As you very well know, healthcare is complicated. Between new scientific discoveries, emerging therapeutics, and changing technology, there can be a lot to keep up with. Add your healthcare software to the list, and it becomes even more of a challenge.
For example, how do you choose between EMRs, EHRs, CRM, Patient Relationship Management software, Care Management platforms, or another solution for your team?
How do you track patient data across various systems and easily integrate it with data from your care team?
And, how do you make sure your healthcare software is accessible, user-friendly, and integrates with your current systems and workflows?
At Welkin Health, we believe it’s about putting your care team first. Allow them to design intelligent workflows and streamline their communications while making your software fully customized, integrated, and secure.
Just as your team puts patients first every single day, your healthcare software solution should be designed around the needs of your entire care delivery team. So, why is it that so many “solutions” actually lead to additional work, time pressures, stress, a lack of control, and burnout?
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has long studied the factors that contribute to clinician burnout. Its findings reinforce that, while electronic medical records might have initially been seen as stress reducers, they can instead lead to an increase in stress.
EMRs were primarily designed to enhance billing, coding, and documentation — not to assist with provider workflows or patient monitoring. Many don’t have the flexibility necessary to assist teams in seamlessly transitioning patients through their care plan.
Electronic health records (EHRs) go beyond electronic medical records to show a more complete view of the patient’s overall health. EHRs move with the patient across multiple providers and settings.
However, EHRs still add an additional burden. EHRs require a large amount of data entry to be performed by clinicians. This can contribute to “click fatigue” and take away time that is meant to be spent with patients.
This means, even after healthcare teams adopt electronic medical records or EHR products, stress remains high. When these products are used in conjunction with short patient visits, this can also contribute to burnout.
The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) reports that team-based care is linked to improved patient outcomes … and can improve clinician well-being. NAM points out that patient satisfaction relies upon seamless communication, patient monitoring, and the successful transition of patients to other care providers.
Our Care Management platform is designed to put your team at the heart of patient care. By supporting a team-first care delivery model, Welkin is designed to:
What does that look like in practice? It means the right member of a patient’s care team is assigned at every step of their healthcare journey. It means seamless transitions between members of your team. And, it means a personalized experience for every patient.
Can you build out a clear, cohesive overview of the steps each member of your care team takes during a patient visit? What’s the plan if an adverse event occurs? What escalation paths are needed? What about for each specialty, exam, lab test, provider type, or practice setting — plus one for each correlated or dependent patient interaction?
That’s what coordinated care team workflows look like. Often, building out these workflows in an EHR or other healthcare software solution requires the help of an IT or engineering team. There are two problems with this; the first, sometimes you don’t have the resources for a full team to build this out, the second, teams may not be intimately familiar with the process or the needs of the clinicians.
Thoughtful patient workflows can maximize clinicians’ time with patients, remove bottlenecks in care plans, reduce clinician and staff burdens, and increase communication efficiency. In short, a well designed program requires well thought-out workflows.
With Welkin, you can automate workflows and build processes as unique as your patients. Help guide your patients throughout their healthcare journey by scheduling intake forms and progress assessments. Then, enroll a patient in a program to assign them to a clinician, review the care plan, schedule appointments, monitor patients, and set reminders.
Throughout the care plan, you can engage a patient in their care through frequent, in-platform communication, automated reminders and follow-ups, assessments, and outcomes tracking. Notice a patient is not staying on track with their care plan? Correct their trajectory by sending notifications, adjusting their plans, or redefining goals.
Plus, you can set up email campaigns to nurture current patients or attract new patients!
When you communicate across multiple platforms, devices, and applications, it can be a challenge to consolidate all of that information into one, easy-to-understand view. But that “big picture” view is imperative to ensuring optimal patient outcomes.
Now, visualize what that challenge looks like on the patient side. Your patients are juggling work duties (through email), family obligations (through text or social media), and any number of other demands that take up their time (and fill up their schedule). This means that your important health information may be missed.
Multidisciplinary care teams should optimize communication to reach patients where they are and when they need it most. A lack of communication can lead to patients missing appointments or forgetting to pick up their medication. In some cases, it can lead to medical errors or delayed treatment.
The National Academy of Medicine recommends seven basic principles of patient-clinician communication:
Patients and clinicians are engaged as partners in decision-making and their insight is respected.
There is shared understanding and agreement when it comes to the direction of a patient’s care plan.
Both the services environment and the decision climate nurture communication and keep information secure.
The patient has access to clinicians or clinical teams with skills to address their unique needs. The patient is assured a level of understanding when it comes to their care plan.
Clinicians share the best available information and thoroughly discuss all care trade-offs. The patient accurately shares their perceptions, symptoms, and personal practices.
Patients openly share circumstances, preferences, and medical history to assist clinicians in identifying appropriate care, while clinicians fully disclose the range of care options and effectiveness.
A feedback process is implemented, clinicians regularly assess care efficacy, and care plans are strategically updated as needed.
To coordinate and deliver high-quality patient care, your care team must demonstrate a high level of communication and synergy. Centralized conversations in our Care Management platform allow for frequent check-ins and ongoing communication across channels, including:
Welkin allows you to better communicate with patients by using the contact method they prefer and by increasing patient-provider touchpoints across numerous channels. Patients can reach their trusted clinician anytime, strengthening relationships and allowing for continuous refinement of care plans and goals.
Clinicians are dedicated to the health and wellness of the patients and communities they serve. care teams are not tech gurus, and they shouldn’t have to be. Unfortunately, due to their complexity, most healthcare software solutions require an IT team to maintain.
The American Medical Association (AMA) identified seven challenges associated with EHR use, and almost all are directly related to this disconnect between clinicians’ needs and the high level of technical prowess required for EHR use.
What does it take to solve these challenges?
Additional costs, on top of expensive EHR set-up and maintenance fees. Additional training, on top of the time and resources you’ve already spent. Additional buy-in from your entire team and from patients.
Or, you can use a single connected Care Management platform like Welkin. Our codeless program editor, called Designer, allows you to customize your care programs.
No developer is required to design care plans — no code, no hassle. You can choose from standard templates, guides, and content or create your own using drag-and-drop custom layouts designed with your team in mind.
You already utilize and train others on a multitude of technology solutions. Before adding one more to your plate, make sure it can seamlessly integrate with your current systems.
All of your devices, data, administrative systems, patient records, application programming interfaces (APIs), and analytics must work together for you and your team to provide truly integrative healthcare.
The COVID-19 pandemic has quickened the adoption of many health tech solutions, from telehealth platforms to wearable health-tracking devices. According to research from Accenture, over 70% of clinicians surveyed reported that they will continue to use digital health tools “to the same or greater extent” when the pandemic subsides.
However, that same survey also found that “over 60% of clinicians list a lack of interoperability across different IT systems as a top barrier to digital health implementation.” This is where integrations come into play — patient data, user experience design, and cloud computing infrastructure must come together to provide real-time analytics and engagement for providers.
Welkin has built-in integrations with leading platforms, including:
See something missing from this list? Have no fear! Welkin is designed for you, with a detailed API in place so you can build whatever you need to support your care teams in delivering outcomes-based care.
Cyberattacks and data breaches, particularly those targeting healthcare organizations and patient-generated health data, are on the rise and can be very costly.
According to IBM Security’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report, healthcare data breaches can amount to $9.42 million per incident. Beyond this financial impact, losing confidential data can also ruin a company’s reputation and lead to a loss of trust and confidence in your brand. This means healthcare data security is more important than ever.
The HIPAA Security Rule requires healthcare organizations to conduct risk assessments and implement risk management. In addition, administrative, physical, and technical safeguards are required for all electronic health information.
With an in-depth understanding of HIPAA and U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) medical device regulations, Welkin is your security partner.
Welkin is Service Organizational Controls (SOC) 2 Type 2 certified and undergoes an annual, independent examination to evaluate data security, availability, and confidentiality. Our Care Management platform is designed as a secure environment to process, maintain, and store patient records and protected health information.
By taking a risk-based, limited-access approach to security, we deliver proactive and effective responses to security threats. Data is encrypted and hosted securely via Amazon Web Services, and Welkin’s code is regularly scanned for vulnerabilities.
For you, this translates to full control of, and insight into, your data.
If you’re sharing data between clinicians or care teams, you can set up role-, attribute-, or geographical/territory-based permissions so the right data is in the right hands.
Timestamps are included within the audit trail so you can see who made a change, when a change was made, or where user-level changes were made. You can even view all security actions via the security log.
You can also implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) or single sign-on (SSO) controls for additional security. Protect your patient data, ensure you are compliant with healthcare data standards, and give your patients peace of mind.
Your care team should be centered around patient Care Management and improving their quality of life … not around coding, building APIs, or data security. It’s time for your healthcare software to do the heavy lifting so you can get your care teams back to what they do best.
Request a demo to learn more about building flexible patient care plans, increasing your patient engagement, and streamlining your internal processes with Welkin.
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