Giving patients a sense of control over their ENT care could be more important than ever during this time of continuing COVID-19 uncertainty. The many shifting priorities for ENT practices—such as keeping up with the demands of the digital patient, automating solutions for staff, and keeping up with regulatory changes—has made it more difficult to engage and reassure patients to continue to seek care when necessary and follow-up accordingly to ensure good outcomes.
“From before the patient arrives until after the bill is paid, the right ENT software can make it easier for ENTs and their staff to promote patient satisfaction.”
Today at the AAO-HNSF 2021 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience, healthcare technology leader ModMed® is showcasing its latest patient engagement solutions that are delivering high value to ENTs and patients.
Practice Manager Lynn Schultz of Cass Street Ear, Nose & Throat shared, “Patient Reminders is a great feature that saves us time because we call fewer people and patients really like it. We can search for unconfirmed appointments and follow up with those patients—it takes the guesswork out.”
“The patient engagement tools offered by Modernizing Medicine have helped improve the patient experience,” said Crystal Johnson, Operations Director of The Ear, Nose & Throat & Facial Plastic Surgery Center. “The ability to sign forms electronically saves paper, expenses and time. The Patient Portal has completely enhanced our office flow. We also use Patient Reminders that are compatible with PM. I love this variable because it’s helped to decrease our no-show rate and increase communication with our patients.”
Patient Engagement tools including advanced online check-in, waiting room kiosk sign-in, patient portal access and follow-up care reminders can help make patients feel more connected to their healthcare and alleviate strain on practitioners.
“Engaging patients at clinic check-ins and follow-ups can naturally fall to the wayside when practices are focusing on acute challenges like staff and patient safety, lower revenue and patient retention during a pandemic,” said Dr. David Lehman, MD and Senior Medical Director of Otolaryngology at ModMed. “From before the patient arrives until after the bill is paid, the right ENT software can make it easier for ENTs and their staff to promote patient satisfaction.”
There are measurable benefits of using Patient Engagement tools:
- The Pocket Patient™ app – Provides patients a convenient way to launch telehealth appointments with high-resolution video chat capability. Over 100,000 apps were downloaded within the first month post-launch and it received a 4.3/5 rating from 21,631 patients surveyed via the in-app survey.
- Patient Reminders – Automated appointment confirmation system that reminds patients about appointments and empowers them to reschedule through text. Using text messages to confirm appointments has been shown to be 295% more effective than phone calls, and some practices are seeing a reduction in their patient no-show rates by 40-50% (source: Relatient).
- ModMed?Kiosk – Allows patients to complete forms online which helps streamline patient check-ins and cut down staff’s data entry. Patients complete their forms using an iPad making it so staff only needs to review and accept that data.
- Patient Portal – Through a secure online portal, patients can access certified health information, schedule appointments, review and update medical records, access lab results and make payments.
Additionally, ModMed launched its Premium Patient Connect service to practices using its EHR, EMA® and patient engagement tools. Premium Patient Connect adds an extra layer of efficiency for both patients and staff by streamlining the intake process and giving patients online and mobile access to review and manage their accounts.
For ENT practices that adopt patient engagement technology, it presents a natural opportunity to educate and communicate with patients. It also provides a chance to remind patients that care is still available and to reinforce that best practices for safety remain paramount during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About ModMed
ModMed is transforming healthcare by placing doctors and patients at the center of care through an intelligent, specialty-specific cloud platform. With our electronic health records (EHR) and practice management (PM) systems, and our revenue cycle management (RCM) services, our all-in-one solution empowers specialty medical practices to do their best work by providing them clinical, financial and operational software solutions designed to enable better, more personalized patient care. Our staff physicians help to develop products and services for dermatology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, orthopedics, otolaryngology, pain management, plastic surgery, podiatry, urology practices and ambulatory surgery centers. For more information, visit www.modmed.com. Connect with ModMed via its blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
