Patient Connect and Connect Care: Getting Patients Into Specialty Care More Quickly and Easily
Solution Also Boosts Patient Experience and Staffing Efficiencies
Referral Coordinator and Patient App Views of the Self-Scheduling Experience
One of the priorities of the UCSF Patient Access product suite is to improve the responsiveness, efficiency, transparency, and specialty resource optimization of the referral process for newly referred patients. Combined with Referrals Automation, Patient Connect enables both the patient and the referrals coordinator to more quickly and conveniently secure the information necessary to confirm a timely appointment.
Patient Connect consists of two components:
Patient Connect software for referral coordinators is designed to improve the efficiency of gathering, validating, and onboarding patients and includes the following capabilities:
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Identifies any additional items necessary for the appointment (such as images, labs, or insurance information)
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Allows a referral coordinator to communicate with the patient
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Manages checklists to support the collection of required information to schedule an appointment
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Secures the clinical data needed to enable the most productive appointment with the specialist
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Matches patients with the optimal specialty provider
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Initiates automated scheduling communication with the patient by text message or email
Patient Connect works with Connect Care, an app for patients (powered by Luma Health) that leverages text message communications to:
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Enable patients to easily communicate with referral coordinators
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Remind patients of upcoming appointments; prompt them to confirm appointments
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Make it easy for patients to reschedule appointments when needed
Aditya Bansod, Co-Founder & CTO, Luma Health
“Getting patients the care they need as quickly as possible is at the center of our partnership with UCSF. By marrying messaging with scheduling, Luma Health is helping UCSF deliver on that promise by digitizing the referral process. The results speak for themselves — 76% of referrals scheduled within 5 days.” — Aditya Bansod, Co-Founder & CTO, Luma Health
Patient Connect Results
While this transparency and control improves the patient experience, the software applications reduce phone time, callbacks, and other manual tasks for referrals staff, freeing up time for more complex work.
During its first five weeks of use, the UCSF Orthopaedic Institute achieved the following results from the use of Patient Connect and Patient App:
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82% of their patients reporting a score of 9 (out of 10) on their scheduling experience
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Time between creation of the referral to scheduled appointment dropped from an average of 8-10 days to 3-5 days
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% referrals scheduled within 5 days of referral creation increased from 68% (June, July 2019) to 76% (June, July 2020)
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50% of specialty referrals were processed through Patient Connect; of these
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20% successfully self-scheduled
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16% of the appointment options offered to the patients on the waitlist were accepted
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Plans are currently underway to expand Patient Connect to other specialty practices.
