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Follow-up care system may educate patients, increase satisfaction
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NEW YORK — Using MDbackline for automating contact with patients before and after office visits can save time, educate patients and help collect industry data, according to a speaker here.
John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS , presented the physician-patient process and the advantages of MDbackline, a patented, cloud-based follow-up care system, at OSN New York 2015.
John A. Hovanesian
“First of all, it reaches out to patients for follow-up care before and after office visits to ask how they’re doing, if their treatments been given, and to give very customized coaching to the situation they are in,” he said. “It lets those patients ask questions of us, and it allows us to collect real outcomes data so that we can compare different treatments we use.”
After a doctor recommends a treatment plan for the patient, follow-up care is initiated in the practice’s EHR system, which contacts the patient via email or text with customizable delay responses and a reminder tool for patients.
The patient then answers simple questions and, in return, is given educational information that is specific to his or her case.
“So it’s kind of like taking your best hand-picked educational material and delivering it at the time and place it’s needed to the patient,” Hovanesian said.
The practice receives filtered feedback from patients based on patient outcomes, varying from normal to critical circumstances, and the physician responds depending on the severity of the situation.
Hovanesian said that in his practice, 60% of patients who have been invited to participate in the online module have responded, with approximately 5,000 responses received so far.
“For us, it’s been very positive,” he said. “We’ve found we’re getting about 30% fewer phone calls with questions from patients with these common diagnoses that would otherwise take time. And when they take these modules online, only about 10% of these patients have remaining questions that need to be attended to by the staff.” – by Kristie L. Kahl
Disclosure: Hovanesian reports he is an equity holder in MDbackline LLC.