Digital transformation in healthcare: A new era of patient care

Which digital transformation initiatives will bring your organization the most value? It’s a question McKinsey and Co. recently asked 200 health system leaders. More than three-quarters (76%) of respondents are prioritizing virtual health to drive patient experience and access. Another 62% are looking for ways to implement or enhance their digital front door, while another 45% are emphasizing cross-site capacity management.

These results show that digital transformation in the healthcare sector will bring tangible benefits when investments are tailored toward increasing patient volume, balancing organizational capacity and improving patient outcomes. Let’s dive deeper and explore the main drivers behind digital transformation, uncovering the digital health tools that can help your health system improve the KPIs (key performance indicators) that matter the most to your organization.

What is digital transformation in healthcare?

Digital transformation in healthcare is defined as the comprehensive integration of digital technologies, data analytics, and innovative processes to enhance the delivery of healthcare services. While that transformation can include a wide range of technologies—everything from artificial intelligence (AI) and electronic health records (EHRs) to wearables and remote patient monitoring tools—two overarching themes are emerging.

First, patients today expect a higher level of convenience. Groups like the American Hospital Association have stressed the importance of health systems creating retail-inspired journeys like those customers experience on Amazon. These digital healthcare journeys empower patients to book appointments, find remote care, and receive the care they need seamlessly.

Providing this convenience is difficult for most healthcare systems. Right now, 63% of them can’t meet patient access demand, causing patients to wait an average of 26 days to see their primary care practitioner of choice. To solve these challenges, many healthcare organizations are seeking care orchestration software to balance supply and demand of care.

Secondly, health systems are constantly looking for ways to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and increase efficiency. The fastest path to achieving these critical goals are to improve the logistics of digital care delivery by balancing supply and demand. Solutions that provide virtual on-demand care, for example, can help health systems optimize capacity during spikes in demand.

Successful digital transformation guides patients to best-fit-care

When you focus your organization’s digital transformation on helping your patients find the most appropriate care, you can achieve two mission-critical goals. For one, care becomes more convenient because your patients can schedule an appointment with the right provider in as few clicks as possible. For another, you help ensure the most adequate use of specialists and advanced practice clinicians allowing your healthcare providers to practice at the top of their licenses.

Look for digital solutions that can give your healthcare system:

• Flexible navigation that will provide patients more choices for nearby care. This is especially beneficial for older patients or patients who live in rural areas.
• A readily accessible search bar that can filter the type of care and best results based on the patient’s needs.
• Seamless self-scheduling capabilities—with no dead ends—that empower patients to connect with the right provider without navigating a complicated decision tree.

Digital transformation – manage capacity

As hospitals experience greater volumes of high-acuity patients than ever before, a health system’s digital transformation must address the capacity crisis. Right now, across many organizations, some providers’ schedules are booked for multiple months, while others struggle to fill their available slots with any consistency.

The best way to balance supply and demand is with solutions that deliver real-time healthcare data, and then give you tools to direct patients to the most available care resources. Why does this matter? Let’s say, for example, you have one orthopedic provider with a eight-week wait time, and another with a two-week wait time. Solutions like DexCare allow you to view those wait times, then surface the provider with a two-week wait time so patients will book with them instead. With this combination of emerging technologies and care orchestration, health care systems can unlock added revenue and ease provider burnout.

Increase patient access with the right digital strategy

Three-quarters of all patients begin their search for care on Google. So, if your health system is looking to drive patient acquisition, your digital transformation efforts should focus on making it as easy as possible for patients to find your providers and health services online. DexCare makes this possible by creating pages that load instantly across devices, allowing your health system’s key pages to rank higher on Google. You can also link your booking page from your Google My Business listing with DexCare to drive higher levels of patient engagement and conversions.

Connect patients in rural areas to on-demand care

Digital healthcare transformation with DexCare also increases telehealth utilization by nudging low-acuity patients toward telehealth visits. This healthcare technology is especially useful for organizations seeking to reach patients in rural areas. Using telehealth can save these patients from making a 30-minute—or longer—drive to a brick-and-mortar office while also saving your health system’s precious resources.

Leading systems make healthcare digital transformation happen with DexCare

DexCare is already showing impressive results as it helps top health systems nationwide accelerate their digital transformations. For example, Community Health Network in Indiana increased its virtual care capacity by 300% and saved 377 clinician visit hours annually through increased efficiency thanks to DexCare.

DexCare puts your health system at the forefront

Digital transformation is a parallel road for both providers and patients. Health systems need to adapt their digital transformation strategy to the changing expectations of patients while also balancing capacity for providers and healthcare professionals.

With DexCare, health systems can accomplish both of these goals and improve every aspect of the way they deliver care.

Want to learn more? Read our Digital Care Orchestration Playbook and learn how to treat more patients with the same clinical resources.