What Do Patients Want from Digital Care? 4 Difference Makers That Improve the Patient Experience

Digital healthcare use is on the rise, and patient preferences for digital care are also growing. For example, 80 percent of patients say that they want to interact with their healthcare providers using a smartphone. 

It’s not that patients no longer value in-person care; on the contrary—they simply want the fast connection and engagement that mobile devices have introduced to every other part of our daily lives. Digital care delivery plays a crucial role here, offering an accessible and convenient way for patients to connect with their providers faster.

It’s not just younger patients who are willing to engage with digital care either—many older adults are adopting tech and using it regularly, meaning they can be engaged in virtual PT just as effectively as younger patients. Based on internal Medbridge data, older adults have the highest activation rates for digital programs, with 63 percent of patients aged 60 to 79 activating their programs.

But like every other digital tool, app, or widget, if it doesn’t work well and improve the patient experience, nobody is going to use it. To get patients of all ages on board with digital care, you need an effective platform that addresses their core needs.

The Core Patient Needs in Digital Care

Clinical Effectiveness

The primary concern for patients is effective care—results matter most. Patients seeking physical therapy are often in considerable pain or discomfort, and they want to know that the work they’re putting in will relieve that pain or return them to function. Physical rehabilitation can be challenging both physically and mentally, and patients need to feel confident that their treatment journey is going to lead them to better outcomes.

In my experience, patients usually fall into two categories:
1) They’ll do anything to get better, no matter how much time, money, or effort they need to put into their rehab program.
2) They want to get better, but despite their best intentions, they tend to get tripped up by barriers to care like busy schedules, limited time, and high co-pays.

That’s why it’s important to find an effective and accessible digital care platform like Pathways, Medbridge’s digital musculoskeletal care platform. Pathways supplements in-person therapy programs with a variety of digital care pathways that provide more efficient and personalized care. Prescribed by a clinician, each pathway is tailored to the unique needs of each patient and broken into multiple phases that build off each other, allowing patients to progress at their own pace as their pain decreases and they build strength. 

Convenience and Accessibility

The next patient need is convenience and accessibility. Whether it’s work, family, or transportation, life’s obligations can make it difficult for patients to fulfill their commitment to in-person appointments multiple times a week.

One of the biggest examples of this is postpartum care. Pelvic floor exercises are beneficial for postpartum patients who have been recommended for specific pelvic rehabilitation. However, making it into weekly in-person sessions with a two-month old is just not realistic for many parents. Then there’s the matter of long wait times for pelvic health care, and it gets even more difficult for patients to get the care they need. We can help by eliminating as many barriers to care as possible for them, and offering a digital care option that provides guidance and exercise programs they can perform at home is a great place to start.

Ironically, in my experience medical professionals often have difficulty navigating appointments because of their busy work schedules, despite acutely understanding the importance of program adherence. This just goes to show the importance of making care as accessible as possible, which can include flexible scheduling, remote access, and the ability to access care without time and location constraints.

Pathways allows practices to open the digital front door to therapy-first conservative care. After assignment, patients are able to progress at their own pace at home, with a clinician monitoring and engaging with them virtually, either with or without follow-up in-clinic appointments (depending on patient need.)

Cost and Affordability

The next constraint patients often face is affordability of care. High copays and multiple visits can be prohibitive for many patients, leading to patients skipping sessions or foregoing treatment entirely. If a patient has a $25 copay per session, seeing a PT three times a week means that they are paying $75 per week—or $225 a month—and for many people, that’s simply not feasible (and that only lasts until insurance stops covering sessions entirely). Only a small amount of their physical therapy exercise can realistically be conducted inside of that limited in-office timeframe, meaning 80 percent of their outcome will be determined by the work they do outside of their clinical visits¹ (i.e., their home exercise programs).

For many patients, in-person care simply isn’t necessary for every visit, and the copay savings for a patient attending a session virtually may be the difference between them continuing their plan of care or not. With Pathways, patients get progressive exercises and educational courses which help them take control of their own recovery

Ease of Use and Seamless Communication

Patients want an easy-to-use digital platform that provides clear, straightforward instructions. Anyone who’s had a spotty connection on a video call understands the need for technology that is responsive and reliable, especially when conveying important medical advice that needs to be understood accurately.

Pathways provides a user-friendly interface and supports patients through convenient digital communication methods.

Pathways was built using the latest in behavioral science to encourage engagement and program adherence. Patients are guided by our patient-centered platform through a phased progression system, with nudges and reminders to keep their care top of mind.

Clinicians then get access to a wealth of data on patient progress and needs, including motion capture, helping them either digitally engage or personalize in-clinic time based on their work.

Overcoming Patient Perceptions of Digital Care

The Perception Gap: In-Person vs. Digital Care

There’s a common perception that in all cases, in-person care is of higher quality than digital care–especially in physical therapy. But the fact is, that’s simply not the case. A recent Peterson Health Technology Institute report showed that first-generation virtual musculoskeletal (MSK) care solutions have proven clinical effectiveness. Our own internal data—over 15 million of our home exercise programs issued by our provider clients in the last year alone—indicates the same.

But how do you get patients to overcome this perception and get on board with digital care?

That very question led us to develop our Digital Health Academy, an expansion of our content library that helps clinicians learn what digital care is, best practices for patient communication, and how it fits into their workflow. This provides both front-line clinicians and organizational leaders the necessary tools to develop the knowledge and skills essential to digital care success—and get patients excited about the amazing benefits that digital care tools can bring.

The Role of Hybrid Care

Hybrid care is the combination of in-person care, virtual visits, remote monitoring, and asynchronous communication centered around a digital platform that helps patients connect with their healthcare provider. Hybrid care takes the best aspects from both in-clinic and digital care and combines them into a single, highly effective care program. This makes it possible to provide the right level of care at the right time (and in the most appropriate care setting!) to match a patient’s unique clinical needs and personal preferences.

Pathways leverages this hybrid care model to enable clinicians to reach more patients and provide more flexibility for those who struggle with common barriers to care like busy schedules, commutes, or high costs associated with copays for multiple visits. In addition, because patients get their consultations faster, triage is more effective, directing higher acuity patients to the in-person care they need earlier in the process, while lower-acuity patients receive guidance to get them started on a self-managed or supplemental home program. 

Conclusion

When it comes to digital healthcare, patients want what most people want from any good product: efficacy, convenience, and affordability. Prescribed by a clinician, each pathway is tailored to the unique needs of each patient and broken into multiple phases that build off each other, allowing patients to progress at their own pace as their pain decreases and they build strength. Each phase is focused on a set of exercises designed to be completed in 15 minutes or less. Every program is reviewed and approved by our medical advisory board, which covers a broad spectrum of clinical roles, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, orthopedic surgeons, and pain psychologists.

By combining a consumer-first mindset with this level of clinical rigor, we can create efficient, effective, and personalized treatment plans without sacrificing the quality of care that patients expect from their care experiences.

Learn more about how Pathways leverages hybrid care strategies to support your clinicians in their quest to help patients move better, feel better, and live better—or request a demo to see Pathways in action.