A new whitepaper from The Beryl Institute explores why and how technology can play a crucial role in addressing and influencing patient experience overall. The report includes interviews with numerous healthcare leaders, including CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and patient experience executives.
Some topics the executives touched on were the most significant patient experience-related technologies in use today, the value in investing in such technology, current trends in the industry and guiding principles for using technology to improve patient experience.
Ultimately, several technology trends were uncovered in the report that the whitepaper authors believed to be "central and relevant to positively impacting experience." The six themes are highlighted here.
1. Patients should be at the center of technology discussions. Healthcare leaders must view patients not just as recipients of technological innovations, but as active partners in helping shape what those innovations look and feel like.
2. Don't overlook the feedback from care teams. It's important to include and acknowledge the perspectives of those involved in care delivery to ensure they can do their work effectively.
3. Embrace the changing nature and overall relationship structure of healthcare. Increasingly, individuals have broader access to information, connectivity and mobile resources, which changes how they make choices. The shift in care delivery should change how healthcare leaders think about patient experience as a whole.
4. Patient experience is the sum of numerous interactions, including those with technology. Decisions made about technology should not be made in a vacuum, but with intention and thoughtfulness that considers the whole experience.
5. Adding technology just to seem cutting-edge is a bad idea. Despite what some healthcare leaders are told, implementing new technology just to have it is a disastrous idea.
6. Ensuring healthcare technologies can communicate is crucial. Patient experience and technology are inseparable, so technology must be able to talk, share, collaborate and drive collective conclusions effectively.
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