Patient satisfaction and technology trends in healthcare: 4 notes

While healthcare may traditionally move slowly to adopt new technologies in clinical practices, once health systems do take the plunge and integrate new technologies, it is crucial to keep the patient at the center of the care.

During Becker's Hospital Review's 5th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle event in Chicago on Oct. 10, panelists gathered to discuss patient satisfaction and healthcare technology trends. Julie Letwat, counsel at McGuireWoods, moderated the panel, which also featured the following participants: 

· John Wilcox, vice president and CIO at Morris (Ill.) Hospital and Healthcare.
· Bharat Bhushan, MD, chief physician executive at UPMC in Pittsburgh.
· Matthew Shafiroff, MD, emergency medicine physician and clinical informaticist consultant at White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital.

Here are four takeaways from the session:

1. When incorporating new technology, health systems must keep the patient at the center of care. For example, an organization moving forward with an EHR consolidation or integrating several disparate systems to store patient data on a single platform must incorporate interoperability solutions to ensure the patient care and access to their health records does not waver.

2. Health systems should keep a close eye on technology and retail giants like Apple, Amazon and Google as well as Walgreens, CVS and Walmart as the companies continue to make moves within the healthcare space. Focused on enhancing personal wellness, these companies are releasing products and technology ranging from wearables to virtual health clinics. Ask how this will affect healthcare and how will technology continue to play a role.

3. Within health systems, telemedicine is increasingly becoming a way to improve patient access to care. To boost adoption rates, organizations must work toward convincing their physicians that virtual visits are as high quality as in-person visits and can also help reduce physician burnout associated with lengthy call schedules.

4. Patients should be able to easily access healthcare services that use technology. When implementing a new service, it should be almost as if technology disappears during the important interaction, which occurs between the patient and provider. It can sometimes feel like the technology is being forced onto these individuals, especially with EHR functions being restricted to computers. Streamline technology as much as possible through methods such as system consolidation to make the exchange of information with patients as easy as possible.

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