Streamlining the Patient Journey

The patient journey is a frequent topic of conversation in healthcare today. How a patient feels about their journey with a practice will determine their satisfaction and perhaps their level of engagement with their care. There are three parts to any patient journey: pre-visit, visit, and post-visit. Let’s start by looking at the pre-visit process.

What is the patient journey?

The patient journey is a continuous process that involves every event a patient experiences over the course of their care with a particular provider or healthcare organization. Everyone who has contact with a patient can impact their patient journey. The patient journey begins when a patient decides to seek care and completes a cycle with final billing.

What happens in the pre-visit portion of the patient journey?

The pre-visit part of the patient’s journey starts when the patient decides to seek out medical care and continues to the point right before their visit begins. Within this period, a patient will search for and research providers to find the best match, schedule their appointment, go through the registration process, have their eligibility verified and secure any authorizations needed, and check-in for their appointment. Throughout this whole process, everyone is working together to make sure there are no barriers to care access and that reimbursement will be taken care of accurately.

How can you streamline the pre-visit process?

Today’s patients prioritize convenience, so implementing pre-visit solutions to make the process easier on patients will go a long way in increasing engagement and satisfaction.

1. Practice Marketing When patients are searching for providers, they are going online. To attract patients, you’ll need an attractive website that is easy to navigate and clearly tells your practice’s story. It’s also important to consider your online reputation. Aside from practice website’s the other place patients research providers is review websites. Whether you realize it or not, you likely have a presence on these websites and if you aren’t managing the narrative, it may not be an attractive one. Taking the steps to make sure your online presence is positive is imperative to starting off the pre-visit process on the right foot.
2. Online Scheduling Remember, convenience is of prime importance to today’s patients, and the ability to schedule an appointment online without having to call a practice and sit on hold is the utmost of convenience. Don’t discount the importance of this.
3. Appointment Reminders Your patients are busy; make sure they aren’t too busy to remember to attend their appointment by providing a reminder for them. To do this in the most convenient way possible, allow the patient to choose the best way to be contacted, whether phone, text, or email, and use that method to reach them.
4. Digital Intake Traditionally, patients have had to arrive early for their appointment and spend time in the waiting room with a clipboard full of forms. This can be frustrating for patients and can lead to less than accurate information. To combat these concerns, utilize digital intake. Send patients a link before their appointment and allow them to complete their registration and check-in at their convenience. This is going to increase satisfaction and ensure that the information that’s going into the patient’s chart is correct.

The pre-visit portion of the patient’s journey will set the tone for the entirety of that patient’s experience. The good news is that your practice can implement solutions that will create a convenient and satisfactory patient journey right from the start, and MicroMD is here to help. From practice marketing to online scheduling, appointment reminders, and digital intake, we have the tools you need to streamline your patient’s journey.

If you’re ready to learn more or get started, visit our Solutions Central Patient Engagement page or call 1-800-624-8832.