You know how they say “time is money”? That’s especially true in our post-pandemic world, with all the changes it brought to the work environment. Healthcare is one industry that feels this deeply. Just think about the process after surgery. So many people are involved in making sure patients can leave the hospital safely – doctors, nurses, billing coordinators, transportation, pharmacy staff… it all adds up to a lot of time.
To speed things up, we need to improve communication while keeping audit trails and ensuring HIPAA compliance, so everyone leaving the hospital has what they need to recover quickly. That’s why healthcare providers are now turning to automation solutions for better patient experiences. In fact, a Deloitte report on AI says 94% of businesses believe AI is crucial for success.
Here’s a story to help you get the picture: Imagine Greg, who falls off the roof trying to complete his honey-do list. Although he’s mostly okay, he fractured his hand, which hurts almost as much as his wife’s scolding. After a quick surgery to set the bone, Greg is ready to go home. That’s where AI and automation come in.
Communications, Simplified
a nurse changes Greg’s status to “ready for discharge” in the medical records system, kicking off a workflow in Five9. This activates a phone tree where each member of Greg’s medical team gets a call from a Five9 Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) asking for verbal, voice print authenticated confirmation that Greg can go home.
Text messages are sent to the nursing staff on the floor, instructing them to give Greg his discharge instructions. Once done, a quick reply to the IVA sends the info to the relevant systems for auditing purposes.
Even Greg’s wife, his authorized medical contact, gets automated messages. She receives a link with driving directions to the pickup area and an email with discharge instructions and info about where to pick up Greg’s prescriptions – just in case he loses his copy.
Once all confirmations are done, Five9 updates the relevant systems, including billing and EMR, and lets the orderly know Greg is ready to go. Thanks to all this automation, the hospital saves an hour on the discharge process and can serve more patients in a single day.
The next day, Greg gets follow-up text messages from a Five9 IVA checking on his status and scheduling a follow-up appointment with the doctor. He replies and books the appointment without talking to anyone.
The hospital also gives Greg the option to arrange medical transportation to his appointment. He can use either a voice or text-based IVA to do this and save his wife a day off work.
In the end, Greg gets a reminder call the day before and a text when the van is 15 minutes away. He’s impressed by the proactive communication and knows he can always choose to speak to a live agent if needed.
Efficiency Through Automation
So, we’ve seen how a healthcare provider gave Greg exceptional patient care by:
- Boosting efficiency with automation
- Improving communication inside and outside the hospital
- Streamlining appointment scheduling
- Offering extra services like transportation
- Increasing the number of patients they can serve in a day
You can get results by adding IVAs and automation to your patient communication strategy. Five9 makes it easy with our low-code IVA builder, which includes a library of pre-configured healthcare tasks for booking appointments, test results, prescription management, and more. To learn more, visit the Five9 IVA solution page.