Today's patients are getting increasingly proficient at using technology, which opens doors of opportunity to private practice physicians who want to drive more business to their facility. As these patients become more sophisticated with personal computers, smartphones, the latest software, and much more, they are aware of the pool of options at their disposal, changing their expectations. For this reason, even established medical practices may need to consider how to run a tech-savvy private practice to maintain current patient volume and streamline internal processes more effectively.

The Value of Wearable Technology

In addition to the changes technology is making to consumer expectations, there is also increasing concern for preventative medicine as the value-based care reimbursement model recognizes that many health conditions are avoidable. Wearable technology like Fitbits and smartwatches are collecting data on patients with the ability to send a user's health information to a doctor in real-time.

Patients want to communicate with their physicians electronically whenever possible because they do not always have time to drive to their doctor's facility and sit in a waiting room. They also want electronic access to their health records and scheduled appointments at their fingertips so they can view this information in between life's distractions. Doctors who take advantage of this technology will drive more patients to their practice and save money in the process. Simply encouraging your patients to utilize these tools, and making your office setup to communicate with patients through these means will make your office much more attractive to new people.

Electronic Communication Tools

Allowing your patients to communicate with you electronically will not only help each of you touch base more often, but thanks to automation, it will also save time and money. The more often you communicate with your patients, the better you will understand their needs, and this will increase patient satisfaction, which will bring you more business for several reasons.

Private practices launch email marketing campaigns that are usually meant to target specific audiences or re-connect with past patients.

As you get to know your patients better, you can learn how they want to be addressed in the email, and this added personal touch can form lasting doctor-patient relationships.

Appointment reminders are an electronic communication tool that will improve your efficiency and require less time on the phone. These reminders can be sent via text, email, or voice call. This will not only save you time, but it will reduce your missed appointments and therefore increase revenue.

There are consumer-friendly options that allow you to communicate with your patients electronically to facilitate faster payments. By engaging your patients with digital options and customized billing communications, they will not only understand what they owe but will have the convenience of paying their bills either before or aftercare.

By communicating with your patients electronically, you can answer their questions asynchronously, providing better support to patients seeking guidance beyond the limits of face-to-face communication.

Sometimes patients will have questions for you that they do not want to put off until their next visit. Other times you may want to schedule visits based on the questions they are asking you. You will find that patients would rather send you a secure message than make a phone call even during office hours.

Visual voicemail is a form of electronic communication that will protect you against HIPAA violations. This technology works when a patient leaves you a voicemail that you cannot listen to in private.

Visual voicemail is a form of AI that automatically transcribes a voicemail into text so that you can read the message quickly instead of taking the time to listen to it. Taking advantage of this technology also saves you time by allowing you to access your messages from beyond your desk on any digital device.

At-Home Monitoring

Some of your patients may need daily monitoring to provide them with better outcomes. With at-home monitoring, both you and your patient will receive efficient data to keep you up to date on their condition.

This happens daily and in real-time, and it even helps the patient manage their medications.

This technology helps the patient and gives you the satisfaction of knowing you are providing quality care. You will also be incentivized financially because at-home monitoring offers you additional opportunities to generate new revenue between visits, and all of this is HIPAA compliant.

Telemedicine

Most consumers want to use telemedicine services, and as time moves forward, that percentage is increasing. Patients are not only becoming comfortable with telemedicine, but they prefer it to a visit at your facility. This technology became widely used in 2020 because of the

Covid-19 pandemic, and now health care providers and their patients are increasingly supportive of it because of the cost and time savings on both sides.

In addition to saving you time and money, telemedicine will allow you to reach more patients because of the convenience it brings. This is just one more way that patient satisfaction can be increased, and the happier you can keep your patients, the more loyalty they will show to your practice. Bringing more patients to their practice is one of the most important reasons doctors are learning how to tun a tech-savvy private practice.

Electronic Health Records

By using Electronic Health Records (EHR), you will be able to track, manage and coordinate your patients' care. This is because you will understand your patient's history and current condition more efficiently, which will enable you to manage their care better, including the prescriptions you write. You will also eliminate duplicate records and free up office space by reducing the need for file cabinets.

Electronic Health Records will also bring your practice more revenue by decreasing claims denial and the need for resubmissions. If your EHR is cloud-based, you will be able to keep your front office, clinical, and outsourced billing teams on the same page. This will allow for more transparency from the patient's history to capture a revenue event to the billing coding and filing of the claim. This way, your claims will be sent to a properly bundled provider with an informative background to validate your billing codes, which will give your revenue cycle integrity.

The Bottom Line

Modernizing your practice with technology-driven options ensures that patients have more accessibility when it comes to managing their health. It also streamlines processes that save your practice valuable time and money.