Using new tools creates new challenges. Sometimes those challenges are as minor, like a few minutes of additional training. But sometimes they’re bigger than that or just don’t seem like they’re worth the hassle.
That’s one of the main reasons many medical practices have been hesitant about digitizing the patient’s experience. Many people haven’t been convinced the usefulness of new digital tools would outweigh the challenges of doing something new. They’re also worried that higher rates of digital engagement will translate to more time working administrative duties at home.
But in one of the largest studies of its kind, new research has helped to demonstrate the strength of the correlation between digitizing the patient’s experience, revenue, and time spent on administrative duties. This story was most recently covered by Healthcare IT News — but its findings only confirms what many practices have known for years.
What did it say?
This rather interesting study evaluated Patient Digital Engagement Index tool data using the athenaOne network, creating an outstandingly wide and diverse net of patient data. That includes approximately 50 million patients that are sourced across several thousand practices.
They narrowed down their focus to the three-year period between 2021 – 2024. And in their three-year analysis, researchers found two clear results of a healthcare provider taking steps towards digitizing the patient’s experience.
The first is improved financial performance – they found a strong correlation between a PDEI score and patient pay yields. For reference, a PDEI score essentially measures the level of digital engagement a practice uses. That’s not a very unusual finding, since it’s widely accepted digitization can help your bottom line.
But their second key finding is more to our point, and far more interesting. On average, medical practices that had higher PDEI scores also had reported spending less time working through after-hours documentation.
In short – physicians who are worried about a larger administrative workload coming from new digital tools are, more often than not, wrong. Of course, not all methods of digitizing administrative duties are equal and it’s important to find the right tools. That’s why so many practices rely on FormDr – for our ability to personalize the tools you need for your practice to take full advantage of streamlining your administrative duties.
As the world continues to evolve and change — even as there are subtle changes in the way HIPAA is interpreted, we can help ensure you remain compliant, competitive, and prepared for whatever comes next.
