New Report Shows Impact of Self-Scheduling on Patient Engagement

In December, Panda Health released a new report, Digital Health Tipping Point, that focused on adopting digital health technology. The report highlighted where tech healthcare leaders will invest and where they may scale back. In other words, what's in and what's out. 

Here are a few key takeaways we found interesting. 

The Use of Self-Scheduling will More Than Double 
With sixty-seven percent of patients saying they prefer online booking, it's clear that patients want self-scheduling in their healthcare journey. Due to this growing desire, Panda Health predicts that self-scheduling solutions will rise from thirty to seventy-five percent by the end of the year.

In a discussion with Colin Hung from Healthcare IT Today, Panda Health President and COO Ryan Bengtson explained how patient self-scheduling can improve ROI. Bengtson stated that self-scheduling "Has a high return on investment with the labor savings and increase in productivity. The technology also has many proof points and clear demonstrated value." 

Panda Health's report shows providers are willing to invest in self-scheduling solutions. However, ust offering an online scheduling platform isn’t enough. It’s important to meet patients where they are, and that is on mobile. Eighty-four percent of patients said they would prefer to schedule appointments with an app.

The ROI of Chatbots is Still Unclear...For Now 
One of the more surprising revelations of the report is that website chatbots do not have a clear ROI. Despite their commonness, healthcare leaders are skeptical of a chatbot's success. Some of the specific findings included: 

• One-third of professionals thought that chatbots were less valuable than people said.
• Nearly half of leaders weren't sure if chatbots were giving back more than they cost.
• More than half of leaders weren't happy or didn't care about the chatbots they had.

New vendors entering the market have a lot of room to show their value. A new report from our partners at Hyro showed there was a big impact in call centers. When these solutions are used consistently across entry points such as call, web, and mobile, they tend to be more effective.

Hospital At Home is Not a Main Priority 
While the study revealed that healthcare leaders see the benefit of remote patient monitoring, hospital-at-home programs are still a low priority. When discussing these programs, Bengtson said, "There are not enough proof points, and the upfront costs to implement hospital-at-home are beyond the reach of current budgets." These concerns for a stable ROI put hospital-at-home programs on the back burner for most health systems. But this doesn't mean there isn't potential for these programs in the future. 

Conclusion 
The report and interview with Bengtson show that healthcare leaders want benefits from their digital health investments. When they see clear and measurable returns, leaders are ready to focus on and spend money on the technology.

Are you looking to provide your patients with a self-scheduling tool that improves ROI? Increase the effectiveness of your scheduling solutions by integrating it into a branded mobile platform.