Meet the rising bar for virtual patient experience

While millions of patients have now tried telehealth, the majority of patients still have not. Health care organizations can take advantage of this opportunity by ensuring that patients’ initial virtual visit with their health system is a positive one.

Educate patients on when and how to use virtual care

Some patients choose the familiarity of in-person care because they don’t know if telehealth can appropriately address their clinical concern. Now is the time to capitalize on provider recognition by leveraging scheduling staff and clinicians to upsell virtual care—before your competitors. Proactively inform patients about your virtual offerings and when to schedule a virtual visit. For example, have clinicians suggest: “let’s make our next visit virtual.”

Don’t let patient experience be a victim of technology mishaps

Virtual visits have unique logistical complexities—technology being the biggest. While on-demand technical support is critical for solving challenges in-the-moment, best-in-class organizations pre-empt technical challenges and avoid them in the first place. At a baseline, proactively confirm with patients that they have the required technology for a virtual visit, such as broadband internet and a video-enabled device, and that they can access the platform themselves or with the help of a caregiver. Additional proactive technical support can include automated reminders or pre-visit calls from staff to support app installation, as well as emailed instructions with visuals on how to access the platform and test hardware.

Avoid surprises by setting patient expectations in advance

Patients know the sequence of events and what to expect for an in-person visit, but that’s not always the case for virtual visits. Proactive patient education increases patient readiness for virtual care and helps patients take virtual visits as seriously as in-person. Effective pre-visit education includes:

• Outlining the step-by-step process for a virtual visit, such as what to expect from the care team, expected visit wait times, the virtual rooming process, appointment length, and typical follow-up steps.
• Sharing a checklist of what patients need to do beforehand, such as submitting information, and completing labs or tests.
• Clarifying what patients need on hand during the visit, and if they or a caregiver might be asked to conduct any self tests.
• Providing cost transparency for virtual visits by confirming that it is a billable service just like in-person care, and confirming insurance.

The bar for telehealth convenience is already rising. For example, while many patients are willing to wait 30 minutes or more for an in-office visit, many clinical executives have noticed that few patients are willing to wait even 10 minutes for a virtual visit. To keep up with rising expectations for timeliness and convenience, organizations must continue to hone virtual visit efficiency.

Maximize virtual visit time with patients

Most virtual visits are shorter than in-person visits, putting a higher premium on how clinicians use the time with patients. To use virtual visit time most efficiently:

• Ensure waiting patients don’t drop off. Wait time transparency is just as important—if not more—for virtual visits as it is for in-person visits. During patient check-in and virtual rooming, inform patients when clinicians are running late.
• Without downtime in a waiting room, collect patient information in advance of virtual visits, such as patients’ medication lists . That way, clinicians can spend time asking more in-depth questions during the visit itself.
• Encourage clinicians to collaboratively set the visit agenda with patients at the onset to ensure time is spent on patients’ main concern. Remind patients that follow-up virtual visits can be faster to schedule than in-person for additional concerns they want to address.

Ensure visit follow-up is actionable and timely

Respecting patients’ time continues in the hours after a visit. Organizations can differentiate themselves by providing timely, actionable follow-up that serves as both a service touch and patient activation tactic. For example:

1. At the end of the visit, have MAs or RNs close out the visit with patient education and clear next steps, such as scheduling a follow-up.
2. Post-visit, send a digitally-enabled summary, which outlines the care team’s clinical guidance and provides a selection of supporting resources that patients can reference on demand, such as digital support apps, patient education materials, decision aids, or information about a remote patient monitoring program.
3. At a later date, build in a quick touchpoint, such as a call or email, to check-in on patients’ status (e.g., “are you feeling better?” or “have your symptoms improved?”) and share appropriate resources and next steps.

Prioritize patients who could most benefit from the telehealth convenience factor

Many organizations have established clinical criteria to determine care that can be provided virtually, and to ensure that virtual visits are a valuable use of both clinician and patient time. However, relying on clinical appropriateness alone can inadvertently block access to virtual visits for populations who could benefit from the telehealth convenience factor the most.

Virtual visits can be the right option if the patient can’t otherwise get in-person care. A virtual visit is better than no care at all. Consider prioritizing patients:

• Who are frequent no shows for in-person care
• With limited access to transportation
• Whose work schedules or caregiving responsibilities prevent them from accessing in-person clinic hours

Telehealth has the potential to radically reimagine the patient-provider relationship in ways that can inflect patient experience. This aspect of telehealth is where the bar for virtual patient experience will rise the most long-term, and where health care organizations have a running start compared to competitors, given their existing patient relationships.

Highlighted below are some emerging ideas for how virtual visits can transform the patient-provider relationship. While organizations do not need to pursue all at once, the most successful will not simply recreate an in-person visit virtually, but will take advantage of what virtual visits can uniquely offer.

Expand virtual visits beyond one-on-one interactions

Because virtual care overcomes access barriers due to travel time and physical distance, it doesn’t just make care more convenient for patients, but for their family members and caregivers to join visits as well. For example, it’s easier for a family member to join a therapy session, or a caregiver to receive instructions from the clinician directly and ask clarifying questions live. Not to mention, the broader care team (including specialists) can join visits to supplement clinical and psychosocial information to collaboratively inform the care plan—alleviating some of the burden of care coordination on patients and families.

Build a holistic understanding of patients’ day-to-day

Despite the physical distance, virtual visits hold the potential for a radically more personal visit, harkening back to the days of the physician house visit—albeit virtually. Similar to house visits, virtual visits can reduce the patient-provider power imbalance and create a more relaxed care experience for patients in the comfort of their home.

Virtual visits can also unlock intel that clinicians cannot discern from the clinic or exam room. When used purposefully, virtual visits can help clinicians understand how patients’ clinical conditions intersect with their daily lives. For example, a physician, pharmacist, or care manager can ascertain a wealth of new information by going through a medicine cabinet, refrigerator, or areas with safety concerns in real-time with their patients virtually.

Co-create a more actionable patient medical record

As organizations move from analog data entry to digital data collection, there is an increased opportunity to use virtual channels to co-create medical records with patients. Some organizations have already opened medical records to patients to flag errors and add information. Virtual pre-visit data collection presents an opportunity to radically expand this practice. And, by providing new or corrected information ahead of the visit, patients can equip clinicians with more actionable information at the point of care.

Moving forward, remote monitoring tools will provide even more patient data (e.g., heart rate, BP, lifestyle, mental health), giving clinicians a deeper understanding of patients’ daily lives. Organizations that innovate and seamlessly integrate these tools into the medical record will be best positioned to not only retain patients, but deliver better care anticipating patients’ needs, remotely driving personalized care decisions, and engaging patients in sustained behavior change.