Omnichannel and its relevance in healthcare to improve patient care.

Healthcare has long been partnering with technology to provide optimum outcomes across the continuum of care. However, technology has evolved by leaps and bounds in the last two decades and healthcare has a lot to catch up on. With the global pandemic pushing the healthcare industry beyond limits, it has driven rapid technological adoption amongst customers urging hospitals to continue to adapt to new technologies over time. 

With changing times, the treatment regime, and the customers’ expectations both have transformed to a great extent. Today’s customers are aware, digitally savvy, and want to engage with healthcare practitioners and providers, in multiple ways. Research shows it is not the doctor or the treatment alone that determines the patients’ experience but their overall interaction with the hospital before, during, and after their visit.

 The research shows, by 2030 industry-wide investments in virtual health will increase significantly.1

 While this can be seen as a challenge, it also presents a lot of untapped opportunities.

 Need for Omnichannel experience in healthcare

 Traditionally, patient consultations have been built around real-time, face-to-face interactions. With changing time and customer needs, the ways of interaction have also gone through a sea of change. Patients today want to access healthcare anytime, anywhere with the help of multiple platforms and devices. Apart from this, they also want access to their medical records, doctor visits, prescriptions, and medical supplies; to be managed digitally, for easy access.

 The need to be available for patients 24/7 has also urged healthcare providers to rethink their operational strategies. This has paved the way for leveraging IT for a plethora of services from booking appointments, creating tests, sharing prescriptions, and managing data. This seamless integration of data and service has become crucial to the health line of the industry.

 Leveraging Omnichannel for healthcare can result in the right care environment for the patients based on their needs and behaviours through technology. It enables the healthcare systems to be connected. This interoperability is key for the healthcare industry to drive cost-effective, meaningful care, based on patient behaviour. Today, health systems leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict potential health events in a patient’s electronic medical records (EMR). Integrating EMR with patients’ data from other channels can help predict a patient’s medical needs in light of their work, activities, and travel.

Different aspects of healthcare where Omnichannel could help

 The omnichannel approach entwines the digital channels with physical methods. It can help healthcare providers reshape their workflows that involve a patient's physical visit, back-office tasks related to a patient, and case management that involves communication with the patient. The merging of two approaches is beneficial in automating workflows, especially where the patient is considered active or where the attendants can do the needful. Here are some of the areas where leveraging omnichannel could help hospitals and healthcare professionals deliver optimized care to the patients with the best of quality.

 1.    Patient handling - A Forbes study found that healthcare workers spend more than one-third of their lives at work, and it has become crucial for hospitals to foster an environment addressing how their administrative staff should work, as many hospitals are shifting from over 90% of staff regularly reporting to an office to a more flexible work week. Omnichannel provides a single portal integrating all healthcare needs including patient details, prescriptions, and medical records can help improve the work-life balance, and health and wellness of front-line providers, as well as of support staff.

2.    Communication - Active communication with patients or their immediate attendants through channels such as online medical patient portals, forms, and video sessions while having an actionable workflow framework can positively contribute to patient well-being and help maintain a healthy bottom line. Omnichannel can initiate interactive communication between healthcare providers and patients by several modes, including online electronic forms, video interactions, emails, SMS, and others. Integrating data enables online availability of prescriptions, lab reports, and home delivery of medicines. It also connects doctors with labs, pharmacies, and insurance companies. These channels are electronic and supplement the patient's physical visit to the facility, thus resulting in a truly satisfying journey that the healthcare providers can use to leverage.

3. Telehealth/Tele ICU - Accessibility to virtual appointments and remote patient monitoring features have gained traction during the pandemic. Telehealth services and Tele ICUs helped ease the pressure on doctors when hospitals ran out of infrastructure to support these patients who were in need. Along with enabling services to more patients than a hospital can support, these services also helped contain the virus spread as the healthcare professionals could consult from where they were, instead of exposing themselves to the deadly virus.

Omnichannel – The future of healthcare

When both healthcare providers and patients have access to relevant data enabling interaction through more channels than one, it enhances their efficiency and effectiveness, improving patient satisfaction. When it comes to customer experience, healthcare is no different from any other industry. The future of healthcare lies in a cost-effective omnichannel model that enables timely care for the patients and an efficient operative system for the healthcare providers.  

Reference:

 1. Fera, B. Korba, C. Shukla, M. (2020, April 30). The future of virtual health. Deloitte. https://www2.deloitte.com /us/en/insights/industry/health-care/futureof-virtual-health.html