Medssenger Team
The healthcare system today needs change — and one change that experts champion is the move toward patient-centered care.
The fact that we are considering “patient-centered care” to be innovative already suggests that our healthcare system has a big problem. In any other industry, the service is naturally delivered as “consumer-centered” manner, because this empowers the consumers and provides them with better service, products and satisfaction. Unfortunately, while many might argue that the healthcare is of course patient-centered, the consensus is that it is not.
Patients want their care patient-centered for all the obvious reasons. However, while providers and hospitals know patient-centered care creates the best outcomes, inefficiencies, a lack of interventions and gaps in healthcare coordination make achieving the goal difficult to say the least.
Why should providers and hospitals invest to overcome these obstacles? There are many benefits, but simply put, patient-centered care helps the people involved, both the patients and the providers: Studies have shown that patient-centered care improves patient health outcomes and satisfaction. Furthermore, it has also been shown that providers caring for patients in a such model have greater employee satisfaction, higher retention and reduced burnout.
Helping people helps hospitals financially as well. Improved patient outcomes and satisfaction in turn reduce penalties and increase rewards as we shift to value-based payment models. More engaged patients avoids no-shows and increases utilization. Improved employee satisfaction and retention means improved morale and lower training costs.
Importantly, patients are seeking hospitals that use a patient-centered care approach as reflected in the CAHPS survey metrics. (Patient-provider communication and quality of relationship are just two of such metrics in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey.) In fact, the Cleveland Clinic increased its marketshare by focusing on patient-centered care.
So what do providers and hospitals need to deliver patient-centered care? They need a system that allows delivering seamless care to patients, regardless of the care setting. That system must allow easy, efficient communication and coordination for everybody involved across the full continuum of care.
That’s what Medssenger does. Medssenger is a platform that efficiently builds strong relationships between patients and care providers. Better care and outcomes come from better relationships. Better communication and coordination build better relationships. Medssenger builds such relationships — both among the providers and with the patients — to provide seamless patient-centered care anywhere and everywhere.