mHealth Tools Let You Measure Post-Operative Patient Success By the Numbers

How do you define success in today’s evolving healthcare industry? How can you improve patient outcome success while keeping your focus on your bottom line? Mobile health (mHealth) tools allow you to focus on providing state-of-the-art healthcare, reducing costs, and improving patient outcome success by allowing each patient to engage in real time with the care team to advance through the steps of care. This improvement in communication is never more critical than during post-operative recovery when your patient’s engagement determines the success of a procedure. “So what does patient engagement mean? It means that patients are motivated in their health and have the tools to improve their well-being. It means that patients comply with their provider’s care plan, and the provider knows about it. It means that patients are active players in their health, versus passive recipients of treatment.” – Puget Sound Business Journal Benefits of incorporating mHEALTH tools into your post-operative procedures: 1. Set expectations regarding recovery, pain management, and rehabilitation. 2. Communicate the ways your patient can improve recovery. 3. Set a timetable for results and provide automated appointment reminders. 4. Provide benchmarks along the recovery process and allow your patient to track success. 5. Provide patients a resource for engaging the care team without interrupting clinicians. 6. Manage the use and renewal of prescription medication. 7. Receive feedback via survey automation without scheduling in-office visits. 8. Know your patient’s recovery progress in real time with real data and modify instructions accordingly without requiring in-office visits. 9. Release patients for activity without requiring in-office visits. 10. ELIMINATE COSTLY READMISSION RATES AS PATIENTS SUCCESSFULLY RECOVER FROM SURGERY THROUGH CONSTANT COMMUNICATION AND RISK STRATIFICATION. Mobile Devices Send and Receive Messages mHealth engages patients through text and multimedia messaging, mobile apps, patient portals, and through interactive devices that track data and instantly communicate results. This improvement in the process allows you, as the care team, to recognize and address complications in real time resulting in a significant reduction in readmission rates and increase in patient success. You can also use real-time communication to analyze and adjust your own practices by noting trends in data and making adjustments to your patients’ coordinated care. Mobile Access to a Patient Portal Allows the Patient to Act on Your Messaging Online portals offer secure access to patient information and provide a resource for continuous patient engagement. An online portal enables both the patient and the doctor to know, see, or find vital patient info in one convenient place. Easily housed on your website, both you and your patient can view, store and record information, schedule appointments, refill medications and communicate with ease. “The fourth annual Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) mobile survey, which included more than 200 healthcare provider employees, revealed that 73 percent of respondents believe the use of app-enabled patient portals has been the most effective tool in patient engagement to date.” – HIMSS Survey

The bottom line for hospitals and healthcare providers who incorporate mHealth tools into regular practice is a savings in time and money as technology increases efficiency in the communication process. The Internet of Things allows your patient to accurately and efficiently communicate the state of recovery through mobile tracking devices that measure the same benchmarks that once required costly in-office visits. Patient engagement, patient satisfaction, and patient outcome success all benefit from trends in mHealth that meet patients where they are through the power of technology they already use, including:

Mobile Phone Messaging        Interactive Mobile Apps      Wearable Devices Patient Portals       Blue-tooth Connected Devices   

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO INCREASE POST-OPERATIVE RECOVERY SUCCESS? If you’re not engaging patients through mHealth tools, you’re not doing everything you can…and your practice is paying a hefty price. For more information on improving post-operative outcomes and saving your practice time and money, visit mdnetsolutions.com/patient-engagement. Join the conversation by following us on social media or using the hashtag #mHealth, #digitalhealth, or #telehealth. Tell us how #wearables have improved YOUR #patientengagement.