Patient Innovations used Alpha Anywhere to build a mobile and web app that boosts patient satisfaction scores by decreasing waiting room times.
Background
Hospitals in the US rely, in large part on reimbursements from the Government. A number of years ago, the federal government came up with a system called HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems). It is a patient satisfaction survey that is required by CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all hospitals in the United States. The Survey is for adult inpatients and is used to determine patient satisfaction. In turn, hospital reimbursements are adjusted up or down depending on how satisfied their patients are.
A swing of one tier on theHCAHPS ratings scale can translate into a bonus or penalty of $5 million in annual reimbursement rates for a small community hospital. For a large health system, the numbers are significantly higher.
Improving Patient Satisfaction Scores
One of the goals of the "OnTimeCare" application, built by Patient Innovations using Alpha Anywhere, is to help hospitals and large practice groups improve their HCAHPS and CAHPS scores. In hospitals, OnTimeCare® raises employee satisfaction, too, which further improves patient satisfaction. Click here for a link to a document describing the features of a very innovative Alpha Anywhere IOT mobile and web app built by Alpha partner – Patient Innovations. Highlights from the document include:
LOSE WAIT GAIN PATIENTS – THE ULTIMATE PATIENT EXPERIENCE SYSTEM
“OnTimeCare” (built in Alpha Anywhere) INTEGRATES WITH ALL EMR SYSTEMS. DESIGNED TO RAISE EMPLOYEE & PATIENT SATISFACTION
Research Links Waiting to Patient Experience
Higher Patient Experience Scores = Greater Reimbursements to Hospitals
In research designed to understand the factors that drive decreased patient experience – patient waiting time gets little attention from patient experience professionals. OnTimeCare’s Visit Interaction Manager® automatically detects location of patients, medical professionals and portable medical equipment. The system measures the interaction time between all three, and uses this to feed its SmartSchedule® module for more intelligent scheduling and throughput. This means the facility sees more patients and makes more money, yet doctors will actually be able to spend more quality time with each patient.
The SmartComm® component keeps patients engaged with their choice of text messages, emails or automated phone calls. It notifies patients of long waits so they can arrive closer to the time they’ll actually be seen. If they’re already in the waiting room, the system keeps them updated on wait times, or lets them switch to an available practitioner in the group.
SmartStandby® keeps the schedule full automatically – filling cancelations and anticipating and filling no-shows.
Visit Interaction Manager™ monitors the location of patients, clinical staff and portable equipment to save time.
Happy Nurses = Happy Patients
Nurses get frustrated spending hours looking for needed portable equipment, logging equipment repairs, and diverting patients to other hospitals. OnTimeCare® eliminates those issues. Perfect for Hospitals. Our Visit Interaction Manager™ keeps nurses –and all staff members – happier and more efficient. No more leaving patients in Radiology indefinitely because Transport forgets they were there.
Improve HCACHPS Scores
Happier, less frustrated nurses and clinical staff will mean more positive patient encounters.
And, with patients no longer waiting needlessly and not being kept informed or waiting indefinitely for transport, or waiting while nurses and technicians locate working portable equipment, they will also be happier and have a better patient experience.
The power, development speed and flexibility of Alpha Anywhere made it cost effective and rapid for Patient Innovations to innovate in the critical area of patient satisfaction – resulting in very tangible financial benefits for hospitals and clinics using our system – Ken Greenberg, CEO Patient Innovations Ken@patientinnovations.com
For a video of the app please email at richard@alphasoftware.com and put the words “Patient Innovations” in the subject.
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