Beyond Treatment: The World Of Experience-Led Healthcare

Today, the influence of technology permeates every aspect of our lives, reshaping our experiences, perceptions, and interactions. It drives societal evolution, shaping our actions in an ever-changing global landscape. The healthcare industry is not immune to this transformation. The industry is shifting toward a patient-centric care model driven by technology. In fact, U.S. healthcare is projected to dominate more than one-third of the total industry sales, with experience being at the center of it. It promises better care quality, enhanced patient-provider relationships, and improved business outcomes.

Experience-led care: The role of patients, stakeholders, and technology

As healthcare places the patient and their health at the center, the crucial role of the patient within a healthcare ecosystem redefines modern care. This involves shared decision-making, self-management, and partnering with healthcare providers while incorporating deep respect for patient preferences into care plans.

In enabling this, the right kind of technology support and expert guidance make a crucial difference in revolutionizing patient experiences. With disjointed support systems and uncoordinated communication, the entire experience can come to a complete halt. Ergo, there’s a need for an accountable, resolution-first approach to healthcare experiences, wherein seamless collaboration among patients, caregivers, clinicians, and providers can be facilitated by leveraging digital tools and qualitative touchpoints.

The Promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Patient Experience

Patient-provider resolution interactions occur over various touchpoints — phone calls, emails, social media, texts, and more. Looking at it comprehensively, patients’ interactions with doctors or clinicians don’t happen in silos. The bottom line is that healthcare is collaborative.

For providers striving to deliver continuous and uninterrupted care, these interactions contain a treasure trove of insights and potential for automation. By analyzing diverse touchpoints and interactions, AI can enable personalization and efficiency in healthcare delivery.

Diving deeper, research categorizes patient needs into three parts: effective communication, respect and dignity, and emotional support. They increasingly seek simplicity and convenience, driving the demand for personalized, technology-enabled solutions. AI-driven conversational engines streamline scheduling, billing, and clinical communications, ensuring clarity and timeliness. Moreover, AI enhances the caregiver experience, enabling them to focus more on patient care by addressing systemic needs efficiently.

Fig 1: Patient-centric care model

Resolution Desk: Way forward to experience-led care

Clearly, there is a pressing need for an overall integration and a one-point solution to experience-led care. The idea of a Resolution Desk (Patient + Clinical + Technical) has been developed with that particular insight as a solution to the fragmented functioning of the healthcare industry. This centralized platform integrates disparate systems, offering seamless support across channels. The features such as 24×7 availability, omnichannel support, complete automation, IVR system, call and ticket integration, shift-left/shift-down features, and knowledge base enhancement ensure a holistic approach to healthcare service delivery.

The aim is to transform the system in the following ways:

Improved User Adoption

• Through automation and proactive monitoring: The Resolution Desk automates routine tasks and employs proactive monitoring. This ensures quick resolution of issues before they escalate, enhancing user satisfaction and promoting seamless adoption of new technologies.
• Shift left and self-healing: By empowering users to resolve common issues independently through self-service portals, the Resolution Desk reduces dependency on support staff and fosters a culture of self-sufficiency. Additionally, implementing “shift-left” strategies encourages users to seek assistance at earlier stages, minimizing the impact on operations.

Intuitive Customer Experience and Self-Service

• Personalized digital assets: Leveraging generative AI, the Resolution Desk delivers personalized digital assets tailored to individual preferences and needs. From chatbots to self-service portals, users benefit from an interactive and intuitive customer experience that anticipates their requirements and delivers solutions promptly.

Cost Benefits

• Productivity gains: With over 30% productivity benefits baked into proposed pricing models, the Resolution Desk offers significant cost savings for healthcare organizations. Organizations can achieve greater operational efficiency and optimize resource utilization by streamlining support processes and reducing manual interventions.
• Cumulative savings on service desk spend: By centralizing support functions and leveraging automation, the Resolution Desk enables healthcare organizations to realize cumulative savings on service desk spend. These cost savings can be further reinvested into patient care initiatives, technology upgrades, and strategic growth initiatives, driving long-term value and sustainability.

Enhanced Quality and Consistency of Support

• High Resolution at Level 1: Through advanced automation and orchestration capabilities, the Resolution Desk achieves higher resolution rates at Level 1 support, minimizing escalations and ensuring the timely resolution of user issues. This proactive approach to support enhances the quality and consistency of service delivery, fostering greater trust and delivering truly experience-led care.
• Comprehensive analytics and reporting: By leveraging analytics and dashboards, the Resolution Desk provides valuable insights into support performance, user trends, and service quality metrics. This data-driven approach enables healthcare organizations to identify areas for improvement, optimize resource allocation, and continuously enhance the overall support experience.

The overall aim is simple: as technology advances, healthcare must also undergo a cultural shift from a service-based care model to a resolution-first approach.

Tomorrow’s Prescription: Experience-Led Care

The patient-centric care model, through experience-led healthcare, involves technological innovation, collaborative partnerships, and a relentless focus on the patient journey. From personalized service to AI-driven care initiatives, the future of healthcare is shaped by a commitment to delivering excellence at every touchpoint. Embracing initiatives such as HTC’s Resolution Desk (Patient + Clinical + Technical) exemplify this commitment by integrating the entire system and introducing a resolution-driven solution for all the stakeholders across the organization.