The future of healthcare: Using technology to drive patient satisfaction

Meeting the needs of patients is at the heart of good health care. Patients place their faith in the skills and experience of their healthcare professionals, trusting them to provide world-class care and support.

Ensuring patients are satisfied with this care and support is central to a long and fulfilling relationship. Organising healthcare can be difficult for patients to manage, though: navigating the health system in order to speak to the right healthcare professionals or book an appointment can be confusing and time-consuming.

Factors like clear communication, and having quick access to information are important ways through which clinicians can assure the satisfaction of their patients. So how can healthcare providers continue to meet these needs in order to improve patient satisfaction?

Patient-focused initiatives:

Healthcare providers who focus on offering new patient-focused initiatives, and continually improving the way they engage with patients, are likely to see the pay-off in increased patient satisfaction.

By incorporating new tools and services, leveraging existing technologies, adding virtual care services and removing roadblocks by implementing paperless systems to engage with their patients, healthcare organisations can better equip themselves to manage demand and improve the patient experience.

Digital Front Doors are one effective way through which healthcare organisations can achieve this. It responds to the challenges many patients face by putting them in control, offering a central online point of access to manage interactions with their healthcare provider.

Through using a Digital Front Door, patients are able to more easily navigate the health system, find trusted health information and know where to go and who to speak to. In meeting these needs, healthcare providers can build loyalty and advocacy with their patients: A satisfied patient is not only less likely to switch providers, but also more likely to refer providers to their family and friends.

Southern Cross Healthcare patient satisfaction:

New Zealand’s Southern Cross Healthcare (Southern Cross) has been a trusted part of New Zealand’s healthcare system for over 40 years, and plays a vital role in New Zealand’s private elective surgery sector.

To meet its mission to provide affordable, high-quality healthcare to more New Zealanders, Southern Cross has piloted a Digital Front Door, working with Orion Health to trial a secure and scalable engagement platform for patient surgery admissions.

This has allowed Southern Cross to streamline its patient admissions process which has resulted in an overall Customer Effort Score of 91% – well above the global benchmark of 71%.

This has proven to be of great value for Southern Cross – but most importantly, it’s made the hospital admissions process prior to surgery a better experience for patients, who have responded extremely positively to this digital admission experience.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about Southern Cross Healthcare and Orion Health’s Digital Front Door partnership, and the positive impact it’s having in improving patient satisfaction in the Southern Cross Healthcare eAdmissions pilot case study.