Patient Centric Healthcare Management in the Digital Age

By:?Dr Shafiq Ahmed

Value of the human touch

Technology has connected the whole world almost seamlessly but at the same time it has reduced the human touch. A mix of the two is necessary. Hospital Management Systems (HMS) has evolved but not many have understood the increased importance of the human touch. Patients and their attendants come to a healthcare facility with a lot of anxiety and this can only be reduced by smiling and caring faces of teams at all levels of interaction.?Doctors work under tremendous pressure and so does the support staff so it is even more important to create an ecosystem that allows for a patient centric practice.

With the exception of a few healthcare providers in India, most of the healthcare facilities are designed with procedures and systems borrowed from the corporate world. The patients as a result have to navigate through the structures and systems which cause unnecessary discomfort to the patients. A better way would be to build an ecosystem around the patient’s needs.

Feelings & bonding are very important in a systems & process led world

At BLK-MAX, we have ensured just the right mix of technology and the human factor to build patient centric healthcare processes.?Simple tools like WhatsApp group messaging ensures response from teams on a 24X7 basis. This looks simple but given the cultural context of India where the junior team members may feel hesitant to contact the senior leadership, this simple tool resolves a critical communication gap. In an industry, where we deal with life and death challenges every day, delay in communication can cause huge errors.?It requires a military like precision in communication.

Patient centricity manifests fully with an unhurried approach

Patient centricity manifests from the first interaction the patient has with the doctor.?This requires an unhurried approach that gives time and space to the patient to explain their medical condition and environmental circumstances. This would enable the doctor to get a holistic understanding of patients before finalizing the line of treatment. Once the patient is comfortable, he or she shares a lot of inputs and details which may be missed in a hurried approach. This also helps in setting right expectations on the line of treatment and thereby reduces a lot of anxiety and disappointment especially if the treatment is a prolonged one.?

A lot of issues may be discovered as the treatment progresses so keeping the patient updated in a stage wise manner lowers the anxiety levels. Jumping the stages can create reduced levels of trust as the line of treatment may need adjustments if new facts are revealed. Sometimes, these are discovered during the surgical procedure and sometimes during the medication stage.?If the patient is a part of the process, then the collaboration from his or her side is highly positive on the trust factor.

For example, many a times the laboratory tests may throw up infections which may be asymptomatic and may not require any medication. Symptoms if any in such cases can only be gauged on the basis of patient feedback.?Another example is that the patient may have forgotten to share his earlier ailments or diseases in the family tree. Several studies have revealed that a lot of litigation and angry responses from the patient and attendants are avoided if the expectations are set correctly from stage one by briefing the patient in an easy-to-understand language.

Follow up is critical

I have made it a practice to ensure a periodical follow up with my patients and also regularly check the patients’ feedback on social media and our hospital’s site.?If a patient is highly disappointed at any stage of treatment he may simply choose to avoid that healthcare facility and the service provider may never discover the gaps in the service quality. Sometimes the follow up by the Surgeon may be transferred to junior staff and the patient feedback may never reach the Surgeon. Patients consider this as lack of concern on the part of the Surgeon which may affect the trust factor as well as generate a negative word of mouth.?In a patient centric system, the treating doctor must follow up with the patient in all the stages of treatment as well as the follow up stage.

Correcting mistakes

In India, a bigger challenge comes from the quality and quantity of support staff particularly due to shortage of experienced nursing staff. A large number of Indian nurses are poached by developed nation by the time they have two to three years of experience. One study shows the poaching to be approximately 60%. Less trained staff may make mistakes due to lack of confidence or training & then try to hide it due to fear. The leadership teams including the doctors therefore should have a double check on systems and must have a direct line of communication with the patient and the support staff. If the leadership is too harsh then complaints related to staff areas may never reach them which can be disastrous for patient doctor relationship.?Human error is bound to happen in any service area but timely intervention by other team members can resolve it quickly. This will also help in finding out the training gaps.

Healthcare is a people-to-people domain so the conversations at all levels should be patient and people focused.?A lot of corporate paradigms do not fit in the healthcare domain for the simple reason that most of the corporate world is highly focused on systems, regulations and structures for profit maximization. Healthcare, in contrast, needs a balance between feelings, bonding, processes and systems with a higher level of importance to care equity maximization.