Saying it wants to give its customers the tools and insights they need to seamlessly integrate digital and mobile technology into care, athenahealth Inc. has created a “Patient Digital Engagement Index,” to help medical practices understand how their patients use digital tools when receiving care.
The Watertown, Mass.-based ambulatory EHR company said the goal of the Index is to help providers measure and improve how they interact with and support their patients, equipping providers and patients to move together toward a more digital, technology-enabled experience that will ultimately lead to better care.
The Index is designed to help athenahealth practices enhance the patient experience, improve overall patient satisfaction, and drive better health outcomes in communities across the United States. It is currently in limited release and will roll out to all athenahealth customers by the end of 2023.
Despite industry trends toward the consumerization of healthcare, athenahealth notes that many elements of the patient healthcare experience remain stubbornly analog, with patients filling out paper forms on clipboards and calling practices for appointments or test results.
The Index offers medical practices a view into how their patients engage with them digitally across key areas, including health information updates, appointment scheduling, and payment options. Available in the athenaOne Insights Dashboard, the Index enables practices to measure their patient digital engagement, compare their performance against similar organizations on the athenahealth network, and leverage critical insights, training, and best practices to improve patients’ digital engagement with the practice.
“The Patient Digital Engagement Index represents another significant milestone in athenahealth’s journey to create a consumer-grade patient experience, enabling providers and patients to more seamlessly manage health and wellness as active partners to drive better outcomes,” said Paul Brient, chief product officer of athenahealth, in a statement. “With healthcare lagging most other industries in terms of digitization, we are excited to help our customers deliver a higher-quality patient experience and promote patient loyalty.”
Earlier this year athenahealth launched athenaPatient, a patient-facing mobile app that allows patients to view upcoming appointments, access health information such as test results, and connect with care teams across all of a patient’s providers who use athenahealth. The company said it also offers pre-appointment self-check-in capabilities, which allow patients to complete several tasks – such as updating health, medication, and insurance information, enabling providers to have important clinical data available at the point of care for improved focus on the patient and clinical decision making.
