Patient engagement is an important theme for many clinicians and hospital leaders. Healthcare is a competitive marketplace where patients have several choices about which doctors to see and which clinics to visit.
The term “patient engagement” is itself somewhat confusing and often misused. It describes everything from patient portals to social media to gadgets that let patients actively participate in their own health and wellness.
Unfortunately, many organizations view their patient portals and websites as both the strategy and the answer for engaging patients in their own health outcomes. That is a problem, because these options are passive roads that lead to where you want to go. Without ongoing, active triggers and motivations for positive patient behavior, the roads remain “the road not taken” (pardon the pun at Robert Frost’s expense).
The right mobile communication tool can set a practice or a clinician apart. It lets the patient combine her knowledge, skills and willingness to manage her own health with the right interventions to nudge positive behavior and outcomes.
Meet Buzz
With Buzz, a HIPAA-secure communication platform, the days of faxing documents, flipping through a Rolodex and playing phone tag through voicemail are over. Buzz is one integrated solution for sharing documents, text and secure calls, encrypted in transit and at rest. As a clinician your interest is caring for patients and families. This tool not only makes that easier, it makes it better.
Keeping patients and families engaged through a mobile platform is a no-brainer. Buzz lets you stay connected with patients throughout their care, which improves engagement and patient satisfaction. It improves the integration of care by connecting the care team, which benefits patients as they receive better, more coordinated care. Simply put, more engaged patients lead to better outcomes.
Let’s dive in with some details
A hospital admission involves three key processes: admission, hospital stay and discharge. Buzz helps each in a different but meaningful way.
Admission
- Integrating admission communication between physicians, charge nurses, and emergency department to floor hand-offs
- Updating patients and families on reasons for admission, location in the hospital and patient status
- Reaching specialists for consultations through a mobile platform
Hospital stay
- Coordinating care between nurses, physicians, residents, physical and respiratory therapists, and every other member of the care team
- Updating the patient’s family on clinical progress and discharge planning
- Improving hand-offs between hospitalists and coordination across teaching teams
Discharge
- Communicating with skilled nursing facilities, care coordinators and primary care physicians
- Handling discharge documents and insurance authorization forms
- Updating the family on discharge plans
With Buzz we strive to make life better for both clinicians and patients. Mobility is a reality in many other industries, and it is about time healthcare caught up through responsible, engaging and secure technology.