By Ryan Grimmett, Chief of Staff, Product

The typical healthcare experience for an American patient is often overwhelming. From scheduling appointments to understanding diagnoses, finding medications, and deciphering billing, the complexity of navigating these steps has turned personal healthcare management into a daunting exercise. 

While each of these tasks should be independent, interconnected services, they’re often bundled into a massive monolith and labeled “healthcare communications,” leaving patients feeling lost and frustrated. 

Healthcare organizations often don’t take into consideration the user experience, knowledge, or digital literacy required to navigate behemoth patient portals.

The Traditional Patient Portal is Broken

With a “one-size-fits-all” approach for the modern patient portal, healthcare providers have “checked the box” in providing patients and caregivers “access” to healthcare communications. In reality, patient portals have become an undesired obstacle for patients who leave feeling less confident about their health and the tools provided to them. 

Even for patients with high healthcare and digital literacy, these interfaces require an excessive amount of time to learn to navigate, making basic information difficult to find and extended resources practically inaccessible. 

At Get Well, we know healthcare organizations struggle to communicate effectively with patients because they often rely on patient-facing tools delivered with their EHR system. But the EHR is a clinical tool, and not optimized for consumer interaction.

The Solution: Human-Centered Design in Healthcare

Using a human-centered approach, healthcare communication should be redesigned to ensure access to information is easy, intuitive, and accessible.

Start by:

• Treating patients as members of their care team by setting clear expectations about their care experience, offering transparency for as much information as possible about the personnel on the care team, wait times, and the day’s schedule, from the ED through to discharge. 
• Provide health and medication education that is both digestible and in language that can be understood outside of a clinical setting, including multilingual offerings.
• Adopt a mobile-first approach, meeting patients where they are.
• Use automation, AI, and videoconferencing to maximize patient engagement and reduce demand on clinicians’ time.
• Make interactions feel organic by implementing consumer-grade experiences that feel seamless and intuitive

The Double Duty of Exceptional Patient Experience

An outstanding patient experience doesn’t just benefit patients—it also supports healthcare providers by improving workflows and reducing the demand on clinical staff. Engaged and informed patients are more likely to adhere to their care plans, reducing the need for frequent clinical interventions. Additionally, implementing streamlined, digital-first systems for patient care and engagement allows for greater automation, freeing up clinicians to focus on what they do best: patient care.

By blending high-tech solutions with high-touch human support, Get Well scales care teams with AI-driven patient outreach, backed by live assistance, ensuring that patients always have access to the help they need. This approach not only enhances the patient experience but also allows healthcare professionals to practice at the top of their license, focusing on clinical issues rather than administrative tasks.

The path to understanding whole health doesn’t have to be paved with obstacles. By choosing patient-centered, technology-enabled solutions, healthcare organizations can create a more seamless and satisfying experience for their patients, while also optimizing clinical workflows and reducing burnout among healthcare providers. Get in touch with us today to learn how you can maximize your digital health investments without compromising on patient experience.