Improve outcomes and increase satisfaction by automating point-of-care testing

As with any service provider, practice managers have always wanted to improve outcomes and increase overall patient satisfaction. In the increasingly competitive healthcare industry, it’s always good to stay one step ahead by embracing new technology that could benefit your practice by enhancing efficiency and patient flow.

Traditional processes like manual POCT should be left in the past as they don’t optimize efficiency. With manual POCT, too much time is spent waiting for results and results aren’t always accurate. POC informatics will provide an effective way of improving clinical outcomes and increasing patient satisfaction. Here’s how:

It will allow doctors to improve outcomes

By having faster access to test results, available in the EHR as soon as they enter the room to see the patient, doctors can expedite speed of diagnosis as this data drives decisions. This means providers can spend more time counseling and educating the patient, increasing the value of the visit and clinical outcomes.

As healthcare moves to a value and not volume based incentive model, this is a hugely important opportunity to increase face-to-face time with patients.

Patient engagement is beneficial for the shift from curative to preventive medicine, keeping people healthy in the long run. According to Medical Economics, patient engagement initiatives have resulted in a decrease in hospital visits, lowered morbidity and mortality, and has improved treatment and quality of life associated with chronic diseases.

Patients will spend less time waiting

The immediate availability of test results will lead to patients moving through the practice faster, with rooming no longer an issue due to no waiting times for test results. This will ensure that not only are appointment times kept to, the patient will have more valuable time with the doctor. In turn this superior patient experience will maintain and improve satisfaction scores and ensure your patients return.

Plus it will increase patients’ trust in you

According to an ECRI Institute Report, incorrect or missing data in electronic health records is one of the top 10 patient safety concerns. If the EHR doesn’t have accurate, structured data, it becomes really hard to track patient health information. Accurate data will improve quality and consistency, which will increase patients’ trust in your practice and make them feel safer.

This digital transformation will help you to provide better care for patients and better health for populations. Learn more in our white paper, “The Importance of Connectivity for the Future of Point-of-Care Testing in Primary Care”.