduce the risk of a privacy or security violation.
ABOUT SOLUTIONREACH
Solutionreach, the pioneer of automated appointment reminders, is now the industry leader for patient relationship management technology. Their robust platform is used in a variety of healthcare practices to help providers effectively and consistently engage their patients throughout the continuum of care. In addition to improving outcomes and increasing patient retention, the Solutionreach cloud-based tools help providers boost their online presence and generate new patients by automatically collecting and distributing patient surveys, monitoring patient reviews, and integrating social media. To learn more, visit www.solutionreach.com.
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