If you want to attract and retain patients in this competitive industry, you need a powerful communication strategy. Many healthcare practices are turning to an omnichannel patient engagement strategy that leverages several communication channels to provide a cohesive patient experience.
Now, more than ever, patients expect seamless interactions and easy communication with your practice. Being able to communicate through telehealth platforms, mobile apps, patient portals, text, phone calls, emails, and other channels can help you meet these expectations and engage patients through their preferred methods.
TrueLark’s AI-based solutions make it easy to communicate with patients through multiple channels and improve patient interactions. Learn more about omnichannel patient engagement and why it matters for healthcare providers like you.
The evolution of patient communication
Patient communication today looks much different from what it did even 20 years ago. To ensure patient satisfaction and engagement, your practice needs to keep up with emerging trends and communication channels.
Historically, patient communication methods were limited to phone calls and in-person conversations. Practices needed to manually call patients to remind them about appointments and share other pertinent information. They would often need to leave messages when their recipients were away from home, leading to slow and disjointed communications.
Over the years, communications like email, text, and instant messaging entered the picture, allowing patients to contact their providers (and vice versa) more easily. Offering each of these communication methods helps you meet preferences, engage patients at every opportunity, and create an omnichannel strategy that saves your practice time rather than adding to your workload.
Core components of omnichannel engagement
Omnichannel patient engagement is just what it sounds like: the practice of communicating with patients through multiple channels. Your strategy should include a few core components to ensure better patient engagement while streamlining operations.
- Integrated communication platforms: Using unified systems and control centers makes it easier to manage patient interactions across multiple channels. You won’t need to spend time manually referencing emails, phone call notes, and text messages to understand what has already been discussed. You will see all communications in a central platform.
- Data synchronization: Along with using integrated communication platforms, you need data synchronization features that update patient communication logs in real time. This ensures that your staff always have consistent, up-to-date patient information to inform further communications and actions.
- Personalization: An omnichannel engagement strategy won’t do much good if you neglect to personalize the messages to each patient. Instead, they may feel bombarded by communications that don’t apply to them. Adapting communications to each patient’s needs and profiles can foster a personalized engagement strategy that leads to better outcomes.
Taking the time to shape your engagement strategy around these components can ensure that your efforts pay off.
Benefits of omnichannel patient engagement
Why take the time to engage patients through all communication channels? Couldn’t you stick to email and phone and still foster sufficient communications with your patient base?
An omnichannel patient engagement strategy boasts several benefits for healthcare providers, making it a worthwhile venture. The following are a few of the advantages your practice will gain by expanding communications across multiple channels.
Improved patient satisfaction
When patients have trouble reaching their healthcare provider or the administrative team with a question, they become frustrated and may form a negative image of your practice. Being available to communicate with patients across several channels, like email, text, and online chat, can improve satisfaction and foster better patient experiences.
Patients will be able to seamlessly ask questions, schedule appointments, or get in touch with your practice about other matters through the communication method most convenient to them. An omnichannel strategy also enables you to refer patients to other communication channels when you are not available to speak with them in real time. For example, if you miss their call, your voicemail message can invite them to send a text or reach out to their provider via the portal. This helps prevent frustrations and promotes smoother communications.
Enhanced care coordination
An omnichannel patient engagement strategy not only promotes patient satisfaction, but it can also improve patient care. Having integrated systems with up-to-date communications and patient data prevents errors and oversights that could impact patient outcomes.
Healthcare providers can more easily collaborate on a patient’s case when they have access to all of their communications in a single platform. They can also easily reach out to the patient to provide test result updates, communicate treatment plans, and send appointment reminders, all of which promote better health outcomes.
Increased efficiency
You might initially think that adding communication channels to your patient experience will only take up more time in the day. In reality, an omnichannel access strategy can promote a more efficient workflow.
You can begin relying on communication methods that are faster than phone conversations, like email, text, or instant messaging. All of these channels allow you to respond to the patient at a time convenient for you rather than being tied up in a long conversation.
Modern communication channels also allow for automation to further streamline the process. You can send automatic appointment reminders or even use AI tools to respond to basic text messages while still providing a personalized experience.
Challenges in implementing omnichannel strategies
While offering omnichannel communication methods to patients can help you improve patient satisfaction and even health outcomes, you might initially encounter a few challenges. Understanding potential roadblocks can help you overcome them.
Technological barriers
An omnichannel patient engagement strategy requires your practice to implement technology that streamlines and consolidates communications across multiple channels. You will need to take the time to identify the right technology for your practice and integrate it into your workflow.
Potential challenges might include:
- System incompatibilities: Some technology might not integrate well with your existing patient records platform or other software. Look for technology that is compatible with your current processes or can replace outdated legacy tech.
- Data security concerns: Any technology you integrate into your practice needs to meet HIPAA requirements for patient privacy and security. Ensure that the software you are considering has measures in place to protect patient data, such as access restrictions and two-factor authentication.
Staff training
Your new omnichannel communication technology may not be intuitive to all staff members. Your healthcare professionals will need to adapt to these new tools and integrate them into their workflows.
This may require you to conduct training on how to use the new system and avoid common mistakes. Your workflow may initially slow down while providers adapt to the new technology, but it should ultimately streamline patient communications.
Patient access
Not every patient wants to or has the means to communicate with their provider via text or patient portal. You still need to maintain traditional communication methods to ensure access for all patients.
Keep your phone lines open and ensure that patients can reach staff via phone during normal business hours. An effective omnichannel strategy often means sending important patient communications via all channels to ensure that patients see them.
Future trends in omnichannel patient engagement
Omnichannel patient engagement strategies will continue to evolve as new technologies and advancements emerge. Many predictions for future trends hinge on benefits like speed, accessibility, and automation, potentially saving you more time and promoting an even more seamless patient journey.
While many new advancements may arise in the next decades, below are a few potential trends that can shape your omnichannel access strategy. Adapting to these trends as they emerge can ensure continuous improvement with your strategies.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Artificial intelligence is already shaping how healthcare practices communicate with patients and approach healthcare marketing. One trend to keep on your radar is using AI communication tools to streamline patient engagement.
Artificial intelligence can have lifelike conversations with patients over virtually all communication channels. There are also benefits of AI in personalizing patient interactions, as this technology can use patient data to shape communications. Machine learning technology can continually refine patient communications for even more consistent messaging.
Telehealth advancements
Virtual care is becoming an integral component of health systems and, as such, plays an important role in omnichannel strategies. In the future, more patients might schedule telehealth appointments rather than in-person ones and have exclusively virtual communications with their healthcare providers.
Healthcare organizations should integrate their communication strategies with any telehealth platforms they use to ensure a seamless patient journey. If your practice does not currently offer telehealth, consider incorporating video-based communications into your omnichannel approach to accommodate patients who might live too far from your practice or not be able to visit in person for other reasons. While not all patient appointments can be conducted virtually, this may be a convenient option for certain types of consultations.
Patient-centric models
Many healthcare organizations are shifting from universal communications and protocols to ones that prioritize patient preferences and convenience. This is partially in an effort to attract and retain patients in a competitive healthcare industry. Often, if a healthcare practice doesn’t go above and beyond, patients will leave for another practice.
One way practices can adopt more patient-centric strategies is through a virtual receptionist that responds personally to patient inquiries and promotes a more tailored experience without taking time away from actual staff members.
Implementing an omnichannel strategy: A step-by-step guide
If you are ready to implement an omnichannel patient engagement strategy in your practice, these steps can help you get started.
1. Assess current systems
Begin by evaluating your current technologies, patient communication platforms, and systems to determine which technology will fit into your workflow. This can also help you identify any gaps in your existing processes that you could fill with a new platform.
For example, maybe you currently have a way of emailing patients but want to add text message communications as well. You would want to look for a digital health platform that provides all of your preferred channels.
If you currently use legacy technology that might not integrate well with new systems, it may be time to transition your entire clinical data set into a new, more advanced system.
2. Select appropriate technologies
Next, take the time to research and evaluate technologies that might meet your organization’s needs. Here are a few criteria you can consider:
- Ease of use: Is the user interface easy to navigate? Will it take long for staff to learn how to use the tool, or is it relatively intuitive?
- Cost: Does the technology fit into your practice’s budget? What is the cost structure (monthly/yearly fee, one-time cost, etc.)?
- Features: Does the program include the communication features you are looking for, along with other tools that could streamline operations in your healthcare practice?
- Applicability to healthcare: Was the tool designed specifically for healthcare or appointment-based businesses?
- HIPAA protections: How does the software handle patient privacy and data protection?
3. Integrate new tech and train staff
Once you have selected a new program to support your omnichannel patient engagement strategy, take the time to train staff on how to operate it and integrate it into existing workflows. This will prevent confusion and potential errors during the adoption process and help staff feel more confident communicating with patients using the new technology.
4. Continuously evaluate strategies
After the initial rollout, be sure to evaluate the technology’s role in your workflow regularly and adapt as needed to ensure that the software continually supports your omnichannel patient engagement strategy.
Final thoughts
An omnichannel patient engagement and communication strategy allows you to engage patients through the contact method that is most convenient and accessible for them. It ensures that patient communications never slip through the cracks and supports a more reliable patient journey.
Adding new communication channels to your practice doesn’t need to be challenging. The right technology makes this process simple and provides you with a wealth of other benefits to improve patient engagement.
TrueLark provides healthcare organizations with the features they need to engage patients, increase appointment bookings, and ensure efficient patient communication. Book a demo today to learn how TrueLark can support your practice.
