COVID-19 prompted massive digital adoption across healthcare, leading to permanent changes in how providers interact with patients.
During a virtual featured session sponsored by RevSpring as part of Becker's Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting, Scott MacKenzie, CEO of RevSpring, reflected on this transformation and predicted what changes and lessons would carry forward.
Three key takeaways:
1. COVID-19 accelerated trends toward digital engagement. When physical interactions were limited, COVID-19 prompted many digital changes in healthcare beyond telehealth. RevSpring saw opportunities for technology to facilitate interactions with patients. The company launched Arrived™ to extend the waiting room to the parking lot and to allow patients to check in and make payments safely and securely from their cars.
RevSpring also enhanced its agent assist technology to enable work from home for support personnel and to provide secure communications and payment capabilities. Also during the pandemic, deviceless payment options accelerated.
2. Positive digital interactions depend on knowing the patient and acting responsively. There is widespread and accelerating investment in digital patient engagement. "If your primary interaction with a patient is digital, it needs to be a coordinated, intelligent experience," Mr. MacKenzie said.
Early on in the pandemic, RevSpring introduced to clients at no charge a financial distress score product, so that providers could interact empathically with their patients. More broadly, intelligent digital engagement means knowing patients and their preferences, and sending meaningful and personalized messages in preferred channels.
3. Many of the dramatic changes resulting from COVID will continue, leading to hybrid models and improved service. As providers seek to differentiate themselves and patients have come to appreciate the convenience of digital, there will be "a permanent shift toward technology for patient engagement," Mr. MacKenzie said.
Hybrid models will prevail, because telemedicine will be appropriate for certain types of engagement but not all. Certain support roles will likely continue to have a work-from-home aspect. "Digital assets will be a tool for providers to provide more cost-effective and more appreciated healthcare," predicted Mr. MacKenzie, emphasizing a coordinated approach of physical and digital, personalized care.
As terrible and relentless as the pandemic has been, healthcare leaders can carry forward positive lessons about digital interactions. "There have been some permanent improvements in the relationship between the patient and the provider by having this digital relationship, in addition to the physical relationship," Mr. MacKenzie said.
To view this session on-demand, click here.