In today’s world, the typical patient experience is stressful, uncomfortable, and often fraught with unwelcome surprises. Hospitals and healthcare systems are working toward automating their administrative and financial processes to streamline the patient experience from beginning to end.

On July 28th, we gathered a panel of healthcare experts to speak at End-to-End Patient Engagement: Creating Customized, Consistent, and Convenient Experiences about creating a straightforward, transparent, and personalized patient experience.

Check out five of our top takeaways below:

1. Establish a set of standards to deliver a consistent patient experience

“The patient experience isn’t one thing that we do, it’s how we do everything,” said Katie LeBlue of CHRISTUS Health. She expressed the benefits of health systems building their brand around the standard of care their patients can expect to receive when they visit any of their facilities, similar to popular B2C franchises.

2. Digital channels are essential

It’s critical for hospitals in 2021 to provide opportunities for patients to engage digitally. “Patients aren’t just patients anymore,” expressed Jasper Ligon of INTEGRIS Health, “[they] are customers.”

If health systems lack digital channels, they risk losing out on revenue. When it comes to paying a bill, “it needs to absolutely be easier than paying your light bill,” Jasper argued, or patients might not do it.

3. Don’t overlook your back-office processes

Jeff Howes of Intermountain Healthcare shared that even if you have the best patient experience from a clinical perspective, “if our back-end billing experience falls short, we can lose our patients.”

From a revenue cycle perspective, implementing self-pay and transparent billing processes are key to maintaining patient trust and retaining customers.

4. The patient voice should be your true north

“It’s critical for any system to truly understand what the patient voice is saying,” said Joan Cox of Steward Health Care, “and that’s got to be real-time.”

She shared that Steward has implemented a post-visit survey that directly addresses payment collection and insurance questions to keep them in continual conversation with their patients. This helps them maintain a robust, proactive service recovery process rather than waiting for complaints to come.

5. Inter-departmental communication is key

When issues come up with revenue or operations, Katie explained that being inclusive has propelled her team toward successful solutions. “It’s a matter of being transparent with those various departments so we can outline the resources needed for each department,” she said, explaining that siloed organizations can have a devastating consequence on the patient experience.

Interested in hearing more? Check out the full panel discussion and more topic-based video clips from the event by filling out the form at the top of this page.