Tag Archives: patient referral management

The Crucial Relationship Between Patient Referral Management and Patient Satisfaction

In the complex landscape of healthcare, patient referral management plays a pivotal role in ensuring seamless and efficient transitions between different care providers. Effective referral management not only enhances the operational efficiency of healthcare systems but also significantly impacts patient satisfaction. This blog will delve into the crucial relationship between patient referral management and patient satisfaction, exploring how an optimized referral process can lead to better patient outcomes, improved care experiences, and higher levels of satisfaction.

Understanding Patient Referral Management

Patient referral management involves coordinating and managing the referral of patients from one healthcare provider to another, typically from primary care physicians to specialists. The process includes referral creation, communication between providers, tracking the referral status, and ensuring that follow-ups are completed. An efficient referral management system aims to streamline these processes, reducing delays and errors while enhancing the quality of care provided to patients.

The Connection Between Referral Management and Patient Satisfaction

  1. Timely Access to Care:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Delays in receiving specialist care can lead to patient frustration, anxiety, and worsening health conditions. Efficient referral management ensures that patients are promptly referred to the appropriate specialists, reducing wait times and expediting access to necessary care.
    • Example: A patient with a suspected cardiac issue can be quickly referred to a cardiologist, reducing the risk of complications and providing peace of mind.
  2. Seamless Communication:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Effective communication between primary care providers and specialists is crucial for coordinated care. Poor communication can lead to misunderstandings, duplicated tests, and fragmented care.
    • Example: Secure messaging and real-time information sharing between providers ensure that both parties are informed about the patient’s condition and treatment plan, leading to a more cohesive care experience.
  3. Transparency and Visibility:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Patients often feel anxious when they are left in the dark about their referral status. A transparent referral process that allows patients to track their referrals provides reassurance and reduces anxiety.
    • Example: A patient portal that enables patients to view the status of their referrals and receive updates fosters a sense of involvement and control over their healthcare journey.
  4. Reduced Administrative Burden:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Manual and paper-based referral processes can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Automating these processes reduces administrative burdens on healthcare staff, allowing them to focus more on patient care.
    • Example: An automated referral management system reduces the time healthcare providers spend on paperwork, enabling them to spend more time addressing patient concerns and improving the overall care experience.
  5. Enhanced Care Coordination:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Coordinated care between primary care physicians and specialists ensures that patients receive comprehensive and consistent care. Poor coordination can lead to gaps in care and suboptimal outcomes.
    • Example: A coordinated care plan for a patient with diabetes involves regular communication between the primary care physician, endocrinologist, and dietitian, ensuring a holistic approach to managing the condition.
  6. Follow-Up and Continuity of Care:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Effective follow-up ensures that patients adhere to treatment plans and attend necessary appointments. Lack of follow-up can result in missed appointments and unmanaged health conditions.
    • Example: Automated reminders for follow-up appointments and medication adherence help patients stay on track with their treatment plans, leading to better health outcomes and satisfaction.
  7. Improved Health Outcomes:
    • Impact on Satisfaction: Timely and appropriate referrals lead to early diagnosis and treatment, improving overall health outcomes. Positive health outcomes contribute significantly to patient satisfaction.
    • Example: Early referral and diagnosis of cancer can lead to more effective treatment options and better prognosis, resulting in higher patient satisfaction.

The Role of Technology in Enhancing Referral Management

Advanced referral management technology platforms, such as HealthViewX, play a crucial role in optimizing the referral process and enhancing patient satisfaction. These platforms offer a range of features that address the common challenges associated with traditional referral systems:

  1. Integration with EHR Systems:
    • Seamless integration with electronic health records ensures that patient information is up-to-date and easily accessible, reducing errors and improving care coordination.
  2. Automated Workflows:
    • Automation of referral processes, including referral creation, tracking, and follow-up, reduces administrative burdens and ensures timely handling of referrals.
  3. Real-Time Tracking:
    • Real-time tracking of referral status provides transparency for both patients and providers, reducing anxiety and improving communication.
  4. Secure Communication:
    • Secure messaging and information exchange between providers ensures that patient data is shared safely and efficiently, enhancing collaboration and coordinated care.
  5. Patient Engagement Tools:
    • Patient portals and engagement tools empower patients to take an active role in their care, track their referrals, and receive timely updates and reminders.
  6. Data Analytics and Reporting:
    • Advanced analytics and reporting capabilities provide insights into referral patterns, provider performance, and patient outcomes, enabling continuous improvement of the referral process.

Conclusion

The relationship between patient referral management and patient satisfaction is undeniable. An effective referral management system ensures timely access to care, seamless communication, transparency, reduced administrative burdens, enhanced care coordination, consistent follow-up, and improved health outcomes—all of which contribute significantly to patient satisfaction.

Advanced referral management technology platforms, such as HealthViewX, are essential tools for healthcare organizations aiming to optimize their referral processes and enhance patient satisfaction. By leveraging the power of technology, healthcare providers can deliver seamless, patient-centric care, ultimately leading to better health outcomes and higher levels of patient satisfaction. Investing in an efficient referral management system is not just about operational efficiency; it is about prioritizing patient needs and ensuring a positive healthcare experience for all.

Improving the Medical Referral Process Using HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Platform

The medical referral process is critical to healthcare, ensuring that patients receive the specialized care they need. However, traditional referral systems often need to be improved, leading to delays in patient care, lost referrals, and poor communication between providers. 

Referral management systems, such as HealthViewX, make it easier for healthcare providers to talk to each other, making sure patients get the care they need quickly and efficiently. These tools help medical organizations match their patients with the right doctors, cutting down on wait times and making patients happier. With referral management software that works together with electronic health records (EHR), sharing information becomes smoother, leading to better teamwork in taking care of a patient.

In this blog, we will explore how the HealthViewX Referral Management platform enhances the medical referral process and the benefits it brings to patients and providers alike.

The Challenges of Traditional Medical Referral Processes

In the world of healthcare, getting patients to the right specialist is key. It not only helps people get better care but also supports doctors and clinics in growing their business. Without a smooth system to manage referrals, things can get pretty slow and messy, causing hold-ups in getting patients the care they require.

  1. Inefficient Communication:
    • Communication between primary care physicians and specialists is often fragmented, leading to delays and miscommunication.
  2. Manual Processes:
    • Many referral systems rely on manual processes, including faxing and phone calls, which are time-consuming and prone to errors.
  3. Lack of Transparency:
    • Patients and providers often have limited visibility into the status of referrals, resulting in uncertainty and delays.
  4. Lost Referrals:
    • Referrals can easily get lost in the system, leading to missed appointments and delays in care.
  5. Inadequate Follow-Up:
    • Poor follow-up and lack of coordination between providers can result in gaps in care and suboptimal patient outcomes.

How HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Platform Improves the Medical Referral Process

HealthViewX’s Patient Referral Management platform offers a comprehensive solution to these challenges, streamlining the referral process and improving overall healthcare delivery. 

  1. Streamlined Communication:
    • HealthViewX facilitates seamless communication between primary care physicians, specialists, and other healthcare providers. The platform enables secure, real-time messaging and information exchange, ensuring that all parties are on the same page.
  2. Automated Referral Management:
    • The platform automates many aspects of the referral process, from referral creation to tracking and follow-up. This automation reduces the administrative burden on healthcare staff, allowing them to focus more on patient care.
  3. Enhanced Transparency and Visibility:
    • HealthViewX provides complete visibility into the referral process for both patients and providers. Patients can track the status of their referrals through a user-friendly portal, while providers have access to a centralized dashboard that displays all referral activities.
  4. Centralized Referral Repository:
    • The platform maintains a centralized repository of all referrals, ensuring that no referral is lost. This repository allows providers to quickly access and manage referrals, improving efficiency and reducing delays.
  5. Improved Follow-Up and Coordination:
    • HealthViewX enables better follow-up and coordination between providers. Automated reminders and alerts ensure that patients attend their appointments, and comprehensive care plans facilitate ongoing communication and coordination.
  6. Data Analytics and Reporting:
    • The platform offers advanced data analytics and reporting capabilities. Providers can generate reports on referral patterns, track performance metrics, and identify areas for improvement. These insights help optimize the referral process and enhance overall care delivery.

Key Features of HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Platform

  1. Referral Creation and Tracking:
    • Providers can easily create referrals within the platform and track their status in real time. The system sends automated notifications and alerts to keep all parties informed of referral progress.
  2. Web Portal:
    • The referral portal provides external providers with easy access to their referral information. The referring providers can view their referral status, receive appointment reminders, and communicate with their providers.
  3. Provider Directory:
    • HealthViewX includes a comprehensive provider directory, allowing primary care physicians to quickly find and refer patients to the appropriate specialists. The directory includes detailed information about each provider’s specialties, availability, and contact information.
  4. Secure Messaging:
    • The platform supports secure messaging between providers, ensuring that sensitive patient information is exchanged safely and efficiently. This feature enhances collaboration and reduces the risk of miscommunication.
  5. Integration with EHR Systems:
    • HealthViewX, using its interoperability engine – HealthBridge, integrates seamlessly with electronic health record (EHR) systems, ensuring that referral information is easily accessible and up-to-date. This integration eliminates the need for duplicate data entry and improves overall data accuracy.
  6. Reporting and Analytics:
    • The platform’s reporting and analytics tools provide valuable insights into referral patterns, provider performance, and patient outcomes. Providers can use these insights to optimize their referral processes and improve care delivery.

Benefits of HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Platform

  1. Improved Patient Experience:
    • Patients benefit from a more transparent and efficient referral process. They can track their referrals, receive timely updates, and experience fewer delays in receiving specialized care.
  2. Enhanced Provider Collaboration:
    • The platform facilitates better communication and coordination between providers, ensuring that patients receive comprehensive and coordinated care. This collaboration leads to better patient outcomes and satisfaction.
  3. Increased Efficiency:
    • By automating many aspects of the referral process, HealthViewX reduces the administrative burden on healthcare staff. This increased efficiency allows providers to focus more on patient care and less on paperwork.
  4. Reduced Referral Leakage:
    • The centralized referral repository and automated tracking features help prevent referral leakage. Providers can ensure that all referrals are managed effectively, reducing the risk of lost or missed referrals.
  5. Better Care Coordination:
    • HealthViewX enables continuous care coordination between primary care physicians and specialists. Patients receive well-coordinated care plans, leading to better management of chronic conditions and overall health outcomes.
  6. Data-Driven Decision Making:
    • The platform’s analytics and reporting tools provide actionable insights that help providers optimize their referral processes. Data-driven decision-making leads to continuous improvement and enhanced care quality.

Conclusion

HealthViewX’s Patient Referral Management platform offers a comprehensive solution to the challenges of traditional referral systems. By streamlining communication, automating processes, enhancing transparency, and improving follow-up and coordination, HealthViewX significantly improves the medical referral process. Both patients and providers benefit from a more efficient, transparent, and collaborative system, leading to better health outcomes and higher satisfaction.

In an era where patient-centric care and efficiency are paramount, HealthViewX stands out as a critical tool for healthcare organizations. By adopting this platform, providers can ensure that their patients receive the specialized care they need promptly and effectively, ultimately enhancing the overall quality of care.

10 Signs of an Effective Healthcare Referral Management System

Effective healthcare referral management is crucial for ensuring that patients receive timely, appropriate, and high-quality care from the right specialists. An efficient referral management system can significantly improve patient outcomes, enhance provider collaboration, and reduce administrative burdens. In this blog, we’ll explore the ten signs of an effective healthcare referral management system and how they contribute to a seamless and optimized referral process.

1. Seamless Integration with EHR Systems

Sign: The referral management system integrates seamlessly with existing Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.

Benefit: Integration with EHR systems ensures that patient data is easily accessible and up-to-date. This eliminates the need for duplicate data entry and reduces the risk of errors. Providers can quickly access relevant patient information, making the referral process more efficient and accurate.

2. Automated Referral Workflows

Sign: The system automates key referral workflows, including referral creation, tracking, and follow-up.

Benefit: Automation streamlines the referral process by reducing manual tasks and administrative burdens. Automated reminders, notifications, and follow-ups ensure that referrals are handled promptly, minimizing delays in patient care.

3. Real-Time Referral Tracking

Sign: Providers can track the status of referrals in real-time.

Benefit: Real-time tracking provides transparency and visibility into the referral process. Providers can monitor the progress of referrals, identify bottlenecks, and take proactive measures to ensure timely follow-ups. Patients also benefit from knowing the status of their referrals, reducing anxiety and uncertainty.

4. Secure Communication Channels

Sign: The system includes secure communication channels for exchanging patient information between providers.

Benefit: Secure messaging ensures that sensitive patient information is shared safely and efficiently. This enhances collaboration between primary care physicians and specialists, leading to better-coordinated care and improved patient outcomes.

5. Comprehensive Provider Directory

Sign: The system includes a comprehensive directory of specialists and healthcare providers.

Benefit: A detailed provider directory allows primary care physicians to quickly find and refer patients to the appropriate specialists. The directory includes information on provider specialties, availability, and contact details, ensuring that referrals are made to the right providers.

6. Patient Engagement Tools

Sign: The system offers tools for engaging patients in the referral process.

Benefit: Patient portals and engagement tools empower patients to take an active role in their care. Patients can track their referral status, receive appointment reminders, and access educational resources. Engaged patients are more likely to adhere to treatment plans and attend follow-up appointments.

7. Interoperability and Data Exchange

Sign: The system supports interoperability and seamless data exchange across different healthcare platforms.

Benefit: Interoperability ensures that patient information can be easily shared between different healthcare providers and systems. This facilitates better care coordination, reduces duplication of services, and improves the overall quality of care.

8. Advanced Analytics and Reporting

Sign: The system provides advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

Benefit: Analytics and reporting tools offer valuable insights into referral patterns, provider performance, and patient outcomes. Providers can use this data to identify areas for improvement, optimize referral processes, and make data-driven decisions to enhance care delivery.

9. User-Friendly Interface

Sign: The system features an intuitive and user-friendly interface.

Benefit: A user-friendly interface ensures that healthcare providers can easily navigate the system and complete tasks efficiently. This reduces the learning curve and minimizes the risk of errors, leading to a smoother and more effective referral process.

10. Scalability and Flexibility

Sign: The system is scalable and flexible to accommodate the needs of different healthcare organizations.

Benefit: A scalable and flexible system can adapt to the unique requirements of various healthcare providers, whether they are small clinics or large hospital networks. This ensures that the system can grow with the organization and continue to meet its needs over time.

Conclusion

An effective healthcare referral management system is essential for optimizing the referral process, enhancing provider collaboration, and improving patient outcomes. The ten signs outlined above—seamless EHR integration, automated workflows, real-time tracking, secure communication, a comprehensive provider directory, patient engagement tools, interoperability, advanced analytics, a user-friendly interface, and scalability—are key indicators of a robust and efficient referral management system.

By implementing a system that exhibits these signs, healthcare organizations can ensure that patients receive timely, appropriate, and high-quality care from the right specialists. This not only improves patient satisfaction and outcomes but also enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the healthcare system.

HealthViewX’s Patient Referral Management platform exemplifies these characteristics, providing a comprehensive solution that addresses the challenges of traditional referral systems. By leveraging the power of technology and innovation, HealthViewX empowers healthcare providers to deliver seamless, patient-centric care through an optimized referral management process.

Increasing Patient Retention and Revenue with Referral Management

The ratio between the number of dentists and the population in the USA is 61:100000. More than one in five (21.3%) said that they had not visited the dentist in the last few years. One of the top reasons adults cite for avoiding the dentist is the inability to find a convenient location or appointment time. Specifically, 19% of adults had not visited the dentist in a few years because they cannot find a convenient location or appointment time. As a dentist or dental practice manager, it is crucial to not just manage existing patients but to account for lost opportunity and plan to improve patient experience, especially with appointment schedule and completion. This will result in an increase in the number of patients visiting dental centers. 

Dental centers/groups can begin by leveraging technology to manage the patient referral workflow. Inbound patient referrals having dental issues usually have accompanying ailments such as diabetes or accidental injuries. A seamless experience from appointment scheduling to treatment completion will positively impact patient satisfaction and the volume of inbound patient referrals.

Existing Patient Referral Management Workflow in a Dental Center

Did you know? In a year, 15 billion faxes are sent out with patient referral information in the USA. Practices receive referrals through fax, online forms, direct messaging, email, virtual print, direct walk-ins, and other channels. A typical dental center or dental group is a high inbound referral setup. Dental centers receive large volumes of referrals weekly (ranging from 50 per week to even several hundred per week) depending on the number of patients visiting the center and the number of clinics sending referrals to them. An effective referral management solution will help manage small or big volumes of referrals by reducing manual tasks and using automation and structure where possible.

How to increase Revenue with Referral Management

Dental centers usually have a dedicated team of referral coordinators who receive, accept, and process the referral requests. These referral coordinators manually key in the necessary details into an EMR/ EHR system and create a referral. The time spent by a referral coordinator in a completely manual process can be reduced by using technology. Productivity and efficiency are increased by introducing technology to aid the process. It results in piling up requests that are not yet processed. When the referral coordinator does not have the required information to process the referral, he has to contact the referring provider. This further incurs time and results in a slow referral processing rate. This, in turn, has a negative impact on patient experience. Hence, patient referral leakage also becomes imminent.

Consequences of a Slow Referral Network

  1. Revenue loss is a direct result of the untimely processing of referrals
  2. Providers stop referring to the center thereby harming its reputation
  3. Waiting times and appointment scheduling process affects patients requiring critical and          immediate attention

Challenges Faced by a Dental Center

  1. Multiple Referral Channels: For the specialist/imaging center that receives referrals, face more difficulties than the referring provider. They receive referrals through various channels like fax, email, direct message, website, user-filled forms, etc. Managing and tracking all of it manually is a tedious task. The chances of missing out on a referral are high.
  2. Appointment Scheduling and Patient No-Show Rates: After receiving the referral, the specialist/imaging center schedules appointments with the patient. In some cases, the patients are not notified clearly about the appointment. When patients do not show up, it is difficult for the specialist/imaging center to track. It results in revenue loss and patient dissatisfaction.

Let us review a typical referral process to elaborate on the challenges faced by the dental centers.

  1. Patient Visits the PCP

Andrews met with an accident recently. He met his PCP, Dr. John, immediately as he was experiencing pain in his jaw. After examining him, Dr. John wanted him to consult a dentist. The doctor then initiated the referral.

  1. PCP Initiates the Referral

John created a referral in his EMR. He did not have time to do the insurance pre-authorization so he left it to Andrews. He then found a dentist and gave him referral information verbally. Now when he met the specialist, Andrews had to again elaborate on his condition and problems to him. This is time-consuming for the specialist as he wastes time on the same information twice.

  1. Specialist Requires More Information

The specialist, Dr. James, is a famous dentist in the locality. After receiving the referral, he schedules an appointment with Andrews. After the appointment, Dr. James wants more information about the patient’s history and diagnostic reports. Now, he has to wait for the PCP, Dr. John, to send him the relevant information.

  1. No Tracking System for Referrals

As Dr. James is a famous dentist in the locality, he receives numerous referrals in a day. There is no tracking system for him to know how many referrals he received, how many were processed, in what status each referral is in, etc. So it is difficult for Dr. James to understand the analytics of his specialty.

Overcome your challenges with HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Solution:

With a Referral Management solution like HealthViewX, you can eliminate all your challenges and achieve referral loop closures in an efficient way. Here are some of the key features that will help you transform your referral process:

  1. Multi-Channel Referral Consolidation

The HealthViewX solution can capture fax, phone, email, online form referrals or any other referrals in a single interface. It makes it easy to monitor and manage all channels of referrals in a single queue.

  1. Patient Coordination Framework

After finding the receiving provider, the referral coordinator refers the patient. When the receiving provider receives the referral, the provider will get notified of the referral. Even the patient will be notified of the referral. The receiving provider can schedule appointments based on the patient’s comfort. This will cut down patient no-show rates.

  1. Referral Tracking

HealthViewX gives a clear picture of how a referral has progressed with the help of a timeline view. Every referral has a status that conveys in which stage the referral is in. With the help of a customizable dashboard, the exact number of referrals waiting to be processed can be identified easily.

  1. New Referral Channel

HealthViewX Referral Management solution supports a new channel for sending and receiving referrals. This is called the desktop application. Sources like email, website, direct message, fax, etc are not secure and difficult to handle. On the other hand, desktop applications are a secure source for sending and receiving referrals. Also, documents can be attached and sent as a referral.

  1. Referral Data Consolidation

It has options for printing the consolidated data about the referrals and the referral history of any patient as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.

  1. Secure Data Management

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management is HIPAA compliant. It manages all patient-related documents securely.

  1. Referral Analytics

Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled, etc. with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard.

Talk to us to understand how to streamline and automate the end-to-end referral cycle without disturbing your existing EMR setup.

How to Enhance Referral Process in Healthcare Organizations

Many large hospitals and health systems are losing revenue in millions due to patient referral leakage. Every single patient who looks for care somewhere else is lost revenue now and in the future.

Common challenges in referral system

Majority of health systems experience some sort of challenges with their referral process, which potentially create a negative impact on patient satisfaction, clinical care, and outcomes. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of specialists receive no information from primary care physicians (PCPs) prior to referral visits, according to the Journal of General Internal Medicine. And incredibly, 40 percent of PCPs do not receive consult reports back from specialists following referrals, according to the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A lot of other challenges like the below lead to patient dissatisfaction, poor patient health outcomes which in-turn results in patient leakage and revenue loss.

  • Not being able to identify in-network specialists/providers
  • Providing unclear and incomplete information while referring patients to specialists or other in-network providers
  • Lack of mechanism to measure referral team’s performance or revenue outcomes
  • Inefficient process and ineffective prioritization
  • Challenges in the insurance authorization process, issues related to denials and write-offs
  • Manual processes and dependencies on paper-based communication
  • Inability to track patient leakage due to unclear referral process and lack of referral analytics

Related Topic: https://www.healthviewx.com/implementing-virtual-care-in-referral-management-to-enhance-patient-experience/

Analyzing Your Health System’s Improvement Opportunity

It is vital to identify gaps in the current process, understand challenges and make significant improvements in the referral process. Standardizing the process will help to make it efficient, and adopting technological solutions will not only streamline the process but also will save time and seal leakage. Providers need an end-to-end referral solution to meaningfully improve the handling of both incoming and outgoing referrals.

Here’s how healthcare providers can improve their referral process

Standardize your referral process

It is key for organizations to develop a consistent workflow and streamline the referral process that clearly delineates responsibilities depending on the role and the action to be taken. To achieve this excellence both clinical and operational leadership should collaborate and identify a suitable solution to help develop a strong referral system.

Choosing the technological solution that works

In spite of having a proactive and organized approach to tracking and handling referrals, some technology systems are still unable to facilitate workflows of best practice or provide the performance data required to manage the end-to-end process effectively. So choosing the right solution, and defining roles and responsibilities to support better referral management is crucial.

Defining vision and goals

Once the right technology solution is adopted and implemented, it is vital for the health system to understand the level of performance and opportunity. Analyzing the understanding the below is required

  •  From disparate referral process to a clear and standard process
  • From a decentralized to a centralized process 
  • From paper-based or manual processes to an automated single system that manages end-to-end processes.

Measure success that matters

Organizations need to track their journey towards excellence and ensure they are in par with the industry standards to provide enhanced care for their patients through quality care and better patient satisfaction.

What organizations need to understand?

Organizations should invest time and effort into their referral management. The entire team including clinical teams, operations teams, IT, referral teams, etc. should involve in choosing the right referral solution for a streamlined end-to-end automated referral solution. They also need to understand the potential of the referral software, and the potential revenue a technology-enabled workflow can bring into the system.

Schedule a demo. Talk to our experts to understand how HealthViewX Referral Management streamlines the referral workflow and automates the process seamlessly.

Implementing Virtual Care in Referral Management to Enhance Patient Experience

Today, healthcare organizations are working diligently to improve care coordination, care continuity, and patient experience. Among these targets, improving patient experience is the primary goal that organizations want to achieve. Organizations are working towards streamlining processes to smoothen the patient care journey and improve the overall patient experience.

How can you deliver the best experience to patients?

Emerging global health challenges such as Aging baby boomers and increased chronic health issues have placed an increased strain on the existing medical and social services. The US healthcare system is the costliest in the world, accounting for 17% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2018. This number is expected to grow to nearly 20% by 2020. [Source: National Healthcare Expenditure Projections, 2010-2020. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary.]

How can you deliver the best experience to patients

Addressing all the three dimensions of triple aim at the same time is crucial. A systematic approach to streamline processes will result in a healthier population, and assure a seamless journey through the whole system of care. A comprehensive automation solution can help simplify processes, and enable the entire system to manage change in a structured manner, paving the way for better patient experience.

Today, one of the processes that would be improved with automation is patient referral management. Patient satisfaction or experience, and quality care depend on effective care coordination not just within the physician’s office but also between physician’s primary health centers, and other care settings (specialty centers, hospitals, health systems, etc.). Using a smart platform for prior authorization, specialists match to alert when referrals need attention and automatically send patient updates to referring providers. This provides them with real-time analytics to gain better insights and also closes the referral loop, which addresses the biggest issue in the referral process today.

Ensuring care continuity and coordination of care for patients by easily scheduling the right specialists will transform the health center to meet the patient’s comprehensive health needs. Increased efficiency of the referral process leads to quality care and better patient experience.

The Use of Video Conferencing in Referral Management

Innovative methods are needed to enhance care quality, improve access to care, and improve patient outcomes. Video conferencing is one such feature that enables real-time two-way video with audio transmission and sharing of diagnostic images, and more. It helps patients to access healthcare services without the burden of travel and receive timely care.

Want to know more? Schedule a demo and talk to HealthViewX solution experts to understand in detail about our virtual care capability in the Referral Management Solution.