Technology has changed just about every industry under the sun, and that included healthcare. This ranges from having a virtual medical scribe recording notes during every meeting, to having an online system for managing appointments.
As the popularity of telehealth continues to rise, one of the best ways for hospitals and doctor’s offices to take advantage of this growth is to use healthcare virtual assistants to streamline many processes and save a ton of time and money.
While they can provide many benefits, one of the biggest is their ability to improve patient engagement. This article is going to go over a couple of ways that a healthcare virtual assistant is able to improve patient engagement.
Track a Patient Before and After Their Treatment
A big part of the job for many doctors and health professionals is to keep track of patients before and after their treatments. This includes confirming appointments, ensuring people are taking their medication, and simply ensuring they are doing okay.
This type of work is incredibly important, but has been tedious in the past. Trying to manage everyone can be challenging, and things will unfortunately get missed or forgotten. But by using a virtual health assistant, you can automate this process and drastically reduce the amount of work it takes.
You can use text or email confirmation to ensure everyone knows when their appointment is, and send them reminders or assessment questions after the treatment to see how they are doing. This takes a lot of work off the plate of the doctor.
Provide Better Access From Anywhere
Another way that a healthcare virtual assistant can improve patient engagement is simply by providing better access, from anywhere. Because well over 90% of American adults use the internet, it is a great tool to reach out to anyone, no matter where they are. Not everyone will want to come into the office to meet with doctors for every little thing, and many people don’t love communicating by email or phone call about important medical things.
For these people, verbal interaction and visuals are important, which is why a virtual assistant can be so helpful. It provides the personal touch many people look for, while still being very convenient and accessible. A healthcare virtual assistant can often be accessed from any device, and is capable of not only recognizing patients who are returning, but also recall any past responses or questions the individual had.
Answer Questions and Provide Useful Information
Another great way that these assistants can improve engagement is by answering questions. Many patients have a laundry list of different questions that they require answers to. Virtual assistants can answer these via email, via messaging, through a voice chat, and more. They can also provide instant access to important information if a person requires it.
Also, many of these healthcare virtual assistants can also provide information to patients that is vital to them sticking to their treatment plan. They can remind them about appointments, tell them when to take their medication, and do so much more.
In conclusion, these are just some of the many ways that a healthcare virtual assistant can improve patient engagement.