Leading health systems are converting many aspects of a patient’s journey into online experiences. This is similar to ordering a Starbucks drink on a mobile app. Patients can complete many administrative pre-visit formalities before reaching the hospital.
Due to the pandemic, health systems have invested in low-contact and contactless experiences for in-person visits.
When the patient reaches the hospital, a geo-location tracker notifies the administrator at the front office, pushing out an SMS messaging automatically, informing the patient of have been checked in and needs to wait till she is called in.
Once the doctor is ready, next message instructs the patient to move to the door directly. After entering inside, they spend only the necessary amount of time required and leave.
This experience is much like ordering a Starbucks drink online, driving up to the window to grab your order and leave immediately with minimal contact involved.
A lot of primary care and urgent care will be similar to this experience in future. BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-up in Store) is just a variation of the Starbucks example. BOPIS is when a customer is unaware of what she wants to buy or chooses to browse online. She wants to skim the catalog and prices, find out the store offering the best deals, place the order online and then pick it up from the store.
In the healthcare scenario, it translates to symptom triaging. Patient: “I need to know more about my health condition? I’m coughing due to COVID infection or is it something else?” Chatbots: “Will confirm the choices after speaking to someone or to an AI tool.” Appointment fixing: “I have to meet Dr. Dent at hospital Y specializing in my condition.”
Dr. Richard Isaacs of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in northern California, says this transformation could move more care out of medical facilities to homes or specialized centers.
The recent book ‘Health Care Digital Transformation’, authored by Paddy Padmanabhan and Ed Marx mentions the same.