Healthcare

The status quo of the patient experience in the US healthcare system is fragmented. A staggering 81% of healthcare consumers are unsatisfied with the experience they undergo. Many of these consumers are accustomed to memorable service experiences in other sectors with companies like Uber, Starbucks, and Chase. Meanwhile, US hospitals have failed to meet self-service expectations by continuing to rely on traditional channels to interact with patients. The fact that all major US hospitals are undergoing a massive wave of consolidation by acquiring many care providers complicates integration issues leading to inconsistent patient experiences. It is no surprise then that US hospitals suffer from one of the lowest NPS scores across industries for hospital-patient interaction.

Autonom8 is here to help. We can set a strong foundation for your hospital organization to streamline the patient experience.

Do You Know: Doctors can save 3 hrs/week with A8 Chat’s customized for healthcare. Watch this video to know-how.

Patients seeking care within their network go through a series of steps to register with a given hospital. Let’s walk through a typical patient experience. Take the example of Thomas, who is a 30-year-old male working in the IT industry. Thomas has lately been experiencing nausea and intermittent abdominal pain. His doctor advised him to get an MRI scan conducted to identify potential problems in his pancreatic duct. Since his childhood, Thomas has been scared of hospitals. So he is nervous to realize that he has to visit one, while the COVID-19 crisis is still raging through his city. 

Receive a prescription from a Primary Care Physician (PCP)

Thomas receives a prescription from his doctor or PCP to get an MRI scan to identify his pancreatic duct issues. Thomas is not provided with any recommendations from his doctor. So he sets out to find hospitals that can perform an MRI scan close to his home. He feels anxious about his health after his conversation with the doctor and is worried about going through an MRI for the first time. 

Evaluate potential hospitals and schedules appointment via phone call

Thomas searches online for hospitals available with his health plan, which shows 10-12 hospitals in his area, which offer MRI scans. He then evaluates the feedback and reviews of these five hospitals and doctors on sites like Healthgrade. He narrows his search down to three hospitals with good reviews and calls them to find availability for the coming week. Only one of them responds to his calls and provides him an appointment for the week after. Since he does not have too many options, and his anxiety is growing, he decides to accept that appointment.

Check-in to the hospital and arrive at the waiting room

Thomas is still suffering from his abdominal pain on the day of the appointment, so he decides to take a cab to the hospital. He struggles to find directions to the right building and floor. The hospital is crowded, and the front desk staff is swamped with requests. Thomas waits away from the crowd to prevent the risk of getting infected. He gets a chance to ask for directions after 10 minutes and makes his way to the MRI scan lab. 

Undergo medical procedure

Thomas has always been concerned about visiting hospitals, and his fears grow as he makes his way to the MRI lab. He had a mild case of claustrophobia, and the interiors of the lab only end up amplifying it. Thomas changes his clothes to a hospital gown and apprehensively waits his turn at the scanner. He regrets not informing his sister about the visit and longs to have someone by his side to give him comfort. He requests a sedative to calm down, and the technician administers a small dose before asking him to lie down on the scanner.

Pay the bill and travel back home

The scan did not take too much time, but it feels like Thomas spent hours inside the MRI scan chamber. He changes back to his clothes and starts to leave the lab, but the sedative was still strong, and he has trouble walking around to the hospital entrance. He requests a front desk associate to help him book an Uber back home. He then receives a bill from the front desk, which was way higher than expected. It is hard to comprehend, considering his state, and he ends up paying without trying to understand the bill better. 

Thomas finally reaches his apartment, tired and sleepy. He makes a quick mental note to verify if he was charged correctly on his phone and plan his subsequent hospital visits.

As seen firsthand from Thomas’s perspective, navigating the hospital experience as a new patient could be fraught with concerns. Hospital systems could ease many of these concerns by building experiences from a patient-centric perspective. But the IT systems that need to work together to create a cohesive experience is a patchwork of different integrations. Let us understand what goes on behind the scenes today to bring the experience to life.

Receive a prescription from a Primary Care Physician (PCP)

Thomas receives a prescription from his doctor or PCP to get an MRI scan to identify any issues in his pancreatic duct without any referrals. The patient has to search for facilities available in their health plan network voluntarily. It does not help that health plans do not make it any easier to personalize the availability and pay options to the individual to show the network and out-of-network options, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs upfront. Patients usually find out these details by following up with their health plan organization over the phone or their website. 

Evaluate potential hospitals and schedules appointment via phone call

Searching and scheduling medical checks within hospitals are still complicated in an age where booking a cab is available with a couple of taps on an app. Although many options have come up in recent times to order medicines online, very few options exist to determine hospital lab availability and schedule a medical checkup online as quickly as ordering coffee.

Check-in to the hospital and arrive at the waiting room

With the COVID-19 crisis toll rising, hospitals have to take special care that inpatient traffic is not exposed to risk. Unfortunately, not all hospital centers are equipped to forecast and stagger patient footfall during the day. This could lead to inevitable contact with frontline workers if the hospital front desk is swamped with ad hoc calls throughout the day.

Undergo medical procedure

First-time patients always go through a stressful period for their first medical checkup. An MRI scan during a pandemic can turn this into a nightmare. In ordinary circumstances, hospital staff and doctors can care for first-time patients by walking through how these procedures are harmless and safe. But with hospital staff stretched thin during these situations, they might not provide adequate attention and care.

Pay the bill and travel back home

Patients leaving the hospital post-treatment might not be in the best situation to settle bills and commute back home. The billing experience post-treatment can be the most influential aspect of the patient experience, determining if the patient would refer the hospital to similar patients. Informing patients about the bill in simple language would go a long way in establishing trust in the patient-hospital equation and increasing the hospital service’s lifetime value.

The A8 platform provides a holistic set of products to create a virtual concierge experience for your patients. These products can help your patients navigate the hospital experience and ease their concerns at every step of the journey. Let us find out in detail how that would play out:

Receive a prescription from a Primary Care Physician (PCP)

Thomas receives a prescription from his doctor or PCP to get an MRI scan to identify his pancreatic duct issues. His doctor did not provide any referrals, so he searches for available lab facilities in his health plan network. The A8Flow platform integration to his health plan initiates an A8Chat conversation with him to personalize his search experience. With a couple of queries and permission to access his location, the conversational chatbot platform helps him narrow down to the network’s best-rated MRI lab facilities. Thomas is relieved that the health plan platform has made his search experience more accessible.

Evaluate potential hospitals and schedules appointment via phone call

Thomas can now see potential availability in the hospital lab, thanks to the A8Flow platform integrated with the hospital registration system. This allows Thomas to finalize his appointment schedule on his own, with self-serve capabilities powered with the Autonom8 platform. A8Chat also gives Thomas visibility into  out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, and other potential costs for this appointment based on his health plan. Thomas is happy that he can schedule an appointment at his convenience, with these self-serve capabilities.

Check-in to the hospital and arrive at the waiting room

On the night before his appointment, the Autonom8 platform sends Thomas a notification on his phone. This notification provides essential guidelines to prepare for his lab checkup, reminding him of his time slot, and offers educational snippets on dietary instructions for the test. It also provides him with the best path to the hospital building and gives him a clear map of which floor and room the lab is situated. Finally, the chatbot reminds him to schedule a ride on Uber around his appointment completion time. Thomas is relieved that he now knows how to prepare for his checkup and navigate the hospital building, although it is his first time.

Undergo medical procedure

While Thomas is in the Uber on the way to the hospital, the platform provides him with a set of well-being measures to calm his mind. The hospital has tied up with a leading well-being content provider and can offer bite-sized educational snippets for helping patients like Thomas relax on the day of their appointment. It also includes the list of allowed actions within the MRI lab chamber, which will enable him to ease his anxiety and claustrophobia. Coming in prepared and informed, Thomas requests the lab technician to administer a light sedative, so he is relaxed during the checkup.

Pay the bill and travel back home

Thomas finished his MRI scan without incident and then walked back to the front desk to complete formalities and billing. He is then provided with a billing summary. He converses with A8Chat to clarify discrepancies with his billing estimate provided earlier. Thomas is relieved to find that the billing estimate matches his current bill and quickly settles his payment. A8Chat reminds him that he had scheduled an Uber ride at this time, and he checks his Uber app if his ride has been summoned. Sure enough, his Uber driver is now waiting for him right outside the hospital building. Thomas is relieved he did not have to decide to take the bus or cab in his sedated state and is grateful for the chatbot reminding him to do so. He takes the Uber home and reaches his apartment safely.

Do you manage a hospital organization and are you looking forward to revamping your digital patient-centric journey? Autonom8 provides an enterprise-grade platform with its suite of products, A8Chat, A8Flow, and A8iQ, to completely transform your patient experience. 

Are you interested in evaluating Autonom8 as a platform? Schedule a demo with us today!