Title: How providers can embrace a mobile strategy to empower patients
Subhead: The right
digital technology can shorten ER lines and lower costs
Mobile
technology can help hospitals diagnose patients remotely, route them to care more
efficiently, and reduce strain on emergency rooms. So why don’t more provider
organizations follow a mobile strategy?
Public
demand for mobile is clear. According to our research, 75 percent of consumers want
digital technology to help manage their health. In the U.S. alone, virtual
healthcare could be saving the health industry billions of dollars annually. It’s
now an opportunity play for providers; it will soon become a survival strategy.
It’s
time provider organizations got serious about mobile strategy by staking out
some quick mobile wins.
Consider
the emergency room. Emergency departments at provider organizations are expensive
and overused. Many times patients could be treated as effectively, and less
expensively, at a clinic or urgent-care facility. Providers can offer patients
“find-care” mobile apps so they can instantly seek out the nearest and most
suitable same-day care option in a time of need.
Mobile
offers other tools to alleviate in-patient demand, such as integrated video
visits. Have a strange-looking rash on your back? Snap a picture with your
mobile device and discuss it with a clinician within minutes without leaving
home. That is a real encounter which can be logged, coded, and billed by the
provider without the resource drain of a hospital visit.
Payers
need to take up the mobile banner as well, as a tool for price transparency and
to help members determine which service providers are in their network. Mobile
apps can geolocate users, direct them to the closest in-network care providers,
and even book an appointment time.
Healthcare’s
disconnect with technology has been glaring. Demand for virtual health is
rising across the board. Yet only 21 percent of consumers report ever receiving
it. Only 16 percent say they have engaged in a remote consultation.
It
could be that a provider is investing in mobile technology, but of the wrong
kind. Maybe a mobile platform isn’t properly designed or being marketed correctly.
Whatever
the case, more can and must be done. At the moment, mobile remains highly
underutilized as it relates to consumers needing to understand how to get the
right care, and where to go. There is no business case for standing pat. Providers
who don’t work now to increase their mobile profile with consumers decrease
their ability to remain relevant.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.