We have a good feeling about the new year in health care, especially in the EHR sector as we all reap the benefits of three years of effort addressing pandemic-driven challenges. Remote everything forced everyone in health care to reevaluate the efficacy of the technology that replaced in-person human interaction.
Many healthcare technologies were refined over those difficult three years – ours certainly was. The result? In 2023, better technology will drive significant progress toward our holy grail: delivering the best core functionality needed to compete and succeed in the world of value-based care. Specifically, here are three things we can expect to see:
Patients engage more deeply
Pandemic aside, telehealth proved to be far more convenient than going to the doctor. The benefits helped patients discover all the other new ways they could conveniently engage with their providers through smartphones and laptops: scheduling appointments, ordering refills, viewing lab results, linking wearables, sharing vitals, and learning useful information to improve their conditions. This positive habit is becoming more ingrained.
Clinicians coordinate their efforts better
Value-based care is an impossibility when patients’ integrated care teams aren’t integrated. Smartphones and tablets are finally doing for care coordination what they’ve done for social and business life: enabling dispersed clinicians (and patients) to cooperate on a common platform by text, voice, video chat, links, and notifications. Integrated teams can “meet” at will, collaborate on a diagnosis, and ensure that patients are getting everything they need. This paradigm will improve patient care in 2023 while reducing costs.
Automated workflows streamline business processes
Many time-consuming administrative processes are mind-numbingly routine. Scheduling, reminders, cancellations, and rescheduling can all be automated. These tasks can be outsourced to patients who will appreciate being empowered, never to be put on hold again. Similar benefits will come to prescriptions, refills, electronic visit verification, follow-ups, and patient questionnaires. Clinical processes like documentation of patient encounters and updating of treatment plans will be accomplished with voice recognition powered by artificial intelligence.
All of these activities are simpler than ever in AxiomEHR, our cloud-based EHR platform; AxiomMobile, our all-in-one mobile communications app for providers; and AxiomConnect, our mobile app for patients.
The future has arrived. Want to see it? Schedule a demo today.
