As the consumerization of healthcare becomes more of a reality, a digital-first approach to care is being explored by more and more systems throughout the U.S. Today’s top tech advancements range from remote patient monitoring to AI & machine learning to virtual reality—and to asynchronous telehealth.
Couple the desire to keep revenue flowing with crippling capacity constraints, and it’s no wonder many are looking to asynchronous telehealth options. With the right solution, systems can lower overall costs of care, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce administrative burden on doctors.
Below, we rounded up the top seven ways asynchronous telehealth helps power a digital-first approach to healthcare.
- Asynchronous telehealth improves patient access to quality care. If used correctly, asynchronous technology can help improve access to quality care, and at Bright.md, that remains at the core of our product. Bright.md’s asynchronous platform addresses key barriers to access, including transportation, language, technology, cost, wait times, health literacy and inclusivity. An asynchronous platform that helps with care access and health equity should also allow for connection without broadband—Bright.md operates on any device with an Internet connection. Our team of developers, writers, and clinicians constantly ensures the platform is built and maintained for a diverse patient population and is continually updating the interface to be inclusive of gender identities, socioeconomic background, and other factors.
- Asynchronous telehealth reduces costs and creates efficiencies in treatment for common primary and urgent care conditions. With an asynchronous platform like Bright.md, health systems are able to reduce the costs associated with expensive ER trips by using the solution to deliver care for low-acuity conditions. In fact, a key cost saver is ER avoidance—Bright.md helps redirect patients with urgent, low-acuity needs to our solution, as opposed to the patient going to an ER.
- Asynchronous telehealth can act as a digital front door for health systems. Sixty-two percent of people feel as though today’s healthcare system is intentionally confusing, according to Harvard Business Review—and we can’t blame them. Combine that with overwhelmed call centers, growing provider shortages, and shifting consumer expectations, and health systems are being forced to rethink how they effectively engage and triage patients to guide them to the right venue of care, the first time.
With Bright.md, customers have access to Navigate, which helps health systems attract and retain patients, achieve positive patient outcomes, and reduce costs by guiding patients to the right venue of care. Navigate is an easy-to-use digital solution that asks patients to answer a few questions about their symptoms and then offers care options based on their needs. Navigate links the patient directly to the appropriate next step configured by the health system, whether that be an on-demand asynchronous appointment, a scheduling tool, or the nearest urgent care clinic. - Asynchronous telehealth helps systems stay competitive while attracting and retaining patients. With the rise of self-service consumer-facing applications like Netflix, patient expectations have shifted and the landscape for healthcare is becoming increasingly competitive. Combine that with decreased revenue as a result of the pandemic, and the case for technology that drives patient loyalty is as strong as ever.
With Bright.md, we pride ourselves on using customer and patient feedback to drive product development. Our developers, designers, and clinical content team are constantly evolving our products and platforms based on ongoing feedback, and as a result, 90 percent of patients who have used Bright.md say they want to use it again. For health systems looking for ways to keep patients coming back, an asynchronous telehealth option is key. - Asynchronous telehealth eliminates administrative burdens on providers. It’s no secret today’s clinicians are facing feelings of burnout at an unprecedented level; doctors often report being pressed for time and resources while struggling to use clunky EHR interfaces. With the right asynchronous platform, system leaders can increase the capacity of their existing clinical teams by eliminating clinician administrative work.
Bright.md does this by automating SOAP-formatted chart notes, after-visit summaries, treatment plans, prescriptions, and more, along with clinical intake and pre-visit interviews—directly integrated in the EHR. In turn, Bright.md reduces provider time to deliver care from 20 minutes on average to five minutes or less for hundreds of low-acuity conditions. - Asynchronous telehealth can partner well with other solutions to enable a true hybrid care model. At Bright.md, we’re building partnerships with key players throughout the digital health ecosystem to deepen integrations, define new models of patient engagement, and reduce frictions in care delivery.
For health systems, these partnerships mean access to shared data to improve quality, outcomes, and continuity of care, while delivering more effective and efficient ways for providers to engage with patients. We’re excited for the future we’re building with other leading digital health companies to create an unmatched hybrid care experience for patients, providers, and executives. - Asynchronous telehealth integrates well into a robust, innovative telehealth portfolio. Many systems are in the process of reassessing their care strategy and implementing a hybrid approach to delivering care. To build a robust telehealth portfolio that supports both virtual and in-person care, solutions that consider the entire care experience are key.
At Bright.md, we aim to streamline the entire care experience by automating clinical workflows, pre-visit interviews, and patient intake ahead of any in-person or virtual appointment, removing the mundane parts of healthcare and ultimately increasing the quality of all care encounters.
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