Closing communication gaps between patients and providers

Think about all the ways you keep yourself healthy. Whether that’s making a healthy choice for dinner, going for a walk around the block, or taking your medications every day – most of that activity happens outside of a healthcare setting. In fact, factors outside of the medical practice determine 80% of a person’s health. That’s why it’s so critical that providers and patients find ways to connect beyond the four walls of a hospital. By doing this, we can improve the patient journey and produce better health outcomes.

But there are gaps in the patient-provider relationship.

The patient journey is more complicated than ever because of fragmented systems, deluges of data, and countless new technologies. As providers work to improve their patients’ health, it’s increasingly important that they look outside the traditional visit to deliver patient care.

Let’s envision a better journey.

Short notice appointment cancellations can be a particular pain point along this journey. They are difficult to manage and result in under-utilized capacity for the clinic or a last-minute scramble for the front desk to fill it from a waitlist. In either case, they disrupt clinical workflows. Additionally, it can mean patients lose their access to care, because patients who cancel often don’t follow up to reschedule.

Patients have lots of reasons to cancel. However, we can help mitigate some challenges, such as lack of access to transportation or time constraints. To minimize the impact of cancellations, Luma Health has built a telehealth bot that’s integrated directly with Webex Teams. When a patient cancels an appointment, Luma Health determines if the patient is eligible for a telehealth visit. That decision is based on their appointment type, characteristics (diagnosis and procedure), and provider preference. If a patient qualifies and agrees to a telehealth visit, Luma Health creates a private room for the patient and provider within Webex over a secure channel. Then, the provider conducts the visit using Webex Teams. Finally, when the visit is complete, the room is deleted to ensure privacy.

And the business impact can be huge.

• Maximize revenue, optimize capacity utilization – Minimize the impact of patient cancellations on your revenue stream.
• Ease of use for provider – With Webex Teams embedded inside the doctor’s webpage, you don’t have to jump between Luma Health and the Webex app.
• Modernized experience for patients – Increasing expectations and consumerism mean that the patient experience needs to evolve. With Luma Health for Webex Teams, patients can start a video session from their browser without having to download anything – meaning quick and easy setup and access.

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Learn more

Read about Luma Health’s integration with Webex Teams, and explore all the ways Cisco Healthcare is personalizing the patient experience across the continuum of care.