Improve Patient Experiences From First Contact: The Key Is in AI-Powered Programmable Communications

Keys to the digital front door

Every patient interaction with a healthcare system impacts the care experience, from booking the appointment to paying the bill. What happens in between — the virtual or in-office visit, the interaction between patient and clinician, the treatment plan, etc. — also matters, but that can't happen if you lose the patient before they get in the digital front door. The digital automation of "front door functions," such as online scheduling and voice, text, and video communications, can be the key that opens that door and welcomes them to your practice.

Incorporating digital communications across all interactions with a healthcare provider can:

• Empower and engage patients in their own care
• Help deliver more personalized care

This leads the way to better provider-patient relationships and superior health outcomes for patients.

What patients want

Effective communications can help drive customer loyalty in any business. In healthcare, that loyalty has implications beyond how often someone shops at a store or whether they're loyal to one brand. Patients who don't return for needed medical treatment or tests may not get the care they need to stay healthy or recover from an illness or injury. That can affect their overall health and quality of life.

Increasingly, customers are looking for a personalized experience, especially when it comes to healthcare. Patients want to feel like their providers listen to them and understand them and their healthcare needs — that's part of what keeps them coming back. According to The Beryl Institute report, many patients want to feel respected and taken seriously as a whole person and not be addressed as a set of symptoms or a diagnosis.

These same expectations apply to their digital interactions with healthcare providers. According to a 2023 survey conducted by Redpoint Global and Dynata of more than 1,000 U.S. healthcare consumers, about 62% of patients held digital communications to the same standard as in-person healthcare interactions.

Modern practice

In the past, the primary way for medical professionals to schedule an appointment or communicate with their patients between appointments was over the telephone. In our technologically advanced world, text and voice virtual assistants — that both automate and complement human healthcare staff interactions — have now entered the conversation. The ability of providers to communicate through different channels figures heavily into healthcare provider selection for many patients.

But more choices don't necessarily add up to a better experience. In fact, the sheer communications volume can overwhelm staff. This can lead to skipped messages that cause more delays in scheduling and put more burden on patients.

Patients don't want to explain their situation again as they move across different channels, and they certainly don't want to try every channel before getting what they need. The right digital engagement solution must be able to not only aggregate multiple patient conversations, it also needs to integrate with patient data in a private and secure manner.

Smart scheduling

For many patients, online scheduling is not just a nice-to-have. The ability to make and cancel appointments, communicate with their doctor, schedule virtual appointments, and access lab results — including in the evening and on weekends — is a necessity for many, and this can be mutually beneficial for patient and provider.

The benefits to patients include convenience and faster response times. For healthcare staff, the time-consuming and manual task of managing appointments is gone — which provides greater efficiencies and cost savings.

The cost of fragmented communications

If patients have trouble making an appointment with front-office staff or filling a prescription on time, they may not follow through with their treatment plan, make that follow-up appointment, or look at that lab result. This can tarnish the patient-doctor interaction before they ever meet.

A fragmented healthcare system is more difficult for patients to navigate, which can lead to missed opportunities for optimal care. The same thing is true for a provider's fragmented communications system.

For example, a typical communications system includes an online portal, a landline phone system, and a separate system for appointment reminders by text. Patients may receive an appointment reminder by text — but then must switch to phone, email, the provider’s app, or the online portal to reschedule that appointment. The more difficult that switch, the more likely that patients will simply give up.

No-show costs

If patients can't get through to cancel their appointment, that can mean another no-show — which can cost a private healthcare provider up to $200 per incident and leave front-office staff scrambling to shuffle appointments. In fact, according to a Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) poll, a significant portion of medical group leaders report no-show rates above 6%. That loss adds up quickly.

Better patient engagement

Providers are looking to address these problems and improve patient engagement. Patient-centered care is becoming a fixture in the healthcare space, and part of this initiative is to give patients complete control over every aspect of their healthcare experience. Many medical group leaders polled by MGMA responded that access and scheduling are their top patient experience priority. In addition, almost half said that patient scheduling was the patient experience function most important to their success.

Delivering a high-quality scheduling experience is vital to making patients feel seen and supported; in turn, it can inspire them to take charge of their health. If patients have their choice of appointment slots and can schedule quickly without making a phone call or having to input their information multiple times, their experience with that practice will start on the right foot.

What AI-powered programmable communications offers

A conversational AI platform can provide patients with a seamless experience throughout their journey:

Holistic communications

Patients can be assured that their key information follows them as they switch from chatbot to text to voice to email and beyond. Multiple patient interactions can be connected for context for physicians, providing access to pertinent health information. This can help create a personalized experience and make it easier for patients to stay current on preventive and follow-up care. It can also foster staff effectiveness and satisfaction by giving them the tools and information they need to deliver high-quality customer service.

Personal preferences

The right conversational AI solution can layer on generative AI to create a "know me" experience where patients feel like the provider understands them and their needs and preferences — such as what pharmacy they use or their preferred name. Call staff can access more information to engage in meaningful conversations with patients and drive better engagement and outcomes, making life easier for both patients and staff.

Consider the opportunity during routine prescription refills. The virtual agent can reference patient information and send reminders for not only those refills, but a colonoscopy or other preventive care. Proactive digital reminders like this can drive engagement, improve outcomes, and improve patient experience and provider-patient communications.

Scheduling

Countless calls to healthcare providers concern some aspect of scheduling. Making this process easier is a convenience for patients — not to mention office staff, as they can then focus on more substantive calls.

Generative AI can play a role here, too, by allowing patients to engage in "intelligent self-service" to schedule, cancel, and reschedule appointments. The easier it is for patients to accomplish this, the more likely they are to follow through and stick with that provider. The system can even build in provider preferences, such as pre-appointment protocols and scheduling parameters, which can help prevent the need to reschedule patients or contact them later with additional information.

Automated appointment reminders reduce no-shows and offer patients the convenience they're looking for in a provider. Customized alerts for screenings or follow-up care are a key consideration when choosing a provider. These alerts through phone, text, or email are especially important when appointments are made several months in advance.

The reimagined patient experience

There was a big push during the pandemic to digitize, but providers haven't put meaningful dollars into reimagining the digital patient experience since, and patients are noticing. According to the State of Patient Access survey by Experian Health, only 17% of patients believe the digital patient experience is improving — and a significant portion thought it was getting worse. That's not good for anyone.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Better solutions are available now. New, conversational AI platforms — that integrate the preferred patient communications channels — can offer a more welcoming digital front door. This helps ensure a positive and secure patient experience from first contact. With recent AI advances, response rates have not only improved for patients, but the technology has also been democratized, bringing the advantages of conversational and generative AI to providers of all sizes.

Done right, this technology can create a more human experience by simplifying the logistical, repetitive tasks of healthcare and freeing up provider time to deliver more personal care. The result is an improved patient experience — and that's what really matters.