As the first quarter of the new year draws to a close, hospital leaders are faced with a unique opportunity to reset and re-energize their organizational goals and objectives. David Harvey, Chief Executive Officer of Panda Health, recently shared his insights with Chief Healthcare Executive, laying out how digital health solutions can help support six key objectives for hospitals in 2023.
After a rough past two years, hospital leaders are going into the new year with a strong focus on the bottom line. Resources such as claims management solutions and prior authorization tools can help speed efficiencies in interacting with payers, reducing costs, and optimizing processes; while price estimation/transparency tools and digital payment solutions can help patients become fully aware of costs associated with their care in advance and facilitate quick and easy payments, improving patient satisfaction and margins over time.
Staffing shortages are also top-of-mind for many executives, with the majority citing staff recruiting and retention as a key strategic priority. Leveraging technology such as digital patient intake and virtual assistants could help ease administrative burdens and free clinicians to spend more time providing care. Patient engagement and loyalty can also be enhanced as a hedge against increasing competition through unified patient messaging, customer relationship management, and price transparency tools, thereby increasing patient retention and referrals.
Virtual care tools that allow remote patient monitoring, hospital at home, and telehealth solutions ensure that hospitals can meet patients where they are at, keeping pace with the significant changes that have occurred since 2020. Healthcare equity and focus on social determinants of health (SDOH) can benefit from digital tools as well, such as patient engagement solutions focused on outreach to underserved populations, digital intake tools that gather SDOH-related insights, and analytics solutions that can identify equity gaps. Lastly, electronic health record (EHR) integrations can help providers overcome the challenges of exchanging clinical and operational data across the enterprise.
Healthcare has traditionally lagged behind other industries in digital transformation, but the past few years have driven it to catch up at a rapid pace, with thousands of vendors and solutions hitting the market in recent times. By carefully evaluating, selecting, and integrating digital health solutions, care providers can close the gap, shore up their financial situation, and better satisfy employees and patients alike.
