According to a report from Grandview research, the market for patient engagement solutions is expected to grow by 4x between now and 2026, reaching $56.92 billion USD. Patient engagement has become increasingly important in recent years, driven by a number of factors. First and foremost, you have two young and tech-savvy generations (millennials and Gen Z) coming into adulthood and expecting more personalized online options from their care providers. At the other end of the generational spectrum, there is the last of a large aging population of baby boomers entering their later years, many of whom desire to “age in place” without losing the personal touch they’ve come to expect from their care providers. In response to the surging demand these factors have caused, the healthcare industry is experiencing a boom in patient engagement solutions.

Effective communication is a key component to the successful delivery of care. Without it, care quality is impaired. Since communication in a practice is essential to facilitating care delivery, patient satisfaction and the productivity of healthcare personnel—within all healthcare environments—there should be active communication between all members of a practice. However, some practices still struggle to communicate effectively with patients, thus preventing a smooth experience.

Having a specialty-specific EHR is important. However, subspecialty features are sometimes left out of EHR designs. Glaucoma specialists have their own particular needs, and the best EHR should be designed to meet them. For example, it can sometimes be difficult for glaucoma specialists to analyze patient trends over time in order to determine how they are responding to treatment. Also, it can be inefficient when you have to navigate through multiple areas of a patient’s chart to document glaucoma-related data.

Advancements in health IT have come to encompass a wide range of specialized EHR functionalities, including tools designed to address various specialty-specific documentation needs. However, many EHR and Practice Management (PM) solutions remain limited in this regard. A 2015 survey found that 77 percent of respondents were working with EHR solutions that were not designed for, or suited to, their specialties. The same study also found that 80 percent of physicians at the time were dissatisfied with their current EHR solutions. How things have changed in just five short years.

Welcome to the second half of our two-part blog series on Boling Vision Center (BVC), and how their practice not only survived but thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Part 1, we focused on how they created a safe and enjoyable patient experience by developing new processes and services in addition to modifying old ones. In this blog, we will examine how they were able to cost-effectively achieve record numbers by executing an aggressive social media and community outreach initiative during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The COVID-19 outbreak caught many in the healthcare community off guard. In very short order, many practices found themselves scrambling to adjust to new protocols, processes and regulations. Some succeeded more than others, of course. At Nextech, we closely monitored the impact of the pandemic on our practices to gain as much insight as possible and to learn how to meet the changing needs of our users. For months, we have been conducting interviews, insight surveys and case studies with our clients to gain an understanding of which tactics are working, as well as which ones are not and we are doing our best to share these findings with our readers.

Last year, we posted a blog to discuss how the right EHR software can and should reduce physician and staff burnout. The world has changed a lot since then, needless to say. However, burnout among healthcare providers is still a very serious issue. According to a 2020 Medscape report on Physician Suicide & Burnout, 42 percent of responding physicians reported feelings of burnout. While this is a 4 percent overall drop from five years ago, it is still a fairly high amount. Of the physicians who participated, the highest levels of burnout were seen among specialty providers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in widespread disruptions across multiple industries, including healthcare. Companies and organizations have had to pivot focus and reinvent traditional approaches to longstanding processes in order to adapt to sudden changes. Eating out in restaurants has been replaced by food delivery. Classrooms have been replaced with online distance learning. The doctor’s office has been supplemented with telemedicine, remote monitoring and virtual visits.