While more than 75 percent of hospitals and health systems have implemented at least one digital health tool — and only 3 percent have zero plans to do so in the future — some of those implementations have been more successful than others.
A new report from the Center for Connected Medicine, a joint initiative of Pittsburgh-based UPMC, GE Healthcare and Nokia, surveyed more than 130 hospital and health system leaders about the digital health tools deployed by their organizations.
Besides the aforementioned high adoption rates, other promising findings from the report included the significant overlap between lists of the tools most widely implemented at respondents' organizations and of those that have been found to deliver the greatest return on investment.
Below are the top 10 functions of digital health solutions that those surveyed said produced the highest ROI. The highest-ranked function, describing tools that allow patients to access their own health records and results, was also the most popular among respondents, comprising 75 percent of the digital health tools already deployed at their organizations.
1. Access patients' own health records/test results
2. Make an appointment
3. Communicate directly with care team
4. Manage payments/pay bills
5. Telehealth for wellness visits
6. Monitor/manage chronic health conditions
7. Telehealth for sick visits
8. Check-in or arrival management
9. Telehealth for behavioral health visit
10. Search for a physician or specialist
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