Question

The Triple Aim Initiative approach emphasizes the need for healthcare organizations to optimize their performance. It also addresses the following three aims:

• Improve the experience of care
• Improve the health of populations
• Reduce the per capita costs of healthcare

As the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Mucho County Healthcare System, consider the goals of the Triple Aim Initiative, and answer the following question:

• Discuss how the provider–patient relationship can be managed at the health system facilities at the Mucho County Healthcare System to ensure a better patient–provider relationship.

Responses to Peers

Read through your peers' posts, and respond to a minimum of 2 of your peers. You can connect to your peers in several ways, including the following:

• What are some ways that the staff at the Mucho County Healthcare System could enhance the provider–patient experience?

Answer 1

Discussion of how the provider–patient relationship can be managed at the health system of Mucho County

                 A health system, also sometimes referred to as health care system or as healthcare system, is the organization of people, institutions, and resources that deliver health care services to meet the health needs of target populations. ... In some countries, health system planning is distributed among market participants.

             A healthcare system can be defined as the method by which healthcare is financed, organized, and delivered to a population. It includes issues of access (for whom and to which services), expenditures, and resources (healthcare workers and facilities).

             The fundamental purpose of health care is to enhance quality of life by enhancing health. Commercial businesses focus on creating financial profit to support their valuation and remain viable. Health care must focus on creating social profit to fulfil its promise to society.

4 Types of Healthcare Systems

·   The Beveridge Model. The first national single-payer health care system is the Beveridge model. ...

· The Bismarck Model. The second form of a national single-payer health care system is the Bismarck model. ...

· The National Health Insurance Model. ...

· The Private Insurance System.

       As the new chief executive officer (CEO) of the Mucho County Healthcare System, consider the goals of the Triple Aim Initiative.

       

          The Triple Aim Initiatives are;

                 Improve the experience of care

               Improve the health of populations

·           Reduce the per capita costs of healthcare

         The provider–patient relationship can be managed at the health system facilities at the Mucho County Healthcare System to ensure a better patient–provider          relationship. Improving patient care has become a priority for all health care providers with the overall objective of achieving a high degree of patient satisfaction. Greater awareness among the public, increasing demand for better care, keener competition, more health care regulation, the rise in medical malpractice litigation, and concern about poor outcomes are factors that contribute to this change.

      The quality of patient care is essentially determined by the quality of infrastructure, quality of training, competence of personnel and efficiency of operational systems. The fundamental requirement is the adoption of a system that is ‘patient orientated’. Existing problems in health care relate to both medical and non-medical factors and a comprehensive system that improves both aspects must be implemented. Health care systems in developing countries face an even greater challenge since quality and cost recovery must be balanced with equal opportunities in patient care.

     

                From 2003 to 2014, the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) monitored patient experiences with healthcare services through a biennial Satisfaction and Experience with Healthcare Services (SEHCS) survey. The findings consistently showed a direct link between coordination of care, an aspect of continuity of care, and healthcare outcomes. Specifically, it showed that better coordination is linked to positive outcomes; the reverse is also true. Given the critical role continuity of care plays in the healthcare system, the HQCA conducted in-depth interviews, interactive feedback sessions and focus groups with patients and providers to explore factors that influence both seamless and fragmented patient journeys. Continuity of care refers to “the degree to which a series of discrete healthcare events is experienced as coherent and connected and consistent with the patient’s healthcare needs and personal context”. Reviews of international literature have identified three major subtypes of continuity across healthcare settings: relationship, information, and management continuity. This study showed that from the patient perspective, relationship continuity is most valued and is foundational for experiencing information and management continuity. A trusting, patient-centred, and respectful relationship with a primary healthcare provider is central to this. From the provider perspective, information continuity is most important. Primary care providers get frustrated if information is withheld or delayed, and if other providers change treatment plans or medications. Patients highly value timely access to their own information. They also value having enough time during an appointment with a family doctor who listens and communicates effectively. Both patients and providers value and benefit from management continuity, which was described by many as a partnership or shared responsibility for managing and coordinating healthcare services. Future conversations about health system design should focus on how all providers and services can work together, and engage patients, to co-design a system that is built around patient-centred relationships.

            

           

             This system has the advantages of high-quality care and good cost recovery. Some of the issues that need to be addressed to improve patient care are listed below.

            

1. Access. Accessibility and availability of both the hospital and the physician should be assured to all those who require health care.

2. Waiting. Waiting times for all services should be minimised. In most developing countries, the high demand for services often makes this a huge problem. Nevertheless, it has to be addressed effectively through continual review of patient responses and other data and using this feedback to make the necessary changes in systems.

3. Information. Patient information and instruction about all procedures, both medical and administrative, should be made very clear. Well trained patient counsellors form an effective link between the patient and the hospital staff and make the patient's experience better and the physicians' task much easier.

4. Administration. Check-in and check-out procedures should be ‘patient friendly’. For example, for in-patients, we have instituted a system of discharging patients in their rooms, eliminating the need for the patient or the family to go to another office or counter in the hospital and waiting there for a long time. This has been favourably received by patients.

5. Communication. Communicating with the patient and the family about possible delays is a factor that can avoid a lot of frustration and anxiety. The creation of a special ‘Patient Care Department’ with a full time Administrator has helped our institution significantly and has enhanced our interactions with patients and their families.

6. Ancillary Services. Other services such as communication, food, etc. should be accessible both to patients and to attending families.

The medical aspects of patient care are much better understood by most

health care providers. This is dependent on the quality of medical and technical expertise, and the equipment and quality assurance systems in practice. The following factors contribute to the improvement of patient care.

1. Trained Personnel. A well-trained ‘Eye Care Team’ is critical to providing high quality care with desirable outcomes. Lack of adequate personnel and lack of adequate training facilities for the available personnel are major problems. The temptation to recruit untrained or poorly trained people should be resisted. The number of training programmes must be increased, and the existing programmes must be improved. Making a uniform basic curriculum available for all training institutions/programmes should help bring about standardisation.
2. Quality Eye Care. There is significant concern about the outcomes of cataract surgery, and other common surgical procedures. Incorporation of quality assurance systems in every aspect of patient care is critical. For example, adherence to asepsis in the operating rooms will help reduce post-operative morbidity and proper training of ophthalmologists in diagnostic techniques will help achieve better control of sight-threatening diseases.
3. Equipment. All the necessary equipment must be in place and properly maintained. This is vital to the performance of the medical system and contributes significantly to better results. Eye-care equipment of acceptable standards is now available at reasonable prices, and this must be accompanied by appropriate maintenance systems.
4. Use of Proper Instruments. Good quality instruments are now available at lower costs. With the development of proper inventory control systems for a given operation, the costs can be lowered.
5. Use of Appropriate Medications. Access to low cost medicines is an absolute necessity for appropriate care.
6. Use of Newer Technologies. It is important to continually employ newer technologies that improve the quality of care. Of course, this must be done with reference to cost-efficiencies.

·               Improve the health of populations, Effective population health management is a critical aspect of hospitals' and health systems' efforts in transitioning from volume- to value-based models of care in which reimbursement becomes more and more closely related to outcomes, readmissions and other quality indicators. Historically, health plans were the ones that provided population health management with their own case managers, health coaches and call centres. Payers have certain assets and capabilities that are valuable for population health management.

·        

·                   First, payers have claims data, which allows them to construct a picture of all billable utilization of a patient regardless of which provider was involved in a particular encounter. In comparison, EMR data is limited to the data generated at a particular provider site — it is not comprehensive in that it does not include the treatments or services a patient obtains outside of a particular provider. Health plans also have analytic expertise, allowing them to use data to identify patients who would most benefit from some type of care management intervention.

·                     

·                        Additionally, health plans have an abundance of nurses who use sophisticated telephony that enable them to reach out to patients efficiently. However, the exclusive use of health plans to handle population care management is inadequate in several substantial ways.

·                  

                           What makes provider-driven care management preferable to health plan-driven management?

There are several attributes of provider-driven care that make it effective for leading population health improvement.

Close relationships with patients and among providers

   provider-driven care necessitates nurses and case managers to be physically present in the office, which enables them to establish much closer relationships with patients than could be done over the phone.

"By being embedded in the practice, it is possible for the nurse to arrange to have a patient come in for certain types of service and obviate the need for the patient to go to the emergency room," says Dr. Steinberg.

Provider-driven care also allows case managers to form close relationships with the physicians and the office as a whole, which leads to enhanced coordination — instead of waiting for the doctors to call them, the case managers For example, in an effective team-based care approach, case managers are assigned to monitor the sickest patients and perform many of the tasks for these patients, allowing physicians to focus on what they are trained to do — making complex medical decisions and building patient relationships can just knock on their doors.

                          Reduce the per capita costs of healthcare, This Aim focuses on the evidence of the impact of integrative health and medicine practices and         disciplines on efforts to lower costs. Most are arranged by the stakeholder environment in which the study was undertaken, or in the case of Natural Products, the service (e.g., "Insurance" for study related to comparative costs of chiropractic care among Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee insures under two distinct benefit designs). Articles are presently organized on this page under these headings. As content becomes more extensive, all sections will contain more articles and resources to warrant separate pages on this site.

        

There are four ways to get started.

1. Treat hospitals as last-resort providers. Of every healthcare dollar spent in the United States, 33 cents go to hospitals

2. Move care closer to patients

3. Take costs out of the system.

4. Focus on the continuum of care.

         How to Lower Health Care Costs in America

1. Give Patients and Health Care Consumers More Information

2. Give Patients and Health Care Consumers More Power.

3. Lower the Number of Medical Tests for Patients.

4. Increase Competition Among Health Care Providers.

5. Let Medicare Negotiate Prescription Drug Costs for Consumers.

            Four ways to reduce healthcare costs

1.     Treat hospitals as last-resort providers.

Of every healthcare dollar spent in the United States, 33 cents go to hospitals. Another 20 cents go to physicians and clinics, while 27 cents pay for non-physician providers such as nurse practitioners, optometrists, chiropractor, and speech and occupational therapists. When hospital-owed physicians and clinics are taken into account, it’s fair to say that hospitals control more than half of all healthcare spending.

But hospitals aren’t the best place for care in many instances. Consider the lower-cost imaging centers a walk or short drive from many hospitals or day surgery centers versus expensive hospital operating theaters. Many services are inherently cheaper than identical services in a hospital setting because of lower overhead.

Of course, hospitals aren’t going anywhere, but they shouldn’t be the center of the healthcare hub. Do you go to a physical bank branch unless you have an issue that you can’t self-serve on the bank website or app? Retailers are hurting because of the prevalence of online shopping, and even grocery stores are having to rethink their business models.

Brick-and-mortar attitudes are crumbling in many industries, but hospital thinking around infrastructure is lagging behind. Price-conscious patients are seeking out lower-cost care options, which brings me to point No. 2.

2.     Move care closer to patients.

Recall the last time you went to the doctor for a straightforward appointment, one where you spent 15 minutes or less in front of the physician. If you have a full-time job, how much time did you have to take off for that appointment?

If you’re lucky and got the first or second appointment of the day, you might have missed just a few minutes or an hour. More likely, though, your appointment was at 2 p.m. and you lost nearly half a day leaving work, driving to the office, waiting to be seen, seeing the doctor, checking out, perhaps picking up a prescription or making another appointment, and returning to the office.

Technology, changing consumer preferences and self-insured businesses are making more care options available. Why leave the office when you can seek medical help from a nurse line or have a virtual physician visit on your smartphone?

Nearly nine in 10 hospital executives agree that their organizations are at competitive risk from non-hospital competitors such as Optum, CVS Health, and Amazon. The number of walk-in clinics continues to grow, and more companies are setting up worksite clinics for employees.

One-third of U.S. companies with more than 5,000 employees have on-site general medical clinics, while 38% have clinics that focus on occupational health. Perhaps more telling is the 16% of companies in the 500-4,999 employee range that had general medical clinics, with another 8% saying they’d open a clinic in 2019.

There still is room for brick-and-mortar healthcare, in places where it makes the most sense.

3.     Take costs out of the system.

We’ve all heard tales about the $60 ibuprofen in the hospital, when you can pick up a 200-count bottle for 4 bucks at a big box store. A woman in New Jersey was charged nearly $5,800 for an emergency room visit where she received an ice pack but no other treatment. Hospitals and other providers jack up prices on private pay patients because Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements don’t generally cover the cost of the care provided.

But there must be a happy medium where everyone pays their fair share. Consider the routine colonoscopy, a procedure that everyone 50 or over (hopefully) has undergone. Typical charges for the procedure are $2,500-$3,500, depending on the geography of the provider and the type of facility.

By my back-of-napkin calculation, the cost should be three to five times less, or about $750. That includes well-paid medical staff using top-notch equipment in a Class A medical building who work six hours a day, seeing one patient every 30 minutes.

The move toward price transparency has the potential to create true competition among providers, with patients being able to see what is being charged for their test, scan or procedure. That surely could curtail the practice of charging exorbitantly for routine care.

4.     Focus on the continuum of care.

For a patient who needs surgery, healthcare doesn’t begin on the day of the surgery, nor does it end on that day. The surgery is part of a continuum of care that starts 30 days prior and lasts a similar period of time afterward. It might start with the patient on the couch, researching conditions and providers on a smartphone.

Technology can enable greater patient choice, allowing them to choose lower acuity settings to receive care or even participate in telehealth. Smartphone healthcare apps that can access a patient’s insurance can help ensure consumers visit in-network facilities.

Hospitals and health systems can leverage technology, too, to bring efficiencies to scheduling and increase patient compliance that ultimately leads to lower costs. The 30-day, all-cause national readmission rate is 13.9%, according to 2016 data, but the rate can vary depending on payer type, geography and individual hospitals. Lowering the readmission rate by just one percentage point could save billions in healthcare costs and lost productivity.

Research from MobileSmith shows that hospitals using perioperative mobile apps can save up to $300 per procedure through a 40 percent reduction in same-day cancellations and a 7 percent reduction in 30-day readmissions.

                 The remedy to the cost crisis does not require medical science breakthroughs or new governmental regulation. It simply requires a new way to accurately measure costs and compare them with outcomes.

Understanding the Value of Health Care

The proper goal for any health care delivery system is to improve the value delivered to patients. Value in health care is measured in terms of the patient outcomes achieved per dollar expended. It is not the number of different services provided or the volume of services delivered that matters but the value. More care and more expensive care are not necessarily better care.

To properly manage value, both outcomes and cost must be measured at the patient level. Measured outcomes and cost must encompass the entire cycle of care for the patient’s particular medical condition, which often involves a team with multiple specialties performing multiple interventions from diagnosis to treatment to ongoing management. A medical condition is an interrelated set of patient circumstances that are best addressed in a coordinated way and should be broadly defined to include common complications and comorbidities. The cost of treating a patient with diabetes, for example, must include not only the costs associated with endocrinological care but also the costs of managing and treating associated conditions such as vascular disease, retinal disease, and renal disease. For primary and preventive care, the unit of value measurement is a particular patient population—that is, a group with similar primary care needs, such as healthy children or the frail and elderly with multiple chronic conditions.

Let’s explore the first component of the health care value equation: health outcomes. Outcomes for any medical condition or patient population should be measured along multiple dimensions, including survival, ability to function, duration of care, discomfort and complications, and the sustainability of recovery. Better measurement of outcomes will, by itself, lead to significant improvements in the value of health care delivered, as providers’ incentives shift away from performing highly reimbursed services and toward improving the health status of patients. Approaches for measuring health care outcomes have been described previously, notably in Michael Porter’s 2010 New England Journal of Medicine article, “What Is Value in Health Care?”

While measuring medical outcomes has received growing attention, measuring the costs required to deliver those outcomes, the second component of the value equation, has received far less attention. In the value framework, the relevant cost is the total cost of all resources—clinical and administrative personnel, drugs and other supplies, devices, space, and equipment—used during a patient’s full cycle of care for a specific medical condition, including the treatment of associated complications and common comorbidities. We increase the value of health care delivered to patients by improving outcomes at similar costs or by reducing the total costs involved in patients’ care while maintaining the quality of outcomes.

A powerful driver of value in health care is that better outcomes often go hand in hand with lower total care cycle costs. Spending more on early detection and better diagnosis of disease, for example, spares patients suffering and often leads to less complex and less expensive care later. Reducing diagnostic and treatment delays limits deterioration of health and also lowers costs by reducing the resources required for care. Indeed, the potential to improve outcomes while driving down costs is greater in health care than in any other field we have encountered. The key to unlocking this potential is combining an accurate cost measurement system with the systematic measurement of outcomes. With these powerful tools in place, health care providers can utilize medical staff, equipment, facilities, and administrative resources far more efficiently, streamline the path of patients through the system, and select treatment approaches that improve outcomes while eliminating services that do not.

               

            Responses to Peers

      some ways you can help improve patient experience

· Create a helpful online presence

· Offer online scheduling.

· Send appointment confirmations and reminders

· Make paperwork available on your website.

· Instruct front office staff to be friendly and helpful.

· Ensure the waiting room is clean and comfortable.

· Keep wait times to a minimum.

· Display excellent bedside manner.

·                

· Going digital to improve the provider-patient experience

·      

               Technology has redefined how people shop for and consume goods and services. In today's digital era, companies like Amazon, Uber, and Apple have revolutionized how transactions are conducted – at the touch of a button, anywhere and anytime.

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, e-commerce in the United States grew by 14.6 percent in 2015, marking the sixth consecutive year that online sales grew near or above 15 percent.

Digital is the new normal. Technology has changed how we shop, get our information and spend our money. More than seven in 10 U.S. adults (73 percent) own a desktop or laptop computer, according to the Pew Research Center, and nearly 70 percent of U.S. adults (68 percent) have a smartphone. Pew researchers reviewed demographic data from 2000 to 2015 and found a 44 percent increase in Internet use by senior citizens – the fastest-growing user group. Now, 58 percent of all seniors ages 65 and older are online.

The modern technology- empowered economy increases efficiency, strengthens customer relationships and improves customer satisfaction. When companies focus on enhancing their online customer experience, these companies can reach a broader audience, provide additional services, and strengthen customer satisfaction. For instance, consider the tremendous efficiency and productivity gains that have happened over the past decade in the finance and banking industries, as they've enhanced their online financial services. Keep in mind that it wasn't too long ago that consumer transactions in finance and banking were primarily paper-based.

Health care is experiencing a similar paper-to-technology customer evolution, though in the case of health care, it's been driven by both patient demand and new, data-driven regulations. Yet while there have been technological advances in health care, the industry overall has been slow to keep pace with digital adoption. According to a recent Forbes article, the top five barriers to technology adoption in health care are:
1. Inappropriate technologies that do not address health care's most pressing needs
2. Insufficient funding (no one wants to pay for the technology)
3. Physician reluctance to share medical information with patients
4. Technologies that actually impair provider productivity
5. The perceived impersonality of patient technology

With health care reform shifting from volume to value-based care, expanding the insured population and increasing access and demand for health care services, there is more focus on digital technology as an enabler to achieve the triple aim: improving the patient experience and population health and reducing the cost of care. Despite barriers to entry, providers need to join the digital ecosystem in order to stay competitive in this changing health care landscape and keep pace with the demand for modernizing the patient experience.

The Five Most Vital Technology Components

To sustain a consumer digital strategy, focus on leveraging and optimizing patient-related technology to improve the patient experience and outcomes. Consider technology as an enabler of more productive relationships and improved health outcomes by developing a digital ecosystem for patients.

Here are five key technology components to consider when designing and implementing a digital ecosystem to improve the patient experience.

1. Telehealth
Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) said they would be willing to try a telehealth (online video) visit in place of an in-person visit, according to a Harris survey on behalf of American Well. While interest in telehealth was highest among Millennials (74 percent), according to the survey, all age groups expressed interest, including those 65 and older (41 percent).

That's no surprise. Virtual visits provide patients with the convenience to meet with a doctor where they are, in a manner most easily accessible to them via their smartphone, tablet or computer. It's a win-win for patients and providers, as telehealth expands the patient base beyond a local geographic area and keeps patients from having to travel to seek care.

Telehealth means patients no longer need to delay care due to a busy schedule or the lack of means of transportation to see a doctor – a vital consideration in rural geographies with limited public transportation options. Telehealth has become accessible direct-to-consumer with companies providing the platform to connect patients with doctors all over the country. Large employers are offering telehealth kiosks for their employees, providing employees with on-site access to doctors while they are at work, and potentially improving productivity.

For patients and providers alike, telehealth has emerged as a cost-effective alternative to traditional face-to-face visits. Currently, 32 states require payer reimbursement for telehealth services. In California, telehealth is covered by most private payers as well as by Medi-Cal and Medicare when coverage criteria is met.

According to a 2014 report by IHS Technology, the number of patients worldwide using telehealth services is estimated to increase from less than 350,000 in 2013 to 7 million in 2018.Telehealth device and service revenues are predicted to grow 10-fold from $440.6 million in 2013 to $4.5 billion in 2015.

2. Remote monitoring and wearable devices
Health care has seen a surge in new portable devices and mobile apps that provide patients with remote monitoring capabilities to track their health status and progress. Remote patient monitoring capabilities are endless, including tracking of physiological data such as blood pressure, weight and blood glucose and providing real-time data on patients at high risk for falls or asthma attacks.

Providers that adopt remote patient monitoring devices gain the capability to focus on preventive health management for low-risk patients, and chronic disease management for high-risk patients, with the ability to execute timely interventions and make needed adjustments to care. Data generated from regular health activity tracking provides the care team with better insight for diagnoses and treatment options. To help bridge data connectivity, cloud-based technology platforms are available to connect patient-recorded data from digital health applications, devices and wearables to hospitals, providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies.

Whether the goal is preventing readmissions or maintaining health stability for the chronically ill, remote monitoring helps maintain a close patient-doctor relationship for the opportunity to better manage outcomes. With remote monitoring, patients can feel more at ease knowing their condition is continuing to be managed beyond the acute setting. For example, in a recent University of Missouri School of Medicine survey, 78 percent of patients who had received skilled care via telemedicine said they would use the service again.

3. Registration kiosks
Automating the initial check-in process with self-service, web-enabled devices (e.g., computers, tablets) improves efficiency and reduces wait time for patients – especially when it's combined with a quality pre-registration program. Once patients are checked in, providing them with electronic status updates (text message or otherwise) on expected wait times can free them from having to sit in a waiting room. For instance, an orthopedic practice that recently integrated a patient paging solution into its check-in process improved patient satisfaction by 20 percent, improved staff efficiency and increased patient privacy and HIPAA compliance.

Registration kiosks can be enhanced to improve the patient experience by automating self-service tasks such as, collecting copayments or outstanding balances, verifying insurance eligibility and coverage information, and completing any pre-service forms. For most patients, registration kiosks expedite the check-in process and ease the workload of registration staff, who can then be freed to handle other tasks.

4. Patient portals
The patient portal is the linchpin of the patient's health digital ecosystem – bringing pertinent patient information together in a single, easily accessible location. A comprehensive patient portal may include appointment scheduling, bill pay, access to lab results, after-visit summary, a provider-patient communication channel, a feedback collection mechanism, patient health information/education and annual reminders of screenings/check-ups. The patient portal enables patients to become more involved in managing their health by providing direct access to their personal health information. It also provides an ongoing feedback loop and open line of communication between the patient and the provider.

For organizations attesting to Stage 2 Meaningful Use requirements with their certified electronic health record, an online portal for granting access to medical records is a requirement. For providers not quite there yet looking for incremental improvements, consider implementing online appointment scheduling and bill pay to start. Online appointment scheduling provides patients with a convenient and private way to schedule, reschedule or cancel appointments; some systems even allow appointments to sync with the patient's personal calendar. Online appointment scheduling can also enable providers to send appointment reminders to patients via e-mail or text message.

5. Social media and web-based content
People turn to the Internet for information, to communicate with others and consume content. Not surprisingly, patients are regularly using the internet to research health information. According to Deloitte's 2015 Survey of US Healthcare Consumers, nearly 40 percent of those surveyed looked online for information related to their health and treatment.

Does your organization have an online presence? Is your Web content optimized for online and mobile device searches? Optimizing digital content for search can lead patients to your website to find pertinent information and ideally schedule an appointment with your organization.

Some providers are uncomfortable with patients coming in armed with health information and questions they obtained on the Internet. . Forward-looking providers actually encourage their patients to be avid caretakers of their own health, based in part on patients' own research, and look at their role as partners with their patients.

               Conclusions

                  Improvement of patient care is a dynamic process and should be uppermost in the minds of medical care personnel. Development and sustenance of a patient-sensitive system is most critical to achieving this objective. It is important to pay attention to quality in every aspect of patient care, both medical and non-medical. Technology can enable increases in patient engagement and improve the patient experience, thereby attracting, expanding and retaining the patient base. Providing digital touchpoints along and beyond the patient journey is fundamental to improving patient experience and organizational success.