Vanderbilt’s latest study highlighted the impact of Artera for streamlining post-discharge communication, empowering care teams and delivering measurable results. This blog will explore the key elements of Vanderbilt’s initiative, highlighting why post-discharge communication is vital, how the DCC utilized Artera and the outcomes that followed. By the end, you’ll gain actionable insights into how your healthcare organization can adopt these strategies to improve both clinical outcomes and operational efficiency.

About the Study

Vanderbilt University Hospital’s Discharge Care Center (DCC) was born from a desire to bridge the critical gap between inpatient care and at-home recovery. Hospitals frequently encounter unplanned hospital readmissions, often caused by breakdowns in communication and follow-up after discharge. The DCC was designed as a solution to this, leveraging both specialized personnel and technology to address patients’ post-discharge needs effectively.

Key elements of the DCC initiative included a multidisciplinary care coordination team, automated risk-based patient monitoring and a post-discharge communication strategy tailored to the diverse needs of Vanderbilt’s patient population. Over two years (October 2021 – October 2023), the DCC provided follow-up care for more than 80,000 discharges and intervened in over 57,000 critical cases. With a sustained reduction in the hospital’s 30-day readmission rates—from 10.6% to 9.9%—the program proved to be a resounding success.

But what truly set Vanderbilt apart was its emphasis on leveraging Artera, a robust patient communication platform, for post-discharge communication. Artera made these outcomes possible by automating outreach, providing real-time insights and enabling seamless communication with patients, all while reducing operational burdens on hospital staff.

The Importance of Post-Discharge Communication

Discharge is a pivotal moment in the patient care continuum. For patients, it marks the shift from the structured support of a hospital stay to self-directed care at home. For hospitals, it represents an opportunity to ensure continuity of care and minimize preventable readmissions.

Despite the critical nature of clear, effective communication with patients post-discharge, it is often overlooked. Here are some ways post-discharge communication can bridge the gaps:

1. Enhancing Patient Safety: Automated follow-ups help identify issues like medication errors, unmanaged symptoms or unfulfilled home-care needs before they escalate.
2. Empowering Patients: Patients are more likely to adhere to care plans when they feel supported. Timely reminders about medications, follow-up appointments and lifestyle changes can make a measurable difference.
3. Reducing Operational Costs: Avoiding readmissions not only spares patients the physical and mental burden of returning to the hospital, but also significantly reduces financial penalties for hospitals under value-based care models.

How Vanderbilt Used Artera for Post-Discharge Communication

Artera was the technological backbone supporting Vanderbilt’s Discharge Care Center for automated communication. In the study, the automated texting and calling continued throughout the first 30 days post-discharge, with standard content for all patients. Here’s how the platform powered post-discharge communication:

• Day 0: The initial automated text message is sent 1 hour after the discharge order is placed. For patients indicating a preference for a telephone call, the first call is placed the following day.
• Day 1 Post-Discharge: Receive a text message about medications
• Day 2 Post-Discharge: Receive a message inquiring about outpatient follow-up
• Day 3 Post-Discharge: Receive a message verifying receipt of any clinician-ordered durable medical equipment or home health services.

To monitor for new or worsening symptoms, the text messages continued every 2 to 3 days for the first 15 days, followed by every 5 days, for a total of 12 messages across 30 days. If the patient responded to the texts or calls indicating they had a need, two-way communication was initiated. Depending on the type and complexity of help needed, concerns were then addressed by the Triage Team or the Care Coordination Team.

Key Findings from Vanderbilt’s Study

The Discharge Care Center (DCC) at Vanderbilt University Hospital, enhanced by Artera’s automated communication tools, addressed over 80,000 hospital discharges during its first two years. This initiative reduced the hospital’s 30-day unplanned readmission rate from 10.6% to 9.9%, representing a 6.6% relative reduction in just two years. With an average readmission cost of $15,200 per occurrence, this reduction translated into avoiding approximately $2.9 million annually in healthcare costs.

According to the authors of the study, “Applying the readmission rate reduction (10.6% to 9.9%) to our postintervention population, we estimate that there was an average of 197 fewer readmissions per year at our hospital during this 2-year period, compared with the period before the program rollout.”

Artera played a central role in this success. Its automated messaging capabilities allowed for timely and personalized follow-up with patients, enabling proactive outreach and rapid responses to patient needs. Over 97% of discharged patients remained engaged with the DCC program beyond the first message, with 73% actively participating throughout the entire 30-day period. These interactions fostered trust, improved adherence to care plans and flagged potential complications early.

Here are other standout metrics from the study:

• 57,352 clinically relevant interventions were carried out post-discharge.
• 29% of discharges required intervention, with higher rates for patients categorized as high-risk.
• The program handled more than 3,200 patients at any given time, highlighting its scalability and efficiency.

Through collaborations between DCC’s Triage Team and Care Coordination Team, Vanderbilt managed to prioritize resources effectively and provide personalized, round-the-clock care to discharged patients.

A Scalable Model for Healthcare Organizations

Vanderbilt’s implementation demonstrates how a combination of automation and human intervention can create a robust post-discharge care strategy. Here are some elements other hospitals can emulate:

1. Automation with Personalization

By automating routine follow-ups, Vanderbilt allowed clinical staff to concentrate on complex cases requiring hands-on care. Text message prompts about medication adherence or follow-up visits served as low-cost yet high-impact interventions.

2. Risk-Stratified Care

Using a predictive algorithm, Vanderbilt identified high-risk patients who received additional attention, such as personalized calls. This targeted approach ensured that resources were allocated efficiently, maximizing the DCC’s impact.

3. Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The program’s Triage Team (RNs responding to immediate patient concerns) and Care Coordination Team (pharmacists and social workers addressing deeper needs) worked seamlessly to prevent gaps in care.

4. Continuous Feedback Loops

Regular quality review meetings allowed staff to adapt the program dynamically based on identified gaps or patient feedback, ensuring continuous improvement.

Bringing It All Together

Vanderbilt’s use of Artera demonstrates that when healthcare organizations prioritize post-discharge communication, the results are profound. Lower readmission rates, enhanced patient safety and improved satisfaction aren’t just achievable––they’re actionable goals for hospitals willing to innovate. To read the full Vanderbilt University Hospital study, check it out here.

If your organization is grappling with high readmissions or patient satisfaction challenges, adopting a similar strategy could be transformational. By leveraging technology for personalized, proactive care, hospitals can redefine what it means to support patients beyond the bedside.

Are you ready to take the first step in improving post-discharge outcomes? Explore how automated communication tools like Artera Care Navigator can complement your existing operations and set a new standard of care.

The post How Vanderbilt University Hospital Tackled Readmission Rates By Leveraging Artera for Post-Discharge Communication appeared first on Artera.

This post explores what Expanse Patient Connect is, how MEDITECH customers can strategically scale it across service lines and where you can learn more to maximize its benefits.

What is Expanse Patient Connect, Powered by Artera?

MEDITECH’s communication hub – Expanse Patient Connect, Powered by Artera – enables conversational SMS messaging between healthcare organizations and their patients. Expanse Patient Connect, the only fully integrated solution with MEDITECH’s MyHealth patient portal, is leveraged by customers to:

• Keep patients and their families connected to their care
• Improve provider efficiency
• Reduce staff workload

In addition to secure two-way messaging, some key features within Expanse Patient Connect include broadcast and campaign messaging, virtual waiting rooms, multilingual translations and reminders in over 100+ languages, pre-registration and portal reminders, instant booking automations, AI Virtual Agents and more.

By connecting your organization and patients seamlessly, Expanse Patient Connect not only builds patient loyalty but also improves internal workflows, reduces appointment no-shows and ultimately enhances your bottom line.

Why Should You Scale Expanse Patient Connect? 

Effective patient engagement begins and ends with seamless communication, extending across every aspect of an organization and every stage of the patient journey. If you’ve already implemented Expanse Patient Connect for a specific use case, now is the time to maximize your investment. By fully leveraging the platform, you can enhance your return on investment while driving meaningful improvements in patient engagement and overall patient experience.

Scaling Expanse Patient Connect across an organization allows for a seamless and consistent communication strategy that improves patient experiences and operational efficiency. By expanding its use, organizations can unify messaging, reduce manual administrative tasks and ensure that every service line leverages the full potential of automated communication tools. This holistic adoption fosters better engagement at every stage of the patient journey, from appointment reminders to post-care follow-ups, ultimately driving satisfaction and loyalty while optimizing internal workflows.

Our team of experts and customer service teams stand ready to help MEDITECH customers scale and deploy Expanse Patient Connect. To this day, we have helped over 100 organizations go live with Expanse Patient Connect…and we have learned some lessons from a variety of customer deployments along the way.

How to Effectively Scale Expanse Patient Connect at Your Organization

Scaling a powerful solution like Expanse Patient Connect requires thoughtful planning and a phased approach. Here’s how MEDITECH customers can effectively scale it across their organization:

1. Start with a Single Service Line (Pilot) 

Rather than overwhelming your team with a full-scale rollout, begin with a single service line to understand the platform’s functionalities better. This allows for identifying and addressing challenges before scaling further. 

2. Customize Communication 

One of the unique advantages of Expanse Patient Connect is its flexibility. Healthcare providers can tailor workflows and communication styles to meet the unique needs of each service line. Consider standardizing operational workflows while customizing patient-facing communication, such as:

• Imaging Services: Include referral status updates and pre-authorization details, ensuring patients are informed from the start.
• Endoscopy Services: Deliver detailed, specialty-specific preparatory instructions two days before the procedure.

Customizing content this way not only improves patient satisfaction but also ensures operational efficiency.

3. Prepare to Deploy Across New Service Lines  

a. Build a Strong Training Program

Effective scaling requires buy-in from staff, and a robust training program plays a critical role. Develop a preceptor program within your clinics to empower team members with technical training. Many of our customers ensure each specialty has at least one lead scheduler trained on Expanse Patient Connect. These lead schedulers served as in-house experts, cascading knowledge to their teams.

Consistent check-ins with staff are equally important. Encourage input and feedback to constantly refine and optimize platform use.

b. Standardize While Allowing for Adaptability

A balanced approach to standardization ensures that processes are consistent while leaving room to address the unique needs of various departments. For example:

• Standardize IT workflows for platform integration across all service lines.
• Customize messaging frequency based on the specific requirements of a department or specialty.

This approach avoids one-size-fits-all solutions and allows departments to operate efficiently while still catering to their unique challenges.

4. Deploy Across New Service Lines 

You are now well-positioned to deploy Expanse Patient Connect across new service lines. With proven success in the pilot and current operations, the foundation has been set to scale and adapt to other areas, bringing the same level of innovation and efficiency.

5. Expand to Additional Use Cases Gradually

Once you’ve successfully implemented the system for various service lines, consider expanding to additional use cases:

• Enhance referral communication for external facilities.
• Leverage patient surveys for marketing insights to understand patient preferences.
• Provide real-time facility maps for larger campuses to improve navigation.
• Conduct targeted population health & preventative care outreach to close gaps in care
• Follow up with patients who have outstanding balances to recoup revenue

This gradual expansion ensures sustainable growth while maintaining system performance and employee confidence.

6. Use Feedback to Continuously Improve

The success of Expanse Patient Connect relies on iterative improvements. Regularly collect feedback from staff and patients to identify areas for optimization, whether it’s improving user-friendliness, enhancing communication templates, or introducing new functionalities.

MEDITECH customers have found immense value in soliciting feedback through regular check-ins with staff. This ensures the system evolves to meet the needs of both users and patients effectively.

Unlock the Full Potential of Expanse Patient Connect

Scaling Expanse Patient Connect is a process that requires strategy, training and customization. By adopting a phased approach, you can successfully integrate this platform across your organization, ensuring both patient and staff satisfaction.

Scaling patient communication tools like Expanse Patient Connect is more than just an operational improvement; it’s an investment in better healthcare experiences for everyone.

To get started and take your patient communication strategy to the next level, visit MEDITECH’s Expanse Patient Connect. You’ll find resources, examples and guidance to help make your rollout smooth and impactful.

The post How To Unlock the Full Potential of MEDITECH’S Expanse Patient Connect, Powered by Artera appeared first on Artera.

The consequence? Patients are slipping through the cracks. This is not only problematic for health outcomes but can also lead to increases in readmissions, lower HCAHPS scores and financial penalties. The reality is that U.S. hospitals experience an average 15 percent readmission rate, costing Medicare an estimated $26 billion annually. Hospitals performing poorly in the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (“HRRP”) can be penalized up to 3% of overall Medicare revenue.

In a recent fireside chat at Artera Heartbeat’24, renowned leaders from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Houston Methodist provided insights into their distinct approaches to post-discharge communication and the transformative role Artera played in their journey. Hosted by Meg Aranow, Artera Advisor, the fireside chat featured Ashley Trambley, Director, Discharge Care Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Theresa Pinn-Kirkland, Nursing Supervisor, Post-Discharge Care Manager at Houston Methodist.

Getting Started: Unique Approaches to Post-Discharge Communication 

While both Vanderbilt and Houston Methodist prioritized implementing post-discharge communication in their respective organizations, they took quite different approaches. 

On the one hand, Vanderbilt’s journey began with a decentralized model of discharge phone calls, eventually integrating a gap care clinic to support patients during the vital 30-day post-discharge period. They ultimately started with a pilot of nurses cold calling – and through that, they identified a need for automation as there was no way to scale that and support the entire health system. They wanted to create 24/7, 365 access to a dedicated team for all post-discharge needs.

Their next iteration of the Discharge Care Center is what they’re calling the “Discharge Clinic,”  which helps review the network of transitions of care, identify congestion points within patient care and facilitate gap closures, as well as medication and therapy orders within the 30-day window after discharge.

On the other hand, Houston Methodist had something in place initially for post-discharge: robocalls. That being said, the health system was searching for a more robust platform that engaged patients more deeply: “While we had something in place, we were limited on when to reach out to patients, we played a lot of phone tag and it just wasn’t an ideal platform for us to use,” said Pinn-Kirkland.  When Houston Methodist moved to Artera, they added 18 units across seven hospitals, which meant more patient outreach. 

If You Encourage Patients to Reach Out, Be Prepared to Respond

Through the initial learnings of phone call outreach at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Trambley and her team felt passionate about improving the patient experience, and making it as seamless as possible for the patient: “If you’re going to call me and take time out of your day to respond to this technology that we put in place, I want to be able to answer your questions and navigate you. Our general motto is: if we don’t know the answer, we’ll find out who does. We’ll take the ownership. As a brand, if you can’t navigate your health system, how am I as a patient supposed to figure it out?” said Trambley. 

For Houston Methodist, staying within the confines of corporate hours, Monday through Friday, eight to five has been has been somewhat of a hurdle. Since many patients face issues in the evenings and weekends, it can be difficult to get back to patients in a timely manner – factors that can adversely impact patient outcomes, revisits and readmissions. Pinn-Kirkland believes more coverage or extended hours could help more patients.

Both institutions also tackle the issue of communication overload, with patients sometimes feeling bombarded by messages. Pinn-Kirkland suggests: “Patients feel like ‘I’m getting a lot of stuff bombarded at me, but when I have questions, I feel like nobody is there to be meaningfully helpful.’” Houston Methdoist is working hard to get better at this, routing patients to where they need to go, and even @ mentioning relevant team members in the Artera platform to streamline communications to the right department. 

Trambley emphasizes that every message sent to patients must be “value added.” Understanding one’s health system and staying attuned to other communications is essential. She notes, “Unified communications governance, especially as we venture into the clinical space, will be crucial. If the experience isn’t seamless and valuable, I would disengage as a patient.”

Achieving Clinical Excellence Through Post-Discharge Communication

Despite the hurdles, both organizations have seen significant results with their post-discharge programs.

“Anecdotally, we all know that if you do a good job with post-discharge care, if you’re helping patients transition home safely and closing these gaps, you end up with patients who are happier, who have better health outcomes, who don’t return to the hospital for unnecessary readmissions or revisits. But it’s hard to quantify that,” said Pinn-Kirkland.

This is why Houston Methodist participated in a study – featured in the British Medical Journal – called “Investigating Patient Engagement Associations Between A Postdischarge Texting Programme And Patient Experience, Readmission And Revisit Rates Outcomes.” The results were substantial, with the “engaged” cohort (patients who responded with 3 or more messages) reporting higher HCAHPS scores, 20 percent fewer revisit rates and 29 percent fewer overall readmissions.

Overall, it’s clear that investing in post-discharge communication is crucial for creating a seamless patient experience. The insights from Vanderbilt and Houston Methodist strongly emphasize the need for personalized communication to enhance patient satisfaction and engagement in the digital era.

As they look towards the future, both health systems are poised to further refine their communication strategies, acknowledging the evolving nature of healthcare. By marrying cutting-edge technology with empathetic care practices, these two forward-thinking institutions illustrate a future where post-discharge communication is both efficient and personalized, catering to both clinical and personal patient needs.

Want to learn more about how your organization can partner with Artera to improve clinical and post-discharge communication? Check out Artera Care Navigator, our new product that empowers Care Managers and Clinical Teams to bridge the gap between hospital and follow-up care.

The post Navigating Post-Discharge Communication and Achieving Clinical Excellence  appeared first on Artera.

According to our research, large health systems typically depend on more than 11 digital health vendors, each independently communicating with patients through various channels. Different departments often manage these interactions, resulting in a lack of awareness and coordination of messages that can hinder the patient experience.

In an effort to address these challenges, an Artera Heartbeat’24 panel brought together industry leaders to discuss innovative solutions for integrating vendors to create a thriving ecosystem and improve the patient experience. 

Hosted by Zach Wood, Chief Product Officer at Artera, the panel featured insights from Amy Partilla, Digital Engagement Consultant at Hackensack Meridian Health, Marcy McDonald, Nursing Informatics Manager at Uintah Basin Healthcare, Chelsea Simon, Chief Operating Officer of Advanced Pain Care, and David Wright, CEO and Founder of Disruptive Innovations.

These four panelists have rejected the status quo of fragmented, patient communications. Instead, they’re on a journey to create a thriving ecosystem of vendor partners with us at Artera, bringing them together to create a seamless patient and staff experience. Let’s take a closer look at the key takeaways from this insightful conversation.

Overcoming Common Obstacles

In an effort to address workforce challenges, reduce costs and improve quality of care, health systems across the nation are increasing their focus on digital and AI transformation. Despite their priorities changing, executing on this transformation has presented major headwinds and relatively slow progress. 

Conducted by McKinsey & Company, a recent survey of 200 health system executives noted the top three challenges to executing digital and AI transformation, including:

1. Budget or capital limitations
2. The digital switch is too challenging (from legacy systems)
3. Workforce not ready to implement new technology

Our Artera Heartbeat’24 panelists weighed in on the subject, agreeing that while vendor integration offers many benefits, the journey to successful integration is often filled with challenges, including: 

Navigating an Abundance of Vendors

For Partilla, one of her organization’s primary challenges is managing the extensive network of vendors they collaborate with. She expressed, “We work with numerous vendors and have multiple channels for communicating with patients. How can we gain a comprehensive overview and ensure we’re not overlapping or creating inefficiencies in our messaging?”

Wright echoed Partilla’s concerns, emphasizing that health systems should thoroughly evaluate every technology they’ve invested in to identify all capabilities, enabling the development of the most effective full-stack solution.

Addressing Legacy Systems

Many healthcare providers rely on legacy systems that are not easily compatible with modern communication technologies, and thus, make the digital switch more complex. Overcoming this challenge requires strategic planning and investment in scalable, interoperable solutions that can integrate seamlessly with existing systems.

Managing Change & Scalability 

Introducing new technology and communication workflows can be met with resistance from staff used to traditional processes. This can create a lack of standardization across a health system, as different departments and areas of the organization use tools differently. Effective change management is essential to ensure smooth transitions and adoption of new technologies. Training programs and clear communication can help staff adapt to the new system.

Success Stories: Creating a More Seamless Patient Experience

Despite various challenges in driving transformation forward, many healthcare organizations have successfully integrated vendor partners to streamline communications and improve the patient experience. Panelists at Artera Heartbeat’24 shared several success stories that offer valuable lessons for other organizations.

Hackensack Meridian Health’s Journey

Partilla discussed Hackensack Meridian Health’s success in reducing communication silos across its network and resolving overlap in messages, which we’re leaving patients confused. “It’s one of those small things that will make a big difference to patients. If they feel like you don’t know the right hand’s talking to the left hand, that’s not going to build confidence in your healthcare system.” By addressing these issues and streamlining communication through Artera Harmony, they have achieved greater consistency in messaging – especially within its surgery module and care gap programs. For example, Hackensack launched a mammography campaign that led to significant increases in booked appointments and revenue, while critically identifying early health issues for many patients.

Advanced Pain Care’s Approach

For Chelsea Simon of Advanced Pain Care, “simplicity for patients and staff was key” when first starting on the journey. By focusing on user-friendly online scheduling through Artera ScheduleCare and conversational messaging, Advanced Pain Care saw a significant decrease in phone call volume and an increase in automated text messages, in addition to greater patient satisfaction. These changes allowed them to reallocate staff resources more efficiently and improve the patient experience.

Uintah Basin Healthcare’s Approach

McDonald shared how Uintah Basin Healthcare, a rural provider, also wanted to start by keeping it relatively simple, as the organization’s providers tend to travel to many places within the community. Ultimately, through the strategic use of vendor integrations, they were able to ensure patients received the right messages at the right time – from one trusted phone number. This has been particularly beneficial in ensuring patients arrive at the correct locations for their appointments, ultimately saving time and resources.

Best Practices for Creating a Thriving Ecosystem

Creating a thriving ecosystem for seamless patient communication requires careful planning and execution. The panelists shared several best practices that can help healthcare organizations achieve this goal.

Start with Patient In Mind 

For Wright, looking at “people, process, technology and methodology across the entire patient experience life cycle is a crucial step” to start out. As the patient journey is not linear, health systems must better understand the intent of the patient, as well as their preferences, instead of merely recreating the same workflows. Take the time to build out and create new processes and workflows that benefit the patient and your operations. Leveraging AI is a potential tool to improve efficiencies. 

Leverage Data to Improve Outcomes

Technology plays a crucial role in effective vendor integration. By leveraging AI-driven solutions and data analytics, organizations can gain insights into patient preferences and communication patterns, enabling them to deliver personalized messages that resonate with patients. For example, Partilla and her team regularly review the Harmony Insights Dashboard to identify opportunities to reduce over-messaging and highlight trends.   

Establish Consistent & Branded Messaging

Organizations should aim to establish a consistent messaging strategy that aligns with their overall goals. This involves mapping out a cohesive framework for patient engagement and ensuring that every communication – regardless of what department it comes from – sounds consistent in tone and voice. 

Engaging Stakeholders Across Departments

Successful integration is a team effort that requires input from various departments. Engaging stakeholders from IT, patient access, care management and compliance ensures that all aspects of communication are considered and optimized for efficiency.

The Journey Continues 

While our panelists are still learning how to navigate their organizations’ patient communication strategies and ecosystems, they are confident their work is paying off toward a better staff and patient experience. By addressing common challenges and leveraging best practices, organizations can successfully integrate vendor partners and create a more streamlined, efficient communication ecosystem. This not only enhances patient experience but also delivers significant financial and operational benefits.

For healthcare providers looking to achieve these objectives, vendor consolidation is a key strategy that can unlock new opportunities for growth and innovation. By investing in the right technologies and engaging stakeholders across departments, organizations can create a patient communication strategy that truly makes a difference.

Explore more about how your organization can benefit from Artera Harmony and the Artera Marketplace. Together, we can create a future where patient communications are seamless, personalized and impactful.

The post Creating a Thriving Ecosystem for a Seamless Patient Experience appeared first on Artera.

This year, at Artera Heartbeat ’24, we celebrated the remarkable contributions of healthcare professionals and organizations who have utilized Artera in unique ways to make a significant impact in their communities. Gathered in Austin, Texas, we unveiled the winners of the prestigious Artera Heartie Awards to our customers on September 19, 2024. 

Let’s take a closer look at the inspiring stories behind this year’s Artera Heartie award winners.

What are the Artera Heartie Awards?

Before we dive into the winners, let’s first review what the Artera Heartie Awards truly are. 

The Artera Heartie Awards honor outstanding achievements in patient communication, focusing on innovation, community impact and patient connections. These awards are a testament to the dedication and hard work of our customers who strive to enhance the patient experience through the use of Artera. This year, the awards were divided into three categories: 

1. Community Impact
2. Connected Patient Experiences
3. Breaking Barriers

Community Impact

The Community Impact category celebrates customers who have achieved profound, data-driven results in their communities. This year, we had five remarkable winners – all with inspiring stories. 

Hackensack Meridian Health

Hackensack Meridian Health was honored with a Community Impact Award for its mammography initiative, designed to bridge gaps in care. Engaging 45,000 patients, the campaign led to 7,000 scheduled mammography appointments and enabled 840 patients to identify early signs of breast cancer, facilitating prompt interventions and enhancing patient care. Moreover, the initiative yielded an additional $2.7 million in incremental revenue for the organization. Congrats to Hackensack Meridian Health! 

Lakeside Community Healthcare

Lakeside Community Healthcare was recognized for its well-child initiative. By targeting 189 local families, they achieved an impressive 94% success rate, scheduling 179 well-child appointments in less than 60 days. This initiative not only improved the health of countless children but also demonstrated the power of targeted outreach. Congrats to Lakeside Community Healthcare!

Community Health Centers of the Central Coast

Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), used Artera’s Community Outreach feature to launch a text outreach campaign aimed at recruiting new patients. Within one year, they achieved a 30% recruitment rate, bringing in 11,000 new patients and scheduling 20,000 appointments. Their dedication to expanding access to care is truly commendable. Congrats to Community Health Centers of the Central Coast! 

Esperanza Health Centers

Esperanza Health Centers, an FQHC based in Chicago, utilized Artera Self-Service Analytics to create personalized campaigns for specific populations. By testing messages to understand what resonated best with their patients, they saw increased engagement and faster response rates. This initiative led to a 58% improvement in their Net Promoter Score (NPS), showcasing the power of data-driven personalization. Congrats to Esperanza Health Centers! 

Houston Methodist

Houston Methodist received a Community Impact Award for its discharge initiative. Leveraging Artera for post-discharge communication, they studied the effects of conversational messaging on readmission and revisit rates. The results were astounding, with a 29% reduction in overall readmissions and a 20% decrease in revisit rates. Additionally, engaged patients had higher HCAHPS scores in all domains compared to the non-engaged cohort. These findings were so significant that they were published in the British Medical Journal. Congrats to Houston Methodist! 

Connected Patient Experiences

The Connected Patient Experiences category, introduced last year at Heartbeat’23, recognizes organizations that excel in connecting with their patients. 

First, let’s review how we define a “Connected Patient”:

A unique patient that has had any of the following patient communications occur (within one calendar day):

• 1+ Manual Outbound & 2+ Inbound* messages
• 2+ Automated & 1+ Inbound messages
• 2+ Conversation Builder messages & 1+ Inbound* OR 3+ Conversation Builder messages

*inbound messages have 10+ characters

The “Connected Patient Rate,” defined by our data team, is then determined by dividing the number of reached patients by connected patients.

Most Connected Community Health Center: United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley

Since its initial go-live with its Call-to-Text workflow – servicing 1,000 patients via text in one day – United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley has continued to have meaningful interactions with patients, boasting an impressive 88% Connected Patient Rate. 

Additionally, with a 70% appointment booking rate via their Conversation Builder workflow, the health center has increased staff efficiency and time savings, with 70% of work being completed by Artera before it gets to staff. Congrats to United Health Centers of the San Joaquin Valley!

Most Connected Department: Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Discharge Care Center 

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Discharge Care Center is a 24/7 clinic that utilizes Artera’s conversational messaging and Conversation Builder, resulting in world-class patient response time (PRT).

Through their established care journeys, patients get automated messages for the first 30 days after they are discharged from the hospital, helping the organization achieve an 84% Connected Patient Rate. Congrats to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Discharge Care Center!

Connected User of the Year: Theresa Pinn-Kirkland, Houston Methodist

Theresa Pinn-Kirkland, Nursing Supervisor, Post-Discharge Care Manager at Houston Methodist, has partnered incredibly closely with Artera to help support Houston Methodist’s post-discharge efforts.

With 128,000 messages sent and 62,000+ patients touched between June 2023-2024, Theresa’s tireless efforts exemplify the impact one dedicated individual can have on patient engagement. Congratulations to Theresa Pinn-Kirkland!

Breaking Barriers

The Breaking Barriers category recognizes customers who use Artera’s technology as early adopters or beta partners to break down barriers to make healthcare #1 in customer service.

Health System: Sansum Clinic 

Our health system customer that is Breaking Barriers is Sansum Clinic, one of Artera’s key Beta partners. The organization continues to leverage automation with both conversational messaging and Conversation Builder workflows across its entire enterprise, resulting in nearly 6,000 staff hours saved and a 70% patient response rate within the past year. Congrats to Sansum Clinic!

Expanse Patient Connect: Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare

Our Expanse Patient Connect Breaking Barriers Award winner is Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare. As one of the earliest adopters of conversational messaging, they connected with 32,000 patients, demonstrating the power of innovative communication methods. Congrats to Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare! 

Unified Consumer Communications: ChristianaCare

ChristianaCare received our Unified Consumer Communications Breaking Barriers award for its early adoption and testing of new features, including external message ingestion, the Patients Area and self-rescheduling. Their efforts led to an 80% increase in automated messages, highlighting the importance of continuous improvement. Congrats to ChristianaCare! 

Growth Catalyst: UCI Health

UCI Health was recognized as the Growth Catalyst Breaking Barriers Award winner for its ongoing efforts to push growth and break barriers. UCI Health was our customer to roll out Extended Languages, including Arabic, and is now live with six languages across its enterprise. This commitment to inclusivity and accessibility is truly inspiring. Congrats to UCI Health! 

Innovator of the Year: Children’s Wisconsin

Children’s Wisconsin received the Innovator of the Year Breaking Barriers award for its participation in 15 Artera beta programs over the past year. The organization’s willingness to innovate and test new solutions is paving the way for advancements in pediatric care and beyond. Congrats to Children’s Wisconsin! 

…And That’s a Wrap on This Year’s Heartie Awards!

The Artera Heartie Awards celebrate the dedication and innovation of healthcare professionals and organizations who are making a profound impact on the patient experience Each of the winners exemplifies the power of using technology to connect with patients, improve outcomes and break down barriers.

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the Artera Heartie 2024 Award winners – your efforts are not only transforming the patient experience but also inspiring others to strive for excellence!

If you want to learn more about how Artera can help your organization achieve similar success, don’t hesitate to reach out. Together, we can continue to make healthcare #1 in customer service.

The post Introducing the 2024 Artera Heartie Award Winners appeared first on Artera.

The results are truly impressive—kudos to our customer, Houston Methodist, for conducting such an outstanding study – featured in the British Medical Journal! We’re proud to partner with such an innovator in this space.

About the Study

Many organizations consider discharge to be one of the most challenging aspects of patient care. The discharge process for highly acute patients in particular is inherently complex, resulting in a lack of standardization among hospitals and a scarcity of established best practices across institutions – especially around discharge follow-up.

Houston Methodist, which encompasses an academic hospital and six community hospitals, saw an opportunity to build on the few post-discharge texting studies and patient engagement literature that exists today. Through this recent study, the organization aimed to:

1. Examine the association between patient engagement with a bidirectional, semi-automated post-discharge texting program and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey outcomes, readmissions and revisit rates; and
2. Describe operational and clinical flow considerations for implementing a post-discharge texting program.

To conduct the study, the health system leveraged Artera’s patient texting technology to extend care beyond the hospital walls, effectively engaging patients after discharge. This is the first study examining the association of a fully synchronous texting program with the following outcomes: patient experiences, readmissions and revisits.

Study Results

Between December 2022 to May 2023, the pilot program revealed impressive results. Of the 78,883 patients who were contacted throughout the program, 62.4% responded, with 50% of them replying with three or more incoming text messages (considered engaged with the texting program). The engaged cohort was compared to a non-engaged cohort (responded to 0-2 incoming text messages) within the study.

Patients Engaged via Conversational Text Experienced Reductions in Readmissions and Revisits

Based on the findings, the engaged cohort used significantly fewer 30-day acute care resources in all hospitals, as there were 29% fewer readmissions and 20% fewer revisits. Lower rates of revisits and readmissions not only reflect improved patient health but also lead to substantial reductions in healthcare costs. Additionally, patients considered actively engaged were 27% less likely to be readmitted, emphasizing the effectiveness of patient texting post-discharge.

Patients Engaged via Text Scored Higher on Key HCAHPS Metrics

In addition to the above, the study examined Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores, which provide a standard measure of patients’ perspectives about hospital care. Based on the study’s findings, every domain in HCAHPS were higher for patients who were engaged with the texting program when compared with the non-engaged cohort. Six out of nine HCAHPS domains were 2 or more points higher across the system for the engaged group. Higher HCAHPS scores indicate better patient experiences, demonstrating how the patient texting program tangibly improved the overall experience.

Conversational Messaging is Critical to Driving Patient Outcomes and Staff Efficiency

Although some studies have examined post-discharge texting, the factors influencing engagement remain unclear. This study by Houston Methodist is unique in analyzing the relationship between patient engagement with a bidirectional SMS texting program after discharge, focusing on outcomes like patient experience, readmissions, and revisits.

Using conversational messaging, the program allowed patients to communicate with post-discharge care managers about any questions or concerns, such as “Can I take Benadryl or Ibuprofen with this prescription drug?” The team then established a closed-loop feedback system to ensure timely responses, with care managers replying via text and offering phone conversations when necessary.

“This closing-of-the-loop, as basic as it may seem, likely contributes to patients’ overall impression of the care experience as evidenced by the biggest difference being in the responsiveness of hospital staff domain of HCAHPS for engaged patients.” 

Additionally, conversational messaging improved outcomes for “sicker” patients, as the engaged cohort had higher CMI than the non-engaged cohort but was less likely to be readmitted and had fewer revisit rates.

The program also demonstrated that a small team of 10 end users effectively managed patient interactions for all seven large hospitals. According to the nurse care managers, they “estimate that over half of their text messages took less than 5 min to fully answer and address patients’ one or two questions.” 

Houston Methodist: A Leader in Academic Research

In addition to the findings above, Houston Methodist deployed a rigorous implementation plan that focused on optimized response time and quality of care coordination – both significant factors that surely played a role in the success of the program. 

The organization’s use of conversational messaging showcases the critical role digital tools can play in patient engagement, post-discharge care and hospital spend. As healthcare providers continue to grapple with providing patient-centric care, the positive results of such a post-discharge texting pilot illustrate that innovative solutions can, indeed, make a significant impact on both patients and providers. We’re honored to work with our customers like Houston Methodist who are making such a substantial contribution to academic research that can benefit the whole healthcare system. 

Read the full study here.

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Importance of the Referral System

Researchers found that when adjusting for factors like social demographics, location, health conditions and more, the rate of follow-through or “closing the loop” remained surprisingly low and even lower for telehealth. The low percentages for telehealth are particularly concerning as it has become widely used and accepted since the initial COVID-19 outbreak and remains very popular in rural communities that otherwise do not have access to certain specialists. 

The Referral Process

The referral process is not linear; it is one filled with multiple steps and barriers. Generally, a primary care physician (although referrals, especially for radiology, often come from other specialties as well) must first indicate the need to see another physician. The patient must then actively make an appointment with the suggested referring physician or do their research to find a physician or imaging center. Then, medical records and imaging must be transferred. And finally, insurance must approve the referring physician and further treatments. 

What negative outcomes can a lost referral have for patients and facilities alike? And, how do we improve the process?

Lost Referrals are Dangerous for Patients and Facilities 

Ignoring a referral can have serious consequences for a patient. They may miss an early diagnosis through preventative care, lose access to effective treatment, and ultimately, have a worse outcome. Studies have demonstrated a considerable decline in cancer deaths over the last 20 years thanks to preventative screenings, highlighting their importance to the long-term health of patients. 

Lost referrals can also negatively impact a hospital’s bottom line with health systems losing 55 to 65 percent of revenue as a result of referral leakage. Additionally, failure to appropriately hand off a patient contributes to about 20% of errors in medical settings leading to malpractice suits. 

Physicians and facilities must stay on top of referral management processes to ensure that patients do not slip through the cracks of our complex healthcare system.

Closing the Loop  – Why Aren’t Patients Making that Referral Appointment

Patients can have many reasons for not following through with a referral. Sometimes these reasons are simple like a non-urgent complaint going away on its own. However, a communication breakdown is a core challenge. Communication is key when it comes to:

• Explaining why they need to see another physician – some patients are confused and don’t understand why their primary care doctor can’t handle everything. 
• Educating patients on the importance of preventative exams to their long-term health. 
• Understanding how certain socioeconomic barriers might make a patient fear pursuing a referral (these can range from financial worries to cultural attitudes towards the healthcare system). Language barriers can also cause a fear of the dreaded healthcare system phone tree line. 
• Providing the right tools streamline patient scheduling (without adding more work for already burned-out staff). 
• And finally, simply helping very busy patients make the time to schedule. A recent study¹ found that for younger individuals, being “too busy” and making the time to schedule the appointment is a top factor in their appointment delay. 

For example, the authors of the telehealth study noted that a reason for the lack of follow-up might be that when leaving a doctor’s office in person, a receptionist may ask you to make a follow-up appointment and may even offer a list of referring physicians. This simple reminder and personal touch might get lost in the telemedicine journey. 

Facilities need to develop effective patient communication plans and education to boost referrals. A key to the puzzle is providing the right tools to patients that will streamline the referral process and encourage them to take the next step. The results can be enormous, with one enterprise provider generating an estimated $1.9M in revenue just after 60 days of implementing Artera to act as a referral communications tool. Another enterprise healthcare provider in the northeast leveraged Artera to launch a population health campaign which enabled patients to quickly and easily schedule their next mammography appointment. Over 7,000 appointments were scheduled with 140 cases of cancer found.

New Referrals Tools

UNC Health (UNCH)  is a large health system across North Carolina with over 5000 healthcare providers. They had been using their EHR for appointment reminders, referral outreach, and more digital communications, however, the vendor did not provide the core functionalities they were looking for, like the ability to text with patients. Texting is critical to most patients today – Artera’s Trends in Patient Communications report highlights that almost all patients expect basic texting at the very least, and over 70% prefer more conversational messaging. 

UNCH had begun receiving a high volume of referrals due to business expansion but without the right technology in place, their busy staff could simply not schedule the appointments promptly. The referral conversion rate (defined as the ability to receive a referral order and convert it into a scheduled appointment) was only averaging 30% per month. 

The rheumatology department then implemented Artera to assist with referral conversions. With Artera conversational messaging, UNCH was able to text its patients about setting up a referral appointment, and patients could instantly text or call back. The conversion rate skyrocketed to over 70% per month. 

“Artera has set us apart. Our ability to communicate to patients in their preferred method is huge. It really makes a difference.”

Velaire Elliot, Healthcare System Manager of Access and Clinical Integration

Improving Staff Workflows – Closing the Loops

While patients respond best to frequent communications, the very staff sending those frequent communications and making phone calls is often burned out and overwhelmed (Artera’s Staff Burnout Study indicates that over 70% of clinical staff feel moderately to severely burned out). Many are concerned that new tools and workflows will only make things more complicated and increase fatigue.

 At UNCH, however, staff began to consistently experience a decrease in the number of incoming phone calls after Artera was implemented. Elliott said, “A decrease in phone calls is really important from a staff perspective because they say, ‘That makes a difference in my day-to-day work. If I’m answering 1,000 or 2,000 fewer phone calls every month, that makes a huge difference.’” 

Using Artera, referrals are conveniently displayed on the Patient face sheet, allowing support staff to access referral details from the EMR, including the referred department or specialty, simplifying patient scheduling. Support staff can easily filter and manage referral-related messages, ensuring efficient handling of patient referrals.

Automated Referral Management Processes

Artera also reduces the need to manually call patients to book referrals by automating the outreach for referrals. When a new referral record is created, it gets information from EHR systems using the HL7 REF standard. Predefined follow-ups encourage patient responses, and a writeback of the information helps providers meet their three reminder obligations. Patient communication preferences, including their preferred language and channel, are used to boost their engagement.

Elliott sums it up, “Artera sets us apart, especially in the Research Triangle where we have multiple world-class healthcare systems. Our ability to directly communicate with patients in their preferred method is huge. It really makes a difference.” 

Ready to boost health care referrals at your facility? Learn more about Artera Referrals.

The post The Referral Process: Closing the Loop on Patient Care appeared first on Artera.

Social determinants of health can have an enormous impact on the mental and physical health of an individual. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services breaks them down into five key buckets that often overlap or influence one another. For example, a family with low economic stability is likely to not have health insurance, impeding their access to healthcare. 

Social determinants of health can play an even greater role in the mental and physical development of a young child. Children are more sensitive than adults and may suffer lifelong consequences when subject to poverty, stressful environments, and trauma. A recent in-depth study of 10,504 children discovered several different SDOH pattern groups with long-term impacts. They found that children who followed pattern three (this typically included low family income, high poverty rates, high single-family proportions, low rates of health insurance, low education rates, and the lowest opportunity atlas social mobility scores) had the worst outcomes. These children suffered high levels of racism and discrimination towards immigrants (this group had a disproportionally higher Black and Hispanic population than other cohorts) and the highest rates of lead exposure which can permanently damage the brain. This pattern group had both the poorest physical and mental health across the groups and the highest rates of suicide.

Health systems must understand the unique circumstances that their populations are living in when developing their communication strategies. When asking questions and screening populations, there are several core buckets to carefully examine.

What are the Social Determinants of Health? 

Economic Stability

A recent survey of oncologists found that 93% believe that SDOHs impact the long-term outcomes of their patients. Many cited economic stability as being key to cancer treatment as patients not only need health insurance but also the ability to not work for a long period. A family member may also need to step back from work to care for them leading to even more economic strain. Yet, in the United States, 1 in 10 people live in poverty, placing critical healthcare out of reach for many. 

The Healthy People 2030 program aims to change that by offering increased employment programs, career counseling and childcare services. Children who grow up in economically stable homes are more likely to live in safe neighborhoods near centers of excellence, have employed parents with health insurance and receive higher levels of education and necessary services like speech and occupational therapies. 

A lack of health insurance can play a huge role in patient no-shows or a low referral conversion rate. For example, Nemours Children’s Health partnered with The Harris Poll to survey parents and found that 32% said they missed their child’s medical appointment because they couldn’t pay for it. 

Education Access and Quality

Studies indicate that adults who have received higher education live longer and overall healthier lives than less educated peers. Individuals who receive a good education are likely to pursue healthcare services and understand their importance. They are also more likely to have higher-level careers that offer increased payment and opportunities for health insurance. 

Healthcare Access and Quality

Access to healthcare is often dependent on health insurance, and 1 in 10 people in the United States do not have health insurance. People without health insurance are far less likely to have a primary care doctor and receive routine screenings. Children without access to health insurance may also fail to receive mental and behavioral health services and physical, speech and occupational therapy. Outside of health insurance, access to healthcare facilities, especially for those in rural areas may present a significant barrier to care. Regarding maternal care, up to 36% of US counties lack obstetric providers and hospitals. It’s hard to believe this lack of maternal care still exists in the US today, and it often puts both mother and baby at risk of long-term health complications. 

Neighborhood and Built Environment

Neighborhood and built environment can refer to many factors including violence, pollution (air and water), lead paint in old buildings, noise exposure leading to hearing loss and exposure to second-hand smoke. Toddlers and even older children exposed to smoke are at greater risk of asthma, respiratory infections, ear infections and slowed lung growth. The American Cancer Society has found that children exposed to secondhand smoke also have a greater risk of cancer like leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors. 

Social and Community Context

This SDOH refers to the relationship one has with family, friends and neighbors. A loving and supportive community is critical for the well-being of any child. Yet, children who live in poverty may have parents who are very stressed, mentally ill, or incapable of offering them the care that they need. Additionally, language barriers and cultural attitudes towards the US healthcare system or Western medicine may impede access. The US healthcare system has treated many communities like second-class citizens, and rebuilding trust is still a long and complex road. 

Putting Social Determinants of Health Tools to Work 

Children’s Wisconsin is its region’s only dedicated children’s hospital. The facility sought to eliminate common barriers to care and understand why patients weren’t showing up to appointments. Megan Sheble, Senior Project Manager on the Health Management Team at Children’s Wisconsin, saw this as a great opportunity to not only understand how SDOHs were impacting their patients but also to connect more deeply with the families they serve. They piloted Artera’s Conversation Builder workflow at several clinics with high uninsured and low-income populations. When a patient didn’t show up for an appointment, they were sent a friendly text offering five options: transportation issues, forgot, date and time did not work, took family elsewhere, or other. The team was shocked to see detailed answers come through under the “other” option, a testament to how many patients feel quite comfortable texting. 

“Having a tool like Artera to be able to identify problems for us to respond to allows us to be innovative. While we can’t fix all of the problems, it challenges us to think differently, do more, and meet our patients where they’re at.”

Megan Sheble, Senior Project Manager, Health Management Team, Children’s Wisconsin

With this data in hand, the team used Artera’s Analytics Plus to take a deep dive into the most common responses. They were shocked that the top response was that families did not have winter coats and gear for children. Staff used the MRN field within Artera to identify the patients and reach out to coordinate transportation and provide winter coats. This drove meaningful interactions with their patient population and removed barriers to care for those in need. The facility launched a new initiative to offer families clothing and provided more than $5,000 in winter gear to patients, a tradition they continue every year.

Making Operational Improvements 

There is no solution to solving the complex problems in healthcare that is “set it and forget it.” Any program needs to be a living and breathing platform that can continually be updated and improved. For example, Children’s Wisconsin was able to identify undeliverable messages via the Conversation Builder workflow report, which encouraged them to push a staff reminder to verify phone numbers when registering families. Utilizing data and analytics allows facilities to carefully examine data and can help determine insights like the ideal time for sending messages. 

Facilities can take several key steps when developing a more personalized communication strategy: 

Keep in Mind Patient Preferences: Allow the patient to choose their communication channel of choice, whether text, phone, email or a combination of the above. It’s also important to provide caregivers with access to communications for those under their care. 

Personalize!: As with any modern marketing, spamming is a no-go. Try to keep messages and communications sent to patients as pertinent and ideally, unique, to each individual. 

Have a Natural Conversation: Conversational messaging is critical to allow patients to ask questions and receive a response. Artera’s Trends in Patient Communications Report indicated that 69% of patients are frustrated by the inability to engage in conversational messaging with their provider. One children’s hospital in the Midwest used Artera’s conversational messaging to increase confirmation rates and reduce no-shows and late cancellations, generating an additional $6.3M in revenue.

Provide Language Support: Research suggests that those with limited English proficiency (LEP) face barriers to health care access, experience lower quality care, and suffer worse health outcomes. By addressing language barriers, patients can better understand their care needs and ultimately make better-informed decisions for their health.

Leverage AI-Enabled Capabilities: AI tools can help take your platform to the next level by helping automate complex workflows, personalizing patient messaging, and offering patients more self-service opportunities. 

Understanding your unique population and communicating with them in the way that works best for their needs will lead to successful outcomes for all. What are you waiting for? Learn more about Artera today.

The post Social Determinants of Health Tools: Context in Communications appeared first on Artera.

Around the same time, UNC Health (UNCH) collaborated on a case study with WELL® about how UNCH used the WELL Health digital communications platform to overcome staff burnout and increase morale by implementing efficient workflows that led to a reduced workload. Since the Burnout Study recommended leveraging patient communication tools to reduce staff burnout and UNCH’s experience proved the recommendation to be correct, WELL invited UNCH to share their findings in a webinar on December 12.

Meg Aranow, Senior Vice President, Client Success at WELL Health, hosted UNCH’s Velaire Elliott,  Healthcare System Manager of Access, and Tammy Jones, Administrative Support Supervisor. The discussion started with Velaire explaining that with their last vendor, UNCH didn’t have the opportunity to engage in text messaging with their patients or the ability to look at improving their referrals outreach. She said, “We couldn’t do the additional communications that we can do with the WELL Health platform. WELL brings additional functionality to the table and we wanted to have those capabilities to be able to offer a better experience to our patients.”

WELL reduces support staff frustration and enables achieving phone service level goals

Meg cited from the Burnout Study that 63% of clinical support staff reported they considered quitting or switching jobs because of the stress caused by patient communication processes. 82% of support staff report frustration communicating and coordinating with patients over the phone. 

As their supervisor, Meg asked Jones if her staff experienced any frustration with phone-based communication. Jones responded that her staff was indeed frustrated when they only used phone-calling to communicate with patients since it resulted in a great deal of phone tag. 

However, WELL enabled UNCH to communicate with patients at a time and with a method that is convenient to them. Jones explained patients may not always be in a place where they could answer the phone, but they could always respond to a text message. Patients also will not answer an unknown number, but sending a message via text allows patients to read the message and know the communication is from a trusted party so they will respond.  

UNCH sets phone service level goals for their staff so Meg asked Elliot to explain how they worked and how WELL enabled UNCH to finally reach their goals. Elliot shared that UNCH sets phone service level goals for all front desk and scheduling staff that measures how quickly they can answer the phone. The expectation is that 80% of the time staff will answer the phone within 30 seconds. Before WELL Health, the call center staff only achieved this goal 65% of the time. After WELL was implemented, the staff exceeded the 80% goal and even reached an all-time high of 93% of calls answered within 30 seconds.

Improved workflows lower staff stress while raising morale  

When asked by Meg to talk about the ways WELL helped UNC make workflows more efficient, Tammy replied, “WELL’s conversational texting reduced the number of contact attempts needed which resulted in a reduced workload for the staff. Texting also empowered patients to reach out when it was convenient for them and provided a more patient-centered approach that patients really appreciate.”

Jones also shared that with UNCH’s old reminder system, patients would accidentally cancel their appointment and had no immediate recourse other than a phone call to notify the clinic that they did intend to arrive for their appointment. With WELL, patients can instantly respond to the text message, letting staff know the cancelation was in error so the patient keeps their appointment, the staff has less work, and everyone is happy.

Meg asked about the effect WELL had on staff stress and morale. Jones replied that before WELL, the staff was really stressed because there wasn’t enough time in the day to get everything done. But once the calls decreased, they now use that time to complete other required assignments. The improved workflows affected job satisfaction since the staff is more engaged and eager to work with other teams and train them on the workflows so they will have the same success.

They are also happier about coming to work, and there are fewer callouts. Staff often call out because they’re stressed, and UNCH has seen a reduction in staff taking time off. Patient satisfaction also increased because they feel like we’re being more considerate of their time – patients give direct feedback, they really like the text messaging. 

UNCH Rheumatology Department Referral Conversion Rate Increased by 30% 

In January 2021, the rheumatology department implemented WELL Health to assist with referral conversion. Meg asked the guests to talk about that process and how WELL helped UNCH to raise referral conversion rates. Elliot explained that at UNCH, referral conversion is the ability to receive a referral order and convert it into a scheduled appointment. From the date that the referral is ordered, they want to see an appointment scheduled within three weeks.  

At the beginning of 2021, UNCH received a high volume of referrals due to business growth, however, it did not have more staff to schedule appointments. They expected to see a decrease in its referral conversion rate. But with WELL conversational messaging, UNCH was able to text its patients about setting up a referral appointment, and patients could instantly text or call back. This type of outreach proved more effective than sending messages through My UNC Chart or leaving phone voicemails that may not be heard. 

After three months of using WELL, UNCH Rheumatology improved their referral conversion rate from a disappointing 30% to consistently averaging a high of 75% every month. In August 2021, the rheumatology department twice reached the UNCH system-level goal of 85%. Tammy added, “We get so many referrals completed in a day now because of WELL Health texting.”

Communication challenges negatively affect Patient Health and Experience  

The Burnout Study found 63% of support staff reported their patients noticed their burnout while 58% believe that their burnout has negatively affected a patient’s quality of care. Meg said with providers increasingly entering value-based contracts with payers, quality of care and patient experience have never been more important. She asked Tammy if her staff felt that their burnout caused specifically by communication challenges negatively affect their quality of patient care?

Tammy replied it did, especially during the beginning of COVID when there was a lot of patient shuffling to allow for social distancing, the staff was working twice as hard to complete those tasks plus their regular work. With twice the work, and no additional staff to do the work, mistakes were made. But now, they have a better balance to complete all of the work with their improved patient communication tools.

How UNCH plans to use WELL in the future to further improve patient communication

Now that UNCH has had success with WELL in multiple departments, Meg asked what other plans UNCH has to implement WELL throughout the health system.  Jones replied they are using WELL Health features such as Rescheduling to instantly rebook canceled appointments and Broadcast Messaging to send messages to a large group of patients regarding weather-related closures. UNCH is also using WELL to send communications to prepare patients for virtual visits to eliminate the need for staff to call patients to walk them through the technical preparation process for a telehealth appointment. 

Elliott said that UNCH is also adding ChatAssist AI to automate conversations between patients and providers, alerting staff to intervene only when needed. This is the next step in UNCH’s ultimate goal to alleviate staff workload.

Watch the entire webinar here. Download the Burnout Study here, and the UNCH case study is available here.

The post How UNC Health Tackled Staff Burnout Webinar Recap appeared first on Artera.

Managing a large number of calls is an ongoing challenge for Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), Altura Centers for Health, especially since the large call volume affects their staffing budget. The FQHC typically gets 18,000 to 20,000 calls a month so they initially implemented the WELL Health platform to help them reduce their high rate.

Altura participated in a pilot program of “Call to Text,” the new business messaging feature from WELL which enables patients who call their providers to continue engagement via text messaging. Call to Text works with phone systems — including GoToConnect and Cisco — and is designed to help expedite routine administrative tasks and alleviate the pressure on the call center and office staff. This kind of technology ultimately “eliminates the need to actually make a phone call and talk to someone,” explains Arnie Reynoso, Altura’s Chief Information Officer. 

WELL business messaging feature offers time-saving texting as an alternative 

With the Call to Text business messaging feature, instead of staying on hold or getting a callback during a phone call, the patient will receive a message with the option to choose to start a texting conversation with a staff member. The feature can also sense when a caller has abandoned the call and will send a text to the caller to invite them to start texting. Call to Text also has the ability to tell if the patient is calling from a landline and if so, it will check patient records for a mobile number, and send a text to that number. If no mobile number is listed, it will alert the office staff to call the patient via their landline.

Call to Text saves Altura 1,000 monthly abandoned calls

Altura piloted Call to Text during the COVID-19 pandemic and even though they were short-staffed, the business messaging feature enabled the call center to manage the volume of calls they typically receive. Altura’s call abandonment rate dropped from 20% to 15%, a decrease in nearly 1,000 abandoned calls per month in the first 3 months of implementing Call to Text. With the Call to Text business messaging technology, patients move from synchronous to asynchronous texting communication which allows them to keep a conversation going with their providers. This is helpful especially with busy schedules that do not allow much time for phone calls. Reynoso said, “For our patient demographics, they’re usually working eight to five, or sometimes two jobs so being on hold is quite precious time.”

Patients and staff prefer texting and business messaging

Reynoso reports that patients who started communicating with Altura via mobile messaging during the pilot often don’t use the phone anymore. Reynoso explains, “They just text us to request an appointment or a medical record. It’s pushed them in that direction.” In a patient satisfaction survey, 90% and 95% of Altura patients said they appreciated the ability to reach their providers via text. Altura’s call center staff and front office also prefer the Call to Text business messaging feature and the ability to text patients. “The staff would love for everyone to utilize the texting feature,” Reynoso says. “It’s less burdensome, and it allows them to handle multiple patients almost simultaneously.”

Read the entire case study here.

The post FQHC Reduces Abandoned Calls with Call To Text Business Messaging appeared first on Artera.

 Meanwhile, the operating costs for FQHCs and CHCs have risen as they perform widespread COVID-19 testing, administer vaccines and conduct care remotely. These pandemic-related services require clinics to purchase new technology, special supplies, and PPE, adding to their financial burden.

Automating Medicaid patient outreach

One straightforward strategy that FQHCs can quickly implement to bring in much-needed revenue and new patients while freeing up overworked staff is to automate outreach to their lists of assigned Medicaid patients. 

 Currently, clinic frontline staff manually call potential Medicaid patients to set up an initial appointment. Unfortunately, this labor-intensive activity – when staff costs represent between 50 to 60% of a health system’s operating revenue – widely fails to generate a first-time visit. 

On average, fewer than 10 percent of Medicaid patients schedule an initial appointment despite substantial efforts from clinic staff. 

Phone calls are ineffective in reaching patients

Clinic staff struggles to connect with patients through phone calls for a variety of reasons.  Phone calls are disruptive, time-consuming and many people are unable to answer personal calls while at work. 84 percent of consumers won’t answer a call from an unknown number and only 18 percent of people listen to voicemails from numbers they don’t recognize. 

As a result, staff must exert more effort to reach Medicaid patients, calling over and over, until they are successful. An unintended result can be an increase in call volumes which can lead to placing more patients on hold.  

Studies show most patients prefer texts

In resounding numbers, patients prefer texts for convenience, speed, and flexibility. 

• 67% of consumers would rather text with a business about their appointment scheduling and reminders than talk to them on the phone
• Consumers are four times more likely to respond to a text message than call back to a voicemail
• Texts from an unknown number are seven times more likely to get a response than a voicemail

In WELL’s experience working with hundreds of healthcare organizations for underserved patients, this population is much more likely to receive and respond to texts than phone calls and emails. 

“The key is access — you have to meet people where they are. You have to be so convenient that it doesn’t feel like any effort is being put into obtaining healthcare.” 

– Guillaume de Zwirek, WELL Health founder and CEO 

When the frontline staff at a leading FQHC in California stopped spending hours calling their list of assigned Medicaid patients and used the WELL Community Outreach feature to automatically text them instead, the results were stunning. The number of scheduled first-time appointments shot up from the single digits to 32%.

“Consistent with earlier research—and counter to common assumptions about people with Medicaid—many in this group are eager and able to use technology to engage with the health care system and health plans and to manage their health.” 

– Deloitte Insights: Pandemic’s impact on health insurance trends, August 2020 

WELL Community Outreach enables messaging everyone

By implementing WELL Community Outreach, FQHCs can message their entire community even if the person is not enrolled as a patient in their EHR. Clinics can provide new Medicaid patients with the care they need while drastically reducing the time their staff spends on acquiring them. 

Simple to use, Community Outreach automates and accelerates the communication process for converting potential patients on assigned Medicaid lists to patient visits in clinics. With this functionality, FQHCs can:

• Upload CSV or Excel lists of assigned Medicaid patients to WELL. Even though these patients do not exist in the EHR nor have an assigned MRN, they can still be messaged via WELL. 
• Write a customized text to these patients or use a recruitment message template from WELL, inviting them to set up an initial appointment. Messages can be delivered in one of 19 languages, conveying a professional and welcoming tone.
• Send a secure text to a predetermined population of any size in minutes. The text will come from the clinic’s existing phone number. The patient does not need to download an app, log on to a portal, or use the internet and a data plan. 
• Watch appointment slots quickly fill up as WELL automatically schedules appointments for patients who text back “yes.” The WELL platform intelligently communicates through texting with patients to manage the details of their appointments, including answering common questions such as, “Where are you located?” or “Where do I park?”  Patients never have to wait more than a few seconds for a response. Staff can easily join the text conversation at any time they are needed. If a patient does not respond, a slightly revised, follow-up text can be sent via WELL’s powerful automation engine at intervals set by the clinic.
• Receive concrete data analytics about when the text was delivered, opened, and read. In addition to this real-time visibility, clinics will always have a unified, easy-to-reference record of each single text message conversation.

Benefits of WELL Community Outreach 

1) Add more patients without adding more work 

WELL Community Outreach enables FQHCs to effectively and efficiently reach and recruit potential Medicaid patients. At the same time, this feature significantly reduces staff’s workload by decreasing call volume and giving them back the many hours they would normally spend working the phones.   

According to a November 2020 Kaiser Family Foundation study, Medicaid enrollment will continue to increase in the millions so FQHC assigned lists will likely grow. WELL Community Outreach can help clinics meet this need. 

2) Improve access to care at a critical time  

Medicaid patients are at great risk when it comes to COVID-19 since nationwide, five million essential workers get health coverage through Medicaid. They also have a greater propensity to suffer from chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The pandemic has also caused many to fall behind in screenings, vaccinations, and preventative care, further jeopardizing patient health. 

WELL Community Outreach can also ensure underserved populations don’t miss out on the critical care they should receive, helping to close health equity gaps. With WELL, FQHCS can quickly increase patient access to much-needed appointments, improving health outcomes at the individual and community levels. 

3) Ramp up revenue, cut labor costs 

WELL Community Outreach will help FQHCs increase patient visits and revenue at a time when health center visits have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and many clinics are losing profits. With labor representing between 50 to 60% of a healthcare organization’s operating revenue, it’s less financially feasible for frontline staff to spend time on rote tasks like plodding through phone lists. One FQHC that WELL worked with to pilot the Community Outreach program spent about 5000 hours a year to do outreach. Their call center rates were an average of $22 an hour so WELL ultimately helped them to alleviate an estimated $110,000 in administrative costs.

4) Increase patient satisfaction

Patients measure their experience not just on the quality of clinical care but on how the non-clinical details are managed.  For example, a 2016 Accenture report on patient loyalty found that 61% of patients would switch providers to get an appointment quickly.  

Through texting communications, WELL  Community Outreach demonstrates to potential patients that the clinic values their patients’ time and that they are in sync with how people today manage their schedules. These small but significant signals can build trust and set clinics on the road to nurturing long-term relationships. 

When Altura Centers for Health, an FQHC in Tulare, California, used WELL for automatic appointment scheduling, its patient satisfaction scores doubled. 

“Patients love it,” said David Ramirez, clinical support technician at Altura, whose busy patients appreciate spending less time waiting on the phone. 

5) Increase staff happiness  

Mission-driven clinics pride themselves on going above and beyond to better serve their patient population. WELL Community Outreach enables them to do more of that by lowering call volumes so staff can focus on higher-value tasks instead. Easing a staff’s administrative burden can also make them happier and more productive.

Contact us today to see how your FQHC can see more assigned Medicaid patients, secure more revenue and surpass your patients’ expectations with WELL Community Outreach.

The post WELL™ Community Outreach Enables Clinics to Secure More Medicaid Revenue appeared first on Artera.

It’s Monday morning. Your neck is aching. Your skis are hung up in the garage for what might be an indefinite amount of time. And you’re on hold with your orthopedic surgeon.

This could be awhile.

“Orthopedics, by its very nature, is such an unpredictable specialty,” said Siobhan Palmer, Director, Santa Monica Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Group.

The busy clinic, part of the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute, sees a huge spike in call volume Monday mornings due to weekend accidents. Palmer wanted an orthopedic practice management software that would enable the clinic to quickly and painlessly reach patients and communicate with them at the time they need it most.

She found WELL.

Communication’s significance in orthopedic practice management

Orthopedic practice management is a complex challenge. WELL understands the unique challenges that orthopedic practices face. Terri Werner, HIM Supervisor at New Mexico Orthopedics, expresses it succinctly: “We want to make things better for patients. If you’ve ever been a patient, you have an idea of what it’s like.”

However, a diminishing surgeon workforce and an increasing number of patients needing orthopedic care mean more work for physicians and shorter appointment times for patients.

Add in the last-minute schedule changes and you have an administrative headache.

Calls go unanswered. Patients get annoyed. Doctors and office staff shoulder the burden.

At least, that’s what we’ve heard from the many orthopedic groups that have sought out WELL. Here are some of the primary issues ortho practices face, and how our patient communication app has helped them address these challenges and implement orthopedic best practices.

Reduce high call volume

At St. Charles Orthopedic Surgery Associates in St. Peters, Missouri, a glut of incoming phone calls about simple, non-clinical issues crowded the phone lines, preventing patients with more pressing issues from getting through. 

The same was true for 360 Orthopedics, which has served patients in Florida since 1978. They had a significant volume of phone calls, that were a mix of emergencies needing immediate attention, and non-urgent queries. These calls all had to wait in a queue, creating a large workload and poor patient experience.

That’s a problem — especially because most people calling an orthopedic surgeon are probably already having a pretty bad day.

“We are always thinking about how to improve communications with patients,” said Suzann Crowder, administrator at SCOSA. “They often contact our practice when they are at a low point.”

Chad Nettleman, CIO of 360 Ortho agrees: “In today’s digital age, people expect someone to answer personally when they reach out via call or text – just like you’re standing in front of them in the lobby.”

Streamlining things with the right orthopedic practice management software makes a big difference. After implementing WELL’s conversational messaging capabilities, the busy practices saw a huge reduction in call volume. Automated messages provided answers to routine queries, such as “Where is your office located?” and staff could easily enter the conversation when necessary. WELL’s patient communication software reduced stress for office staff and greater satisfaction from patients.

Handle last-minute scheduling

Whether they sustain injuries on the trails or in a car accident, orthopedic patients often need last-minute appointments. Couple this with the realities any clinic faces—inclement weather, running behind schedule, or a physician calling in sick—and office staff needs patient communication tools to quickly and easily communicate last-minute changes.

Doctors at Rocky Mountain Orthopedic Associates see as many as 30 to 40 patients per day, so when a change arises, it’s especially challenging. Janis Hoppe, the practice’s subject matter IT expert described the situation this way, “We would have to try to contact every single patient at the very last minute. It’s incredibly disruptive to try to get a hold of that many patients.”

The Colorado-based practice implemented the WELL patient communication platform and immediately saw staff workflows streamlined and workloads lightened. With our orthopedic practice management software, they also saw an increase in patient responsiveness. “For some reason, when we text them, we get a response immediately,” said Pam Bachorski, the clinic’s practice administrator.

WELL’s broadcasts feature allows practices to streamline orthopedic practice management and quickly select up to 1,000 patients to send them all a customized message – great for last-minute schedule changes or notifications.

Reduced no-shows

The no-show rate for orthopedic follow-up appointments can be as high as 26 percent, according to a study published in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery in 2014. Those with spine and back complaints are the most likely to miss appointments. That results in lost revenue, more administrative work for staff, and less likelihood of attracting new patients – those looking for those last-minute appointment slots. 

In addition to reducing their call volume, the WELL patient communication app introduced more benefits to SCOSA. They saw 50 percent reduction in no-shows and 11 percent increase in patient bookings within the first quarter following implementation. “WELL is one of those rare solutions that makes the patient care experience better without breaking the bank,” Crowder said.

360 Ortho, meanwhile, saw its no-show rate drop by 17%, to less than three percent – half of the industry average. This resulted in an impressive 208% return on investment. Moving forward, Nettleman anticipates more opportunities for WELL’s broadcast feature. “We’re always looking to move forward and expand it to where it makes logical sense. Now, WELL is one of our better tools, that’s for certain.”

Streamlined Revenue Collection

Software that aids effective orthopedic practice management also streamlines revenue collection. Take New Mexico Orthopedics. The busy orthopedic practice sees an average of 800 patients a day across its three locations. NMO wanted a digital front door that welcomes and remembers patients even before they set foot in the clinic.

To that end, NMO integrated WELL’s patient communication software with SwervePay, a cloud-based payment application. This helped streamline the check-in process further, allowing patients to quickly make their payments with a quick text message link.

Adoption grew quickly, and now, 17% of NMO patients pay their copays in advance. Furthermore, the advanced copay collection process reduced staff workload by nearly two hours a day. 

“Before, when the front desk took payment, staff had to manually enter it into the practice management system, which was a multi-step process,” said Sally Martin, Director of Revenue Cycle Management at NMO. “Auto-posting patient payments real-time is a huge win and saves on labor.”

Improved patient experience

Conversational messaging between patients and doctors is one of the emerging orthopedic best practices. Ortho Northeast provides this to their patients through WELL, allowing ONE to differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace. They saw an impressive 96 percent patient utilization of WELL’s platform and also saw no-shows cut in half.

Tia Brown, Appointment Reception Supervisor at ONE, said, “With the consumerization of healthcare, our patients now have more power than ever before. WELL allows us to focus on retaining them, making them happy, and most importantly focusing on our core competency.”

Similarly, NMO patients have quickly taken a liking to their new and advanced copay collection process. They especially appreciate not having to log in to a separate portal to make payments. NMO also anticipates that, in the future, patients will opt to pay their outstanding balances this way, which will reduce payment lifecycles. 

As for SMOG, with effective orthopedic practice management, the clinic was able to reduce call volume by 20 percent and nearly double the number of those calls answered to a much healthier 85 percent — meaning happier patients and maybe even a quicker return to the ski slopes.

The post How WELL Benefits Orthopedic Practice Management appeared first on Artera.