As HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) scores become critical to grow hospital revenue and reputation, some studies have argued quality of care suffers as a result. Critics contend satisfaction scores can lead hospitals to look for quick solutions to “teach to the test” and improve survey results, without solving the underlying issue or improving patient outcomes.

When it comes to some of the biggest influences on patient satisfactions scores, facetime with patients is often at the top of the list. In a recent survey published by the New England Journal of Medicine, 59 percent of patients indicated that having physicians and nurses spend more time with them increased their engagement and satisfaction with their care.[i]Meanwhile, highly engaged patients become healthier patients. Compared to highly engaged patients, less engaged patients are three times more likely to have unmet medical needs and twice as likely to delay necessary medical care.[ii]

Integrating appropriate portable technologies to a hospital’s arsenal can go a long way toward supporting clinicians at the bedside and improving patient engagement. From a diagnostic perspective, healthcare providers can begin to include patients in the process—reviewing and analyzing medical images and other health information with them—and activating them as more informed patients. From a patient satisfaction perspective, shorter time-to-treatment can lead to a greatly improved healthcare experience. Instead of waiting in a room for clinicians to wade through images and data, patients can receive information sooner and spend more time with their providers.

At Vave, we are leveraging familiar mobile technologies into our solutions. We plan to transform how doctors, nurses and other hospital staff will acquire and share diagnostic information. Our solutions are more personal to allow clinicians to get focused answers at the point of care—and spend more time interacting with patients.

As U.S. healthcare costs continue to increase, pressure mounts on clinicians to treat patients efficiently in order to maximize patient loads and contain costs. Each year, between $100 and $300 billion of health care costs can be attributed to nonadherence, which equals anywhere from 3 to 10 percent of total US health care costs.^[iii].By engaging patients in their care plans, hospitals can reduce nonadherence and unnecessary associated costs.

Our goal is to empower clinicians with intelligent and mobile tools they can use to achieve the seemingly antithetical goals of lower costs and higher-quality care. We also intend to help clinicians thrive as the face of healthcare changes. With industry movement to more outpatient services, more home-based health care and an increased focus on interoperability in health systems, we intend to provide products that gives doctors and nurses anywhere-anytime capabilities.

[i]https://patientengagementhit.com/features/patient-satisfaction-and-hcahps-what-it-means-for-providers

[ii]https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1061

[iii]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3934668/

Note: HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a patient satisfaction survey required by CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all hospitals in the United States. The Survey is for adult inpatients, excluding psychiatric patients