Patient Engagement Software: Benefits, Features, Technologies

In today’s digital age, healthcare is not only about treating illness or diseases but beyond that, somewhere around enabling patients to have control over their health.

With the evolution of digital healthcare accessibilities, patients are experiencing transformative treatment approaches and engaging with healthcare service providers. It makes easy and simple for patients to manage their health, communicate with doctors, and access medical information. All of these have become possible thanks to the discovery of Patient Engagement Software solutions.

With the projected market revenue of $68.17 billion by 2032 at a CAGR of 15.3%, the landscape of Patient Engagement Software is poised to revolutionize the healthcare industry.

Now, what you need to know is why your healthcare business needs this digital patient engagement platform.

Worry not! In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into everything you need to know about patient engagement software. From an introduction to pressing need, let’s understand how the patient engagement system revolutionizes the healthcare dynamics.

Let’s dive deep into the future of patient-centered care!

What Is Patient Engagement Software?

Patient engagement software is more like a digital tool combined with technologies and solutions that are oriented to solve patient problems. Unlike other healthcare software solutions, it’s not a cost-intensive tool that each and every healthcare entity has to have in place but the best option to make patients an integral part of your organization.

Simply put, patient engagement software is a comprehensive digital tool designed to improve the relationship and communication between patients and healthcare providers. The aim of this software solution is more towards making patients actively participate in their own healthcare with ease to understand and manage their health conditions.

Some of the key features of this kind of patient engagement solution include:

• Secure messaging
• Appointment scheduling
• Medication reminders
• Access to medical records
• Necessary healthcare and wellness educational resources, and more.

With all these impressive healthcare-oriented features, patient engagement systems foster a more collaborative, informed, and proactive healthcare experience for both patients and providers.

What If You Don’t Have Patient Engagement Platforms in Place?

If you don’t have a patient engagement tool in place, you might be missing out on several benefits that may help you deliver the patients the experience they should get in this digital era, some of the revenue opportunities, etc. Below are the potential costs you can face for not having patient engagement systems:

1. Decreased Patient Satisfaction

Without this system in place, patients may find hurdles in accessing their health records, an appointment with a provider can be a tiresome process, or there’ll be chances of security and privacy-invading. All these traditional issues lead to frustration and decreased satisfaction with the healthcare experience.

2. Inefficient Patient Record Management

Healthcare providers still stuck with manual and fragmented record-keeping systems often face difficulties in accessing and updating patient information, resulting in errors, delays in care, increased administrative burdens, and frustrating both healthcare providers and patients.

3. Limited Data Analysis

The absence of a patient engagement platform means limited capabilities for collecting, analyzing, and leveraging patient data. Without robust data analysis, it is challenging to identify trends, measure outcomes, and implement evidence-based practices, ultimately hindering the ability to enhance patient care and optimize resources.

4. Risk of Compliance Violations

Manual processes and disparate systems can increase the risk of non-compliance with healthcare regulations such as HIPAA. Not complying with this HIPAA standard can lead to legal penalties, financial losses, and damage to the healthcare provider’s reputation.

What are the benefits of patient engagement in Healthcare?

If you’re facing the issues mentioned above, you may think of having a digital patient engagement solution for your organization. But when considering that, you think about how this tool will benefit both patients and healthcare providers. So, let’s consider those:

Patient Engagement System Benefits For Providers

• Enables providers to be actively associated with the patient’s treatment and healthcare journey, resulting in delivering better health outcomes.
• This integrated patient care tool helps providers streamline workflows and administrative tasks, freeing up providers to focus on quality care.
• This enables patients to actively take care of their health, reducing the need for emergency visits, and lowering healthcare expenses. Moreover, it will create an additional stream of revenue for doctors, surgeons, and hospitals through remote personalized healthcare services.
• Enables providers to take extra care of the patient’s health records and less worry about data loss and theft while being compliant with healthcare regulations (country-specific).
• With this, providers can connect with patients anytime as per convenience and offer dedicated healthcare services.

Patient Engagement System Benefits for Patients

• With this system,patients can track and record their symptoms, so it could help in detect diseases in early phases.
• The information and personalizations this system offers reduce patients’ need to visit doctors for mild symptoms and get those treated on an early basis at reduced costs.
• Patients can get 24/7, round-the-clock availability of healthcare providers and get consultations whenever they require.
• By actively engaging patients in their healthcare, patient engagement systems help improve health outcomes.

Features and Functionalities Your Patient Experience Software Must Have

Modern patient engagement software solutions require modern features to connect with today’s audience/patients. Considering the modern challenges and solutions, below are the features and functionalities you should include in your patient engagement system:

• Digital Patient Intake Forms: Asks patients to fill up the admission/account creation form online while eliminating the need for offline paperwork and patient wait time.
• Medical History Update: This allows patients to securely upload and share their medical history with healthcare providers, enabling informed decision-making.
• Appointment Scheduling: A patient-specific app enables patients to schedule appointments with a provider of their choice at their convenience time based on the provider’s availability to avoid end-time waiting in the queue. At the time of scheduling an appointment with the provider, a meeting should be marked in both the patient’s and provider’s systems’ calendars, and automatic reminders about the consultation to avoid schedule disruptions and no-shows of patients.
• Digital Payments: Integrate the payment gateway with your patient engagement portal to allow patients to pay online through their convenient payment channels securely.
• Access to Lab Test Reports: This feature allows patients to access their lab test history anytime and even share it with the healthcare provider for quick medical decisions and proactive treatment. Further, medical practitioners can enhance this feature by leveraging medical billing software development and synchronizing patient data.
• In-app Communication: It offers patients and providers a seamless and secure channel to connect easily digitally through modes like chat, video call, or simple audio call for quick healthcare consultation.

These are just a few of many others available out there with the support of advanced technologies like AI/ML that help you offer more personalized attention to your patients, making your Patient Engagement platform a reliable tool.

Why Do You Need Patient Engagement Software Development?

Developing patient engagement software is not just an option but a need for modern healthcare practices due to several compelling reasons, which include:

• It is essential to facilitate direct, convenient, and better communication between patients and healthcare providers. It’s a prerequisite to build secure and reliable online communication mediums.
• Offer easy access to medical records through EHR software systems, treatment plans, and test results. It enhances transparency and trust between patients and the healthcare entity/provider. However, you must first gothrough the difference between Epic and Cerner and which EHR systems are better for you.
• Empower patients to have active participation in their healthcare practices through health tracking, medication tracking, and access to personalized health education materials.
• Offer round-the-clock access to their healthcare information and services anytime, anywhere, with utmost convenience.
• Automate routine administrative tasks for healthcare entities, such as appointment scheduling, reminders, and billing.
• If implemented with advanced big data solutions, it can offer data-driven insights helpful in offering personalized patient healthcare.
• This tool will help you stand out in the competitive market with better value for patient care through innovative patient-centered services that attract and retain patients.

Tools and Technologies To Use For Patient Engagement Software Development

Developing a robust patient engagement software system that connects patients with the healthcare services and extends that to the greater level, requires support from the multiple modern tools and technologies. When planning to build patient engagement software for your entity, you should focus on the following tools and technologies:

How Much Does it Cost to Develop A Patient Engagement Software?

When it comes to getting an accurate Patient engagement software development cost estimation, there’s no straightforward answer, as it can depend on various factors. Some of the factors include app complexity, features and functionalities to be included, platform UI/UX design, testing considerations, technology used, expertise hired, location of the healthcare app development company, and more.

However, in a tentative manner, you can consider that patient engagement software development may cost in the range of $10,000 – $40,000 or more, depending on your requirements.

In addition to the initial cost estimation, you should also consider the add-on services like ongoing maintenance & support, API integration, etc., to avoid getting into the traps of these hidden costs of developing patient portals.

Conclusion

Patient engagement software is a crucial tool for healthcare providers to enhance patient engagement and improve care. By understanding the benefits, challenges, and key features of patient engagement software, healthcare providers can make informed decisions. It will help them to choose and implement the right technology for their practices.

But doing it all alone without the help of software industry experts can be a headache. Hence, it’s always advisable to seek the help of an expert software development service provider offering services to the healthcare sector.

So, want to build your dream patient engagement app/software solution? Share your requirements with us today and get the most suitable solution that solves your challenges and offers better benefits.

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Article By

Mayur Panchal

Mayur Panchal is the CTO of Excellent Webworld. With his skills and expertise, He stays updated with industry trends and utilizes his technical expertise to address problems faced by entrepreneurs and startup owners.