A white pAper by SolutionreAch

pAtient relAtionShip mAnAgement

the pAtient engAgement chAllenge

The healthcare industry has entered

into a period of massive disruption,

with a combination of new technolo-

gies, new regulatory requirements,

and new market dynamics affecting the way

providers interact with patients.

Doctors are serving an increasing num-

ber of patients but have a finite amount of

time. At the same time, Medicaid and other

payers are shifting to a value-based reim-

bursement model that focuses on patient

outcomes, and the Affordable Care Act

(ACA) has created an influx of newly insured

patients. As a result, providers have been

tasked with treating more patients at a lower

cost with better outcomes.

This has put a strain on the amount of time

doctors and other clinicians can spend on

face-to-face treatment with their patients,

which can negatively affect outcomes.

Patients frequently do not follow orders for

taking prescription drugs, which can result

in adverse outcomes. Many patients fail to

follow parts of their treatment plans, includ-

ing medication dosage, exercise, dietary

changes, and follow-up visits with specialists.

These patient engagement and treatment

compliance issues lead to an increase in

complications and interventions, which puts

additional demands on physicians’ time and

increases treatment costs. Both patients and

doctors want to improve and increase the

amount of communication that occurs, but

doing so in an efficient, convenient, and

HIPAA-compliant fashion is challenging.

Patient relationship management (PRM)

technology can solve these communication

problems by providing intelligent messag-

ing management and secure patient portals

which send automatic reminders and other

information to patients specific to their diag-

noses and care plan. Patients can more eas-

ily access their own records, and physicians

can provide more frequent follow-up com-

munications to help patients comply with

their medications and care plans and in turn

improve outcomes.

In this white paper, we will define patient

relationship management, outline the patient

engagement challenges that a cloud-based

PRM platform can solve, and explore the

benefits of using the technology to improve

outcomes, increase productivity, and reduce

costs for providers, payers, and patients.

Patient relationship management (PRM) is a

clinical version of the customer relationship

management (CRM) solutions that compa-

nies have been using for decades to man-

age and track client interactions. In the case

of PRM, these platforms provide guided

communication workflows, patient engage-

ment, and reporting.

With Cloud-based and subscription-based

PRM, hospitals and physician practices can

deploy secure, HIPAA-compliant e-mail and

text-based patient messaging to improve

patient engagement and, as a result, improve

outcomes. The PRM solution can be inte-

grated with practice management (PM), elec-

tronic health record (EHR), electronic medical

record (EMR) and other clinical systems, pro-

viding automatic synchronization in order to

keep patient records updated.

This goes beyond simple patient reminders

and encompasses a host of communications,

education, and other types of information

delivery. Using this type of platform, providers

can automate the management of appoint-

ment reminders, recall messages, follow-up

reminders, patient confirmations, ASAP last-

minute scheduling notifications, one-to-one

patient communications, marketing e-mails,

newsletters, mass notifications, and even

birthday or holiday wishes via electronic

(e-mail, text) and voice-based messaging.

An effective PRM platform should:

• Support multi-platform, multi-modal

communications. Patients should be

able to receive e-mail, text, and voice

messages and alerts on their mobile

phones, tablets, desktop computers, and

on landline voicemail regardless of the

types of devices they use.

• Comply with security and privacy

regulations. The solution should be

compliant with HIPAA security guide-

lines, as well as other regulations such

An effective PRM PlAtfoRM cAn Result in heAlthieR,

hAPPieR PAtients, And A MoRe PRoductive PRActice.

as the Telephone Consumer Protection

Act (TCPA), which regulates the way

consumers are contacted via phone, fax,

and text message, and Canada’s Anti-

Spam Legislation (CASL), which regu-

lates commercial electronic messages.

• Be cloud-based. A hosted or cloud-

based solution simplifies and acceler-

ates the deployment of the PRM plat-

form while saving costs for providers

because they don’t have to purchase

and support new servers and software.

A cloud-based solution also makes it

easier for providers to manage their

messaging from any location or even

from a mobile device.

By automating patient reminders and

providing targeted health communications

to individual patients, as well as groups

of similar patients, providers can increase

patient engagement while also lightening

the administrative burden on their staff. A

more engaged patient population, in turn, will

improve outcomes by lowering readmission

rates, increasing medication and care plan

compliance, and providing more visibility into

patient health for providers.

Using PRM to automate and manage patient

communications has a number of clinical and

business benefits depending on the specific

use cases. Depending on the needs of the

provider, the PRM can be used to manage

standard communications as well as enable

new types of patient interactions.

Administrative staff spend an inordinate

amount of time following up with patients to set

and confirm follow-up appointments and proce-

dures. Using a PRM solution that is integrated

with the patient record and scheduling system,

a physician practice could automate these

reminders. This relieves administration staff of

the burden of sorting and sending this infor-

mation manually, and it automates reminders

that in the past would have required hours of

individual phone calls and voicemail messages.

In addition, by sending these reminders via

e-mail or text, patients can easily confirm or even

change appointments at the touch of a button

without playing phone tag with the schedulers.

Beyond appointment reminders, doctors

can send messages to patients to remind

them about medication schedules, dosages,

referral appointments, or care plan mile-

stones. These reminders can even be auto-

mated and scheduled based on an individual

diagnosis. Using industry standard ICD-10

codes, the communication platform can put

the patients on an information schedule

which provides them with disease-specific

newsletters, updates, and reminders based

on their needs over time. This allows provid-

ers to provide additional patient touchpoints

that can improve compliance with prescrip-

tion usage and other treatments.

For doctors or practices which treat popu-

lations with similar disease profiles, a PRM

platform can also enable the creation and dis-

semination of newsletters, care tips, remind-

ers, research updates, and other information.

For example, seasonal allergy sufferers could

receive targeted care campaigns about their

conditions in the Fall and Spring. Diabetes

patients would receive care management

guidance as a group. Patients who take a spe-

cific medication could receive updates about

new prescription choices or drug research

simultaneously. All of this could be done eas-

ily and automatically with minimal effort from

the staff. Improved communication can lead

to improved overall population health.

There are many scenarios in which a

patient needs to communicate with a pro-

vider outside of an office visit, but doing

so can involve leaving multiple messages

(often with an answering service) or passing

information through other staffers. A PRM

solution which features a secure patient por-

tal allows patients to send messages directly

to their provider from their computers or

mobile phones in a convenient, HIPAA-

compliant environment. Patients can even

send electronic photos if they have ques-

tions about specific symptoms or conditions.

With EMR/EHR integration, these interac-

tions can be easily documented and record-

ed in the patient records automatically.

Instead of hand-written notes or voicemail

messages that may never be entered into the

charts, doctors now have a way to track these

patient interactions without time-consuming,

error-prone manual data entry.

Mass messaging can also help fill gaps in the

daily schedule while providing a new conve-

nience for patients. If an appointment is can-

celled, staff can issue alerts to all patients that

a slot has opened up in the schedule. Patients

can then respond immediately if they’d like to

schedule an appointment that day.

Moreover, automated patient reminders

can greatly decrease those no-shows in the

first place. The schedule is more predictable,

and physicians can optimize their time with

each patient.

Georgis Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

in Rockford, Ill., for example, was able to

reduce no-shows by 80 percent when the

practice began sending text messages to

patients using the Solutionreach platform.

Clarke Woodruff, a dentist in Hellertown, Pa.,

was similarly able to drop the no-show rate to

almost zero using Solutionreach.

By automating all of these communication

activities, practices can free up staff to handle

other tasks. Physicians are able to spend

more time on in-person interactions while

simultaneously increasing the number of

patient “touches” between visits.

By using electronic notifications and even

e-mail or text-based marketing campaigns,

practices can also reduce administrative

costs, eliminate time-consuming phone calls,

and do away with paper-based mailers.

Rinkov Eyecare Centers, a multi-location

practice in Columbus, Oh., improved patient

engagement using the Solutionreach PRM

platform, and relieved the burden on

administrative staff. “It immediately made

an impact on our business with recalls,”

says Dr. Jeff Rinkov. “Our patients love

getting text messages and e-mails, and

our staff love not having to call as many

patients as they used to.”

By providing better service and

performance to patients (and better

outcomes), providers can improve

their Hospital Consumer Assessment

of Healthcare Providers and Systems

(HCAHPS) scores. This increased

engagement can also reduce readmissions

and ER visits, potentially boosting the

providers’ Healthcare Effectiveness Data

and Information Set (HEDIS) scores, as well

as preventative measure objectives for

both Meaningful Use and HEDIS.

Increasing preventive care and patient

engagement is a critical objective for medical

practices. Consistent communication with

patients that can both educate and engage

them is paramount to reaching those goals,

as well as meeting or exceeding emerging

quality measures which will increasingly

affect reimbursements.

(866) 605.6867 | www.SolutionreAch.com

About SolutionreachSolutionreach, the pioneer of automated appointment reminders, is now the industry leader for patient relationship management technology. Their robust platform is used in a variety of healthcare practices to help providers effectively and consistently engage their patients throughout the continuum of care. In addition to improving outcomes and increasing patient retention, the Solutionreach cloud-based tools help providers boost their online presence and generate new patients by automatically collecting and distributing patient surveys, monitoring patient reviews, and integrating social media. To learn more, visit www.solutionreach.com.

Patient relationship management

tools can help providers boost patient

engagement and improve outcomes in a

cost-effective manner. With automated,

integrated communications, providers can

also increase patient interactions, improve

patient health, and reduce costs and labor

associated with manual processes.

An effective PRM platform can result in

healthier, happier patients, and a more

productive practice. These are the keys to

success in a rapidly evolving healthcare

industry that is increasingly focused on

quality and value.