Clinicians and the Personalized Economy

Get more clinical care work accomplished without expanding your workforce while streamlining processes and redirecting clinician time to high-value tasks.  Do what works and get ahead of the new Personalized Economy.

History Reimagined for the 21st Century

We’re in much the same position now that Henry Ford discovered when he started out.  He stood at the confluence of three requirements:

  1. desire by the public for more goods,
  2. the ability of technology to produce those goods; and most importantly,
  3. a new enterprise philosophy/methodology that could produce those goods in a highly efficient manner.

Ford’s assembly line became a mainstay of modern manufacturing throughout the last century because it adapted the latest technology to preserving services while protecting profitability.

This same philosophy is the cornerstone of today’s efficiency goal and, when combined with the right technology, illuminates the value of adopting personalized, patient-centric services that is the new Personalized Economy for clinicians.

The Personalized Economy in Action

Today’s consumers have an increasing expectation of distinctly customized and individualized attention.  For example, you can now go online, design custom running shoes, and have them delivered to you for little more than the price of going to the shoe store and selecting a mass-produced object.

73% of health administrators see a positive ROI on personalization technology

The medical field is starting to feel an impetus in this direction.  A recent study by of medical trends by analysts, ProCare Systems, found that 73% of health administrators see a positive ROI on personalization technology. While at the same time, 22% of doctors have reduced support personnel to cut costs without sacrificing on service and overall experience quality.

Consumers in healthcare expect to soon enjoy the simplicity of calling your office via video conference on their smart phone to get an opinion on their condition before deciding if it is necessary to come in for a visit. In fact, many are already demanding these convenience channels today.

Clinicians have already adopted a mode of educating patients to log their home diagnostics such as blood sugar levels.  Patients can continually update their health records so that all the information is available to clinicians in real time. When patients have an actual appointment, before they attend, they can log on to a secure web site and answer a health survey.  This occurs when they’re at home, and relaxed, and likely to provide more complete information than the doctor might be able to collect in the available/allotted time which all translates to better health outcomes.

Better Use of Time

Consequently time in the office can be directed towards providing more efficient interpersonal care.  Where formerly a physician may have been able to see two or three patients in a given time period, now s/he might manage four, five, or even six, while still providing the same level of service.  That could represent a 50-100% increase in the ability to help patients, all without hiring new staff.

Taking it a step further, task automation of the phone system could allow patients to be directed to the website to schedule their own appointment, provide regular reports for a spouse that they’re caring for, or even download appropriate forms.  If too many calls are being routed to the receptionist, this could be considered a sign that your phone tree needs to be updated with clearer choices.  Make sure the recording voice is clear and well enunciated.  Consider accents, dialects, and the age of your callers.

Saving 5 minutes per patient equates to $10,000 in savings per year

The Takeaway

Saving even 5 minutes per patient equates to $10,000 in savings per year.  Any time invested in becoming more efficient will pay for itself many times over.  It is inevitable that this is going to happen.  Those that get this situation handled first will derive the greatest benefit.  Get this taken care of quickly—by starting today.

These strategies need not be cost prohibitive or open your practice to risk. The goal is to work with a reputable, reliable technology partner that can help manage security, network efficiency and provide a hands-on partnership approach that will pay off significantly in the short term while paving the way to continued advances as the Personalization Economy continues to expand.

 

DLS Unified Communications and Network Security