Digital health’s next big transformation: The shift to healthcare, anywhere

Arguably, one of the biggest challenges facing healthcare is the increasing frustrations from consumers around the way they access the health system. Based on the way they interact with other digital services such as online banking, consumers’ expectations are rising around their desire to access healthcare in a way that suits them. To address this, healthcare needs an equivalent.

Typically, to access healthcare services, citizens must make an appointment with their doctor, wait some time for that appointment, then wait again for any referrals to other healthcare providers. Alternatively, they can spend hours waiting in an emergency room that may be located a great distance away. The process is fragmented, slow, opaque, and fraught with risk of errors.

What if technology could solve all of this and ensure that individuals consistently receive the right care for them, at the right place and at the right time? 

This challenge has become more urgent as health systems are struggling with increased patient demand and more complex clinical needs in a budget-constrained reality. Healthcare providers and systems face simultaneous pressures with the global COVID-19 pandemic, an opioid crisis, rising mental health issues, an aging demographic, and rise in the incidence on systems from multiple chronic diseases. To tackle these issues effectively, healthcare needs to consider and address challenges including social determinants of health and health system inequity. 

As the ability of healthcare organizations to offer the services their patients need and want is stretched to beyond breaking point, now is the time to put a strategy and tools in place to support better access to healthcare services and meaningful ways for patients to participate in their own healthcare. 

A digital front door solution integrates a suite of tools which allows organizations to use systems already in place. It provides people with access to all of the tools needed to manage their own, as well as their dependents’ health and wellbeing, from a secure, central web application.

By putting consumers at the center of healthcare delivery and empowering them to navigate complex health systems, a digital front door promises to address the challenges facing today’s healthcare organizations.

The components of a digital front door are extensive; a chatbot with automated and digital human communication functions to assist with access, a symptom checker that triages patients to the right advice or care, natural language processing (NLP) powered search, and telehealth capability so that people can choose how they would like to interact with services and providers.      

When considering implementing a digital front door, organizations should envision a complete ecosystem that supports consumers across all their healthcare interactions. The solution can span a wide variety of functions and is best regarded as a strategic project with several individual initiatives each aligned with organization priorities and providing better access to the health system to empower consumers.

Many patients have already adopted the use of patient portals, telehealth technology and other digital health solutions to help manage their healthcare, and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for organizations to adopt virtual healthcare services to keep people out of hospitals, reserving valuable resources for those who need them most.

A digital front door strategy should allow for integration with these existing technologies and take a best-of-breed approach that does not demand replacement of the tools already in place but extends services and leverages existing successes. 

At unprecedented speed, COVID-19 is ushering in the long-overdue transformation of the healthcare system and a move to ‘patient-centric’ health. The rapid adoption of virtual and online care tools presents health and service providers with an opportunity to fundamentally transform the way people interact with healthcare. Now is the time for a shift in an industry that has historically lagged in terms of patient engagement and experience, particularly in the digital space. What will be possible for patients when a complete longitudinal health record is topped off with a patient-centric way to navigate the health system?

The shift starts with a digital front door strategy. Integrating existing technologies and leading with a cohesive strategy will put healthcare organizations firmly in tune with engaging and empowering consumers now and in the future, and finally deliver the healthcare we all desire. Read Orion Health’s recent whitepaper to learn more about digital health’s next big transformation.  
 

Orion Health is a leading global technology company that develops software to support the delivery of optimized healthcare. With over 25 years’ experience, we provide flexible technology solutions that allow organizations to target the right patients and deliver the right kind of care at the right place.