Why do patients expect medical services to be digital?

Por
Eden Experts
August 12, 2021

We will talk about the importance that medical technology has acquired not only in equipment and devices, but also in the care and protection of patient information. We will see how PACS systems help make this possible, to provide interoperability, productivity and information exchange between specialists and patients.

Nowadays, society is immersed in the digital age. We know the great advantages of having everything in one electronic device: such as unsurpassed improvements in information communication. Hence, the health sector does not escape this reality, having to adapt your queries, results and communication through these channels in order to provide a quality service to your patients.

More and more health centers, regardless of the size of their operations, are looking for options to digitize your practice. This may include access to electronic medical records, delivery of diagnostic reports, and the storage and management of clinical images.

On the other hand, patients themselves trust and expect to have care options on the internet. If perhaps this initially seemed like a whim of modernity, it is now a global reality, since the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the importance of remote connection.

That is to say, there are many advantages of having electronic and digital services, for example, the exchange of information and diagnosis between professionals, as well as an optimization of staff time and productivity.

What do patients expect from health services?

However, include the era of digitization in health centers it is not synonymous with taking surveys and sending automatic responses through programmed patterns.

Los Patients increasingly digitized, they expect at least the following from a health service:

  • Find complete information from the online health center. This includes address, telephone number, opening hours, prices, availability of services, and so on.
  • Possibility of Schedule appointments online, either through an automated system, or when chatting with an agent.
  • Access to reviews and ratings from third parties about doctors and health centers. Keep in mind that it is increasingly common for patients to seek the opinion that other patients have had in a health center, and that they may write a review of what the care they received was like.
  • If a clinical study was conducted, patients expect to receive results digitally, for example, in your email. This is especially true because of the health precautions that indicate avoiding leaving home during the pandemic, but also with regard to a reduction in waiting times.
  • In the case of imaging studies, patients are fascinated by images of their own body. In addition to wanting to see them, they know that having their studies digitized will bring them advantages, such as the possibility of consulting different specialists.

Digitization of health centers

On the other hand, health centers seek to implement digitization systems both to provide a better service and to increase their productivity. Such is the case of the digitization of radiology and imaging studies. Instead of using conventional acetate plates, images can be obtained in electronic formats.

The benefits are enormous. Doctors won't have to wait a long time for impressions or tedious searches of physical files to find a patient's history. Thanks to the PACS systems, everything will be just a click away, which translates into an increase of Productivity in clinical operations. As a result, The waiting time for patients to receive their results is reduced, more patients can be treated and a higher rate of referrals and patient retention is achieved.

Another advantage of digital clinical studies is that you have higher resolution images, which can be analyzed with advanced tools in a DICOM viewer. This way, doctors will be able to observe the tests more clearly, carry out detailed measurements and, therefore, arrive at more accurate diagnoses, which is undoubtedly an advantage for treating doctors and patients.

In short, medical technology and digitalization offer greater efficiency in any practice, as well as better service and patient care.

Technological solutions for digitalization

Among the technological solutions used to digitize a health center, there are systems HIS, KRIS And PACS. With the PACS systems you can store and manage patient and study information for all diagnostic modalities.

It is essential to find out if the chosen PACS system is of the best quality, checking its quality standards and compatibility with modalities.

Such is the case of Eva PACS, which is at the forefront in terms of technology and data protection, complying with HIPAA standards and compatibility with medical equipment and operating systems. In addition, this program ensures the continuous and comprehensive training of all medical personnel, as well as uninterrupted technical support.

Remember that this investment will result in patient satisfaction, who expect quality service with the new digitalization standards.

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