DeepSummary
Erica Spicer Mason from Becker's Healthcare interviews Tiffany Cross, the Vice President of Clinical Informatics at Covenant Health, about the importance of patient self-scheduling to improve access to healthcare. Tiffany shares her role at Covenant Health, which involves implementing technology and innovative tools to enhance user and patient experiences across their healthcare delivery enterprise, spanning 10 hospitals and various specialties in 25 counties of East Tennessee.
Covenant Health offers multiple access points for patients, including urgent care centers, extended office hours, telemedicine services, a patient app, and a website feature that directs patients to the appropriate level of care based on their symptoms. One key initiative is patient self-scheduling, which was launched to provide patients with the flexibility and convenience to book appointments anytime and anywhere with just a few clicks.
Tiffany highlights the benefits of self-scheduling, including improved convenience, accessibility, and patient empowerment. She shares examples of successful self-scheduling implementation for mammography screenings and walk-in clinics. The tool has streamlined administrative processes, reduced phone calls, and increased operational efficiency, allowing staff to focus on more complex tasks and serve more patients.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Patient self-scheduling improves access to healthcare by providing convenience, accessibility, and empowerment for patients to book appointments on their own terms.
- Self-scheduling streamlines administrative processes, reduces phone calls, and increases operational efficiency for healthcare organizations.
- Successfully implementing self-scheduling requires promoting awareness and adoption among patients through robust awareness campaigns.
- Self-scheduling allows healthcare staff to focus on more complex tasks by automating routine appointment scheduling.
- Covenant Health offers multiple access points for patients, including self-scheduling, urgent care centers, telemedicine services, and online symptom checkers.
- Early results from Covenant Health's self-scheduling initiative for mammography screenings and walk-in clinics have been positive, with increased appointment volumes.
- Self-scheduling supports better health outcomes and patient satisfaction by improving access to healthcare services.
- Healthcare organizations should prioritize clear instructions and a frictionless process when implementing self-scheduling tools.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “We have multiple locations that are covering our 25 county region here in east Tennessee. It's really important for us to be able to meet our patients where they are.“ by Tiffany Cross
- “The innovative platform that we have, it really puts the power of scheduling directly in the hands of the patients. So that way they have the flexibility to book appointments whenever and wherever they choose.“ by Tiffany Cross
- “So I really think that it focuses on really three things. It's convenience, accessibility, and really empowerment.“ by Tiffany Cross
- “I would really tell them two things. The first is really important to promote awareness of the tool that you have. So for self scheduling, you really need a robust campaign, awareness campaign for your patients around that tool, because if you build it, they will come, but only if they happen upon it.“ by Tiffany Cross
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Episode Information
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker's Healthcare
2/22/24
Join us in exploring the transformative power of patient self-scheduling with Tiffany Cross, Vice President of Clinical Informatics at Covenant Health, as we delve into its impact on access, patient experience, and administrative efficiency. Sponsored by Relatient, this episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast sheds light on the innovative strategies reshaping healthcare delivery.
This episode is sponsored by Relatient.