On Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2019, I have the pleasure of joining Melanie Iannace, Musculoskeletal Service Coordinator at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, to deliver a presentation at #HCIC19, the 23rd Annual Healthcare Internet Conference. To prepare, we had an interesting discussion about our motivations for this presentation, the messages we’re most passionate about and the 1 or 2 takeaways we really want to communicate.
The conversation was so interesting, I wanted to share some of our thoughts directly in this blog post.
We’ve written extensively about our research study with a midwestern hospital system and their experience using our SmarteXp® platform and Total Joint Replacement content. Coming at this from the perspective of AtlantiCare, a SmarteXp® user in New Jersey, provides some new insight. If you’re attending the conference, I hope you’ll join us. If not, I hope you’ll find this additional perspective useful as you continue your journey toward patient engagement and patient activation.
As a nationally recognized leader in joint replacement, AtlantiCare was clearly having great success in delivering exceptional care. So how did you come to the realization that you needed to do even more to engage patients and stay connected throughout their entire care episode?
Iannace: Data speaks. We had been using the SmartExp® patient engagement platform and heard about a study proving out its effectiveness on outcomes. We decided to really ramp up our efforts with this program because we are always being challenged to improve metrics like readmissions and patient satisfaction.
How was this experience different from that of the hospital system shown in the study?
Zalvan: There are so many different paths to patient activation using a patient engagement platform like SmarteXp®. As we’ve written previously, our midwestern study partners had proven success using our Pregnancy and Early Childhood care suite, and then expanded the program to improve outcomes while reducing costs in their orthopedic program.
At AtlantiCare, they focused on making the digital component a way to personalize care even further. They make people feel valued, supported and cared for by always being there in their lives. Across healthcare, there’s a growing realization that what happens during the hospital stay is not enough to ensure consistently exceptional outcomes and meet cost reduction goals. What happens in the weeks before the hospital stay, and in the months after, is just as impactful.
What was the most surprising result of using a digital patient engagement platform to communicate with patients?
Iannace: When you think about digital engagement – emails, text messages – and the use of content developed by a third party, like UbiCare, it’s easy to assume that it’s all very impersonal. But our experience and the experience of our patients is just the opposite. Yes, our patients receive evidence-based information and messaging specific to the particular point in time in their care journey, but the patients feel it’s super personal because the content is hyper-relevant to their journey, questions, anxieties and concerns as they move through their episode of care. They feel that AtlantiCare has their back, so to speak, and is always supporting them no matter where they are. It calms their nerves to know they have a lifeline directly into the care system that reaches out to them and that they can access at any time.
Zalvan: I agree. When we say that our content is customizable, it’s more than putting the hospital’s logo on the message. Today’s technology allows you to do so much more, and we’re passionate about pushing the technology to its limits to provide the most personalized experience possible – all while maintaining the integrity of the evidence-based approach that is so important.
The presentation, “Improve Outcomes, Reduce Costs and Identify At-Risk Patients via Digital Patient Engagement: A Research Study”, will take place at the 23rd Annual Healthcare Internet Conference on Nov. 5, 2019 at 1:45pm. I hope to see you there and look forward to discussing our experience, as well as your patient engagement goals and challenges. If you would like to download the patient engagement study mentioned in this post, click here.
If you want to learn more about the SmarteXp® platform and the evidence-based, fully customizable content that is driving new levels of patient engagement and patient activation in hospitals across the country, submit the form below.
