Healthcare Through Omnichannel Solutions. The healthcare industry experienced immense and rapid change due to the impact of Covid-19. During the pandemic, the demand for digital healthcare services grew so drastically that some hospitals and healthcare facilities couldn’t handle all the flow of patients’ requests using traditional methods such as phone and in-person service. Healthcare organizations had to find effective ways to improve their communication with their patients and accelerated the adoption of digital healthcare technologies.
The healthcare industry showed a change of perception also in numbers. According to Per Rock’s report, total venture capital investment in digital health totaled $14.7 billion in the first half of 2021, more than all the investment in 2020 ($14.6 billion) and nearly twice the investment in 2019 ($7.7 billion).
Despite some advancement during Covid-19, the healthcare industry still faces new challenges in areas of patient communication. We’ll take a deep look into these challenges and offer a solution for each.
Top 5 Patient Communication Challenges in the Healthcare industry
1. Growing Demand for Digital Healthcare
Consumers’ growing use of digital devices over the years impacted the healthcare industry significantly. According to McKinsey, consumer adoption of telehealth increased from 11% in 2019 to about 40% in 2021 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Most telehealth consumers (74%) were highly satisfied, 76% of them said they would likely use telehealth services in the future.
Moreover, McKinsey’s research shows that 40%-60% of consumers express interest in a set of broader virtual health solutions, such as a “digital front door” or lower-cost virtual-first health plan.
Nowadays, the healthcare industry faces a challenge: it needs to provide digital service to millions of patients simultaneously, a mass that no call center or medical staff can handle effectively.
The solution: Drive digital transformation in your healthcare organization.
Overcoming the digital challenge requires healthcare providers to undergo a digital transformation process that will enhance their organization with advanced digital service capabilities and provide patients with better service.
We recently published a free guide that dives deep into this subject:
2. Multi-channel Standards for Patient Communication
Consumers’ growing use of multiple digital devices and apps generated new standards for service and communication. Patients expect hospitals and other healthcare providers to deliver service digitally, as mentioned. Still, most people (71%, according to McKinsey) also expect the service to be through multiple communication channels they usually use like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Chat, e-mail, and more.
Rising customer expectations presents a new challenge for the healthcare industry – to provide digital customer service through each separate channel, a task that is time-consuming and difficult to handle. Therefore, companies must interact with patients across multiple channels to create a unified patient experience.
Solution: Implement an omnichannel customer communication platform.
Overcoming this challenge requires healthcare companies to implement an omnichannel customer communication solution that can direct all the patients’ queries from any digital platform to one smart inbox and manage all communication from a single dashboard.
3. Patient Experience
Medical issues can often be stressful for patients, especially for the chronically ill. During Covid-19, stress levels rose and still exist as the pandemic continues to spread with new variants. In this Armageddon-like reality, patients need immediate information and response for stressful medical issues. Providing this type of service through traditional channels is very costly, slow, and inefficient.
Solution: Implement AI and automation capabilities in your operational systems.
To avoid extensive costs, improve response time and patient satisfaction, every hospital or medical institution must implement a technological solution that can provide automated service to patients from the very first moment.
AI service bots, for example, can resolve the slow service delivery and responsiveness issue by immediately replying to every initial request and engaging with patients from the very first moment, without the need for immediate professional intervention. Patients can receive information and test results, book doctors’ appointments, and more.
Video Chat & Voice Call features are also crucial for digital healthcare delivery. Video Chat and Voice Calls can provide a solution for issues that can be resolved remotely, such as doctor consultations and requests. In case of quarantine, patients can receive medical service remotely without endangering any of their surroundings. These abilities ensure higher patient satisfaction and a unique patient experience.
Consumers’ adoption of live video care increased by 11% (from 32% to 43%) in 2020, indicating its significance and the swift shift to live video, according to a Digital Health Consumer Adoption Report 2020.
4. Big Data and Integration
Healthcare companies hold massive amounts of patients’ data and store it on various systems and databases. That requires healthcare companies to be able to manage all the data under one single rooftop.
The Solution: implement a customer communication software that integrates with your existing systems.
Integration capabilities are critical for managing big data. Implementing software that can integrate with CRM and other operational systems is imperative to manage your patients’ data effectively.
5. Security and Privacy
Patients entrust personal medical information with healthcare providers and accordingly expect that information to be kept safe and secure.
One minor breach in a hospital’s database or customer service system can leave it wide open for cyber-attacks. Hackers can steal information and use it to cause tremendous damage or sell it to the highest bidder that may use it for malicious purposes.
Solution: Adopt a secured GDPR-compliant customer communication platform.
This issue requires every company, especially healthcare providers, to own the most secure systems that can withstand any cyber-attack and keep their patients’ privacy. The way to ensure system security is to secure your database and your digital service with a secured customer service software of the highest standards, which is also GDPR-compliant. This solution would protect precious information and ensure your patients’ safety and privacy.
Overcome Digital Transformation Challenges Using Commbox Smart Customer Communication Platform
The described challenges for the healthcare industry require an all-in-one solution, a software that can manage communication with patients effectively through every digital channel while maintaining the highest security standards.
Meet Commbox – an omnichannel communication platform that enhances customer experience and leads digital service, support and sales teams to success.
Commbox helps organizations improve their customer communication by using advanced AI-based technology that engages with customers and solves issues more efficiently than ever with a smart inbox implemented in a customer communication platform.
One popular solution Commbox offers is the WhatsApp API service bot that engages with customers through their app and can do so on many other digital platforms such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter, and more. Commbox can also integrate with leading CRM’s and other operational systems. For customer security, Commbox holds the highest security standards and owns GDPR compliance.
Commbox’s solution successfully transformed a leading healthcare provider – Maccabi, one of two largest healthcare providers in Israel, delivering medical services to millions of customers.
Commbox successfully transformed Maccabi’s customer service to digital channels by implementing its smart solutions such as WhatsApp, Email, and Video Chat support for patients. Maccabi also improved their entire patient experience using Commbox’s smart social media and messaging apps. Nowadays, Maccabi provides advanced service to patients through their app and website, powered by Commbox.
Using Commbox’s solution, Maccabi delivered quick and effective medical services to millions of people during the initial Covid-19 outbreak. Later on, they managed the administration of Pfizer vaccines to millions of Israeli civilians, using Commbox’s solution.
5 Reasons Why Commbox is the Solution For Healthcare Services
- All-in-one omnichannel customer communication solution.
- WhatsApp API smart bots that provide friendly and effective service.
- AI and automation features that improve patient experience.
- GDPR security compliance.
- Proven success in managing healthcare companies’ digital services.
In Conclusion
Digital technologies keep evolving and mark a new era for the healthcare industry. As patients expect digital service to become more digital and multichannel, healthcare providers need to upgrade their service and enhance patient experience or get left behind.
Implementing an omnichannel, AI-based, and secured customer communication solution is imperative for any clinic, hospital, or medical institution now more than ever.
About Commbox
Commbox offers an innovative solution for customer interactions, creating a holistic customer communication experience. Using the Commbox platform, companies and enterprises can automate recurring tasks that are excessively time-consuming, allowing your agents to focus on more important tasks. Commbox paves the way for autonomous business communication without losing the quintessential human touch.
Commbox’s mission is to pave the way for companies worldwide to become autonomous enterprises, without losing their quintessential human touch.
