More than 41% of people skipped medical care during the early months of the pandemic, according to the American Medical Association. To win back these missing consumers and improve outcomes, healthcare organizations are prioritizing patient experience.
One promising approach is to give consumers what they prize: more convenience, achieved through better care coordination.
Convenience Is Key
According to healthcare analytics company Press Ganey, more than half of people (54.5%) consider their healthcare journey to be difficult, a percentage that has increased since 2019 (50.4%). The majority of survey respondents describe convenience as an essential factor in their satisfaction with a healthcare provider.
Recent data from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey highlights consumers’ specific feelings about their outpatient experiences. Consumers scored physician practices the lowest for access, specifically for the lack of timely appointments, care, and information.
Based on our company’s experience with patient navigation, there are a number of other patient questions that influence their perceptions of healthcare convenience and care logistics, including:
- How long will I have to wait on the phone to schedule an appointment?
- Does the provider take my insurance?
- How long will I wait to see a specialist — days, weeks or months?
- If I’m in pain or feeling ill, can I see the provider today?
- How far is the provider from my home or workplace?
- How will I get to the appointment?
- Will I have to miss work?
- Can I schedule an appointment time that works for my caregiver and/or loved one?
- Will the provider speak my language?
Navigating Alone
For most consumers, the healthcare journey is self-navigated, and healthcare networks don’t always deliver a seamless experience. Because of the high rate of mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, many integrated delivery networks are still becoming truly integrated in areas ranging from technology to processes to patient experience.
Patients are left to complete the connections between primary care, specialists and ancillary care. A tech-savvy patient with a devastating diagnosis may spend significant time on multiple digital platforms for different providers. A person who lacks online access may stay on the telephone, waiting on hold.
Improving Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare
Care coordination, completed by patient navigators, which we call Care Concierges, makes a significant difference to both patient satisfaction and retention, as documented by decades of research. With the patient as their north star, navigators focus on removing barriers to timely care, while coordinating all aspects of care.
Avoid unnecessary emergency department visits. For many patients, the emergency department (ED) continues to be their main source of primary care. Nearly half of ED visits happen because patients couldn’t get an appointment with their regular doctor, as documented by the Commonwealth Fund, or they do not have a designated primary care physician.
Care coordination significantly reduces ED returns. At Care Continuity, our own data shows that navigated patients have far lower rates of ED bouncebacks, including a 24% reduction in 0-7 day ED returns, and a 13% reduction in 0-30 day ED returns.
Establish a primary care relationship. Fewer and fewer Americans have a primary care doctor each year. While a patient may receive a referral to primary care following an ED visit, it can be difficult for hospital case management teams to have the bandwidth to follow up.
When an integrated delivery network has a dedicated care coordination team, patients can be guided to establish a primary care relationship, supporting improved care continuity. The consumer can begin to receive preventive care on a regular basis, preventing a series of return visits to the ED. Having a primary care doctor helps to retain patients within the healthcare network. Patients generally rate their primary care providers well in terms of the doctor-patient relationship, leading to positive associations with the health system and its brand.
Care Continuity navigators help thousands of patients establish new primary care and specialist relationships, supporting greater network fidelity for healthcare organizations. In fact, we have an 80% success rate in connecting unattached patients with network aligned physicians.
Prevent no-shows. Missing an appointment hurts patient satisfaction, both for the person who missed the appointment, and by increasing overall wait times for appointments.
- About $150B is spent in the U.S. per year on missed medical appointments, as reported in Forbes.
- Research has shown that forgetting the appointment and miscommunication are two top reasons for patient no-shows.
By working closely with patients on appointment scheduling and logistics, Care Continuity reduces no-shows to 8%, a significant improvement from a rate that varies across the healthcare industry but is often in the double digits.
Streamline referrals. The referral process is often a missed opportunity to build patient loyalty.
- A large academic health system recently analyzed referrals across 103,737 attempts and found that only 34.8% resulted in a documented appointment.
- Providers estimate that only four in ten patients leave their office with a scheduled referral, as reported in Modern Healthcare.
- Only 28% of doctors recommended several providers, contributing to delays in patient access to a specialist.
- Patients report feelings of uncertainty and powerlessness when waiting to see a specialist.
Care coordination has a proven track record of easing and accelerating the referral and treatment process for patients. Patient navigators do the heavy lifting of follow-up calls and assessing provider availability, minimizing stress for patients. We schedule 71% of follow-up appointments within seven days post-discharge, supporting patient satisfaction and clinical quality.
Guide patients through chronic disease management. Demographic changes and the post-pandemic environment mean that the number of consumers with chronic conditions will continue to grow. With the transition to value-based care, healthcare systems have an opportunity to help consumers proactively manage their health.
Care coordination has already proven its worth in helping patients manage many of the most common and most difficult chronic conditions. The improvements for patients relate not only to convenience, but to their own sense of empowerment.
When patients are at their most vulnerable, care coordination removes barriers and helps them access timely, appropriate care, earning their loyalty in return. Besides satisfying patients, care coordination delivers business rewards for healthcare organizations, including proven ROI through increased network utilization setting a foundation for value-based care.
How Care Continuity Strengthens Patient Satisfaction
Care Continuity offers healthcare organizations a patient navigation solution that’s one part tech, one part human. Our cloud-based care coordination software connects independent EMR systems to share patient data in real-time across the entire ecosystem, while our Care Concierge team coordinates all necessary appointments and care transitions. Care Navigator support includes:
- Scheduling follow-up appointments
- Finding network-aligned physicians and/or specialists
- Coordinating with Home Health, SNF, LTAC, etc.
- Arranging transportation
- Scheduling ancillary services
- Assisting with referral coordination
- Providing clinical documentation to stakeholders
- Status check-ins
- Medication adherence
As a result, our healthcare customers achieve measurable improvements in patient experience and retention. We invite you to learn more about how we can help your organization achieve measurable improvements in patient experience and retention.
