More and more every day, technology is making the healthcare workplace a more integrated environment. From managing electronic healthcare records to enabling best-practice call centers, technology is helping those in the healthcare industry to simplify patient interaction and management, as well as communication between all of the parties involved in their care.

Patient data can now be read and communicated in real time, significantly reducing the time needed to research and resolve inquiries regarding their care. As patients navigate through the healthcare system, integrated communication makes staff more efficient and minimizes less than adequate patient experience.

While in the past medical practices may have had several different platforms they needed to manage in order to delver the entire customer experience end to end, new technologies are allowing them to utilize integrated products from multiple suppliers to connect patients, medical practitioners, and area pharmacies in a more optimal way.

  • Back-end systems integration –  A back-end system exists to support back-office applications. These systems obtain user input and gather input from other systems, resulting in responsive output.
  • Workforce optimization – Workforce optimization is a strategy put in place to balance performance metrics such as scheduling, service levels and operational costs to achieve maximum benefit for a business.
  • CRM databases – CRM systems manage a medical practice’s interaction with current and potential patients; utilizing data analysis about patient history to improve relationships, obtain desired retention rates, and  drive growth.
  • Natural language processing, automated speech recognition, text-to-speech – These technology advances utilize hardware and software to identify and process the human voice, and have applications throughout the practice, such as automated call center lines for basic information.
  • Artificial intelligence – AI refers to the use of computer systems to perform tasks that traditionally required human intelligence.

While many of these applications enable communications and information exchange without a human being’s involvement, many medical practices will opt for a hybrid version of the technologies – allowing for the system to handle mundane calls or provide easily sourced data to a patient, always with an option to reach a human if need be.

Some of the real-world applications for technology in medical care include:

  • Real-time, personalized interactions using social media platforms, chat applications, and mobile functionality.
  • Automated workflows utilized to provide meaningful collaboration between providers and patients.
  • Integration of data from various sources, such as an electronic health record and a CRM customer service database , to provide the total solution needed for the patient
  • Deployment of cloud, on-premises, or hybrid technology environments designed specifically for each practitioner’s unique environment.

With so many technological advances and so many vendors to deal with, it may seem overwhelming to a medical professional to find a way to seamlessly integrate them all for an optimal patient experience. This is where a managed services firm can assist. A local Sarasota managed services provider can:

  • Perform a current technology and business assessment.
  • Review current challenges with workflow, patient experience, HIPAA compliance, or information exchange.
  • Determine the level of IT expertise at the medical practitioner’s office, and the negative impact on productivity when technology issues arise.
  • Recommend a suite of cloud services, onsite solutions, or managed services expertise that will help with all workflow and productivity issues.
  • Conduct the implementation and integration of systems that will best streamline the medical practice productivity, compliance and workflow.
  • Provide ongoing assistance or technological support as needed, to free up personnel and keep you focused on the patient..

If you are in charge of a Sarasota medical practice and suspect that you could be using technology to a greater advantage, call Alliance IT today for a no-obligation consultation.