How Medical Practices & Groups Use Digital Health Campaigns to Close Gaps in Care & Drive Better Outcomes

Patients are juggling a lot of responsibilities, staying current in their care and the care they manage on behalf of children, parents, spouses, and other loved ones can easily fall by the wayside. This is problematic for patients who can experience long-term complications from untreated conditions and providers, who want to keep their patients healthy and are also reimbursed based on patient outcomes and satisfaction. COVID-19 has only added confusion and angst to the mix as patients are currently unsure of whether their providers are seeing patients, how to access care if they need it, and if it’s safe to visit a doctor’s office, urgent care, or hospital. As patients avoid care out of caution for reducing their risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, there’s growing concern over increasing gaps in care that could result in adverse long-term outcomes.  

The good news is that digital patient engagement tools, like health campaigns, offer providers an effective way to educate their patients about preventive and/or follow-up care and get them back on the schedule. Before digital tools offered this level of efficiency, patient outreach was often an annual or semi-annual task for clinic staff and required significant resources to conduct manual phone calls and emails to patients.  

Digital health campaigns automate outreach to patients based on clinical data from the EHR and distribute messaging via text, email, and voice calls. This automation means providers can specify messaging, timing, and outreach method by patient needs and criteria. Providers can now go beyond the annual recall to keep their patients current in their care throughout the year, whether its mammograms, colonoscopies, A1C checks, nutrition information, annual physicians, vaccines, or many other patient needs. Providers who use tools like health campaigns to power ongoing patient outreach and education give their patients a higher level of confidence from knowing their providers have a pulse on their care even between visits. 

Regulatory Help  

Regulatory programs and certifications NCQA’s Patient-Centered Medical Home and CMS MIPS require regular outreach to patients, documentation, and reporting. Health Campaigns make this possible with patient outreach records, analytics, and time-stamped reporting. Now providers can more easily meet the requirements of these programs and produce the required documentation and reporting to qualify.