Everyone has a story about waiting for the doctor. Waiting for an appointment often results in more waiting for lab tests, specialists, or administrative processing. And these increased wait times have a negative impact on the most important of healthcare criteria: Positive treatment outcomes.
What places constraints on the speed and efficacy of treatment? A growing population with an increase of elderly patients, limited resources, and antiquated patient processing systems, for a start. Into the foreseeable future the constraints are going to tighten, resulting in further delays in treating individuals who require immediate assistance.
Modifying treatment processes to meet the demands of a changing market’s service requirements is necessary, and current tools will not meet this challenge.
Discovering the bottlenecks that negatively impact treatment processes can be reasonably easy, but finding solutions to effectively manage these bottlenecks, in the short and long term, presents a challenge. The goal is to quickly and effectively place the patient on the correct treatment path, and this includes:
- Initial contact with the patient and efficiently booking the first appointment
- Placing the patient into the clinic/treatment room with the correct healthcare professional in the first phase
- Quickly referring the patient to the appropriate treatment path, with initial lab/evaluation criteria being prescribed and evaluated by the appropriate professional as soon as possible
Progressive healthcare instruments are arriving to redefine assessment and treatment processes.
Fortunately, many progressive healthcare companies understand the changing requirements and are adapting their technologies to meet the demands. Faster intervention and patient channeling to the correct treatment professional is made possible through effective chatbot interactions during appointment scheduling. Earlier treatment intervention can be initiated because of the development and implementation of remote treatment sessions. Effective and efficient medical diagnostics are being supported by AI solutions. And these are only initial examples of impacts that new technologies will have on the future of healthcare.
New approaches will require a shift in thinking, for both patients and professionals alike, towards new ways of interacting in the world of healthcare.
New solutions to address waiting times are directed at changing the healthcare stories that will be told in the future. Online and remote treatment experiences will become the patient’s first entry point into the healthcare system, improving both the beginning and ending of the healthcare experience. With patient and professional acceptance of new ways of interacting, significant progress in reducing wait times is within reach.
