Help more imaging patients show up on time and prepared
Article ∙ By Philips Healthcare ∙ Jun 17, 2022 ∙ 3 min read
Patients who are late, ill-prepared or don’t show up for their imaging appointments at all affect the experience of your staff, your service continuity and their own health and wellbeing. In this article, you’ll learn how healthcare organizations are using integrated digital communications to help increase engagement, help patients show up well prepared, reduce no-shows and help make imaging experiences a positive experience for patients and staff.
Digital patient management communications can help reduce patient no-shows and improve patient engagement
An ideal day is one in which every patient shows up on time and ready to be imaged. Patients who are late, ill-prepared or don’t show up at all affect their own health and wellbeing, the experience of your staff and your service continuity. After all, your substantial investment in imaging equipment and a well-trained staff goes unused if suddenly there is no patient there to scan.
Better patient preparation benefits everyone
When technologists can’t get the image right the first time, it’s often because the patient hasn’t been properly prepared – or because of missing or inadequate patient information.1 Delays in diagnosis and treatment can have serious, long-term effects on not only the patient’s health, but also the ability of a service already under stress to meet workload demand.How serious an issue are patient no-shows? No-shows account for up to 7% of patients for some imaging modalities(2) $1M potential loss in lost revenue $1,000,000.(3)
Productive patient management can ease concerns, reduce patient no-shows
Two great examples of patient engagement are interactive digital communications and personalized coaching tools. Cloud-based, integrated digital communications can include practical steps that help guide a patient at defining moments in the journey, helping imaging departments improve productivity and patient satisfaction. Personalized coaching tools to prepare pediatric patients for MR exams can help inform, educate, engage and comfort patients throughout the care journey.
Enhance patient management with interactive digital communications like these below, including a virtual waiting room with contactless check-in via text message.
Step 1: Pre-appointment preparation: Educate patients on access protocols.
Step 2: Patient arrival: Patients text “here” and will receive a notification informing them to stay outside the building until it’s time to be seen.
Step 3: Clinic notification: The EHR is automatically updated with the patient’s arrival status.
Step 4: Ready to be seen: Staff input a status change into the EHR indicating that the patient is ready to be seen.
Step 5: Guide the patient: Notification is delivered to the patient alerting them that they may enter the clinic.
How leaders are driving patient engagement
Boston Medical Center (BMC), Yale New Haven Health and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center are finding that engaging with patients digitally helps ease patient anxiety and encourages them to keep their radiology appointments.
“Providing timely and updated information has been critical in our efforts to keep both our staff and patients safe during this pandemic.“
Kathleen Masters Sr. Manager, Ambulatory Performance,Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA
Results from BMC
Go deeper
Learn more about how Patient Navigation Manager can help patients show up on time and well prepared.
Discover how our solutions can help radiology departments inform, educate, engage and comfort patients throughout the care journey.
Read our case study on advancing key performance indicators with pre-visit navigation.
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Footnotes
[1] Radiology Staff in Focus: A Radiology Services Impact and Satisfaction Survey of Technologists and Imaging Directors. Research Report. 2019. Philips [2] Rosenbaum JI, et al. Understanding why patients no-show: observations of 2.9 million outpatient imaging visits over 16 years. J Am Coll Radiol. 2018;15(7):944-950.www.doi.org/10.1016/j.jacr.2018.03.053 [3] Mieloszyk RJ, et al. The financial burden of missed appointments: uncaptured revenue due to outpatient no-shows in radiology. Current Problems in Diagnostic Radiology. 2018;47(5): 285-286.www.doi.org/10.1067/j.cpradiol.2018.06.001 [4] Advancing key performance indicators with pre-visit navigation: a case study with Boston Medical Center. 2020. Philips.
