TRENDS
a “virtual waiting room” system across its network of 300 clinics in six Western states. Mobile chatbots from LifeLink Systems interact with patients to help them complete digitized intake forms, provide education, and enable remote check-in capabilities for telehealth and inperson physician office visits. The IDN reported that a prior intake automation initiative that focused on Medicare Annual Wellness Visits for seniors resulted in a 70% reduction in appointment cancellations.
‘ I don’t feel providers necessarily feel any affinity or loyalty to the waiting room, but we all do have resistance to changing how we work.’ Meanwhile, New York-based Yosi Health, provider of patient intake and management systems, reports that streamlining patient intake: ʯ Eliminates 14 minutes of staff time spent printing, scanning, transcribing, etc. ʯ Improves claim submission rates. ʯ Reduces A/R cycle. ʯ Enhances patient experience. 34
August 2021
•
www.repertoiremag.com
What’ll it take? Visions aside, widespread change to the waiting room experience won’t happen easily. Lloyd says that regardless of how frustrated patients are by crowded waiting rooms, many practices may trend back toward a pre-pandemic state due to a lack of funds to implement new technology or physically redesign their waiting rooms. Making change will be difficult, says Schwieterman. “The waiting room is a longstanding and traditional norm for care delivery. Eliminating it requires a higher degree of order and efficiency for all aspects of the care chain. All other processes will need to be controlled first, since care teams will need to know with precision when a patient is ready to be seen. Invariably this will require new technologies for digital check-in, history taking, real-time locating and way-finding, as well as more efficient on-premises care methodologies. “Variability and unpredictability will need to be significantly contained before the waiting room can be sacrificed. I don’t feel providers necessarily feel any affinity or loyalty to the waiting room, but we all do have resistance to changing how we work, and that may well be the primary barrier to this change.” The impact of telemedicine on in-person visits is unknown, he says. But COVID demonstrated that all or portions of the patient encounter can be done virtually, with intake in the clinic reserved for patients who truly need to be physically seen. “Virtual care need not be seen only as a replacement, but can be an important augmentation of a progressive care plan.”
