March 10, 2025
Eliminate Data Roadblocks for Improved Patient Engagement and Better Results
This month we continue our look at the interconnected patient experience. Last time we focused on how an integrated experience impacts patients. Now we take a closer look at how connecting the patient experience impacts providers.
Integration in healthcare means eliminating data silos and roadblocks to a connected patient experience. What might these roadblocks look like in your organization? Here are some clues: stacked, disparate technologies, vendor misalignment, low or no scalability, low or no personalization and inefficient labor utilization. Siloed data ownership and metrics, which is capital and resource intensive, along with a disjointed patient experience are other tell-tale signs that operations are not working together as one, smoothly integrated system.
Why all the focus on system integration? Patient satisfaction (or lack thereof) is the number one reason your organization should care, but there are many others that can have negative consequences for your organization such as:
- Reduced visibility and access to important patient data
- Inconsistent data
- Inefficient workflows and processes
- Poor decision-making
- Increased costs
- Hindered innovation
These all represent big buckets for IT to address. Luckily, your IT department does not have to carry the burden alone. Ideally, your organization would rely on just one vendor to supplement your central EHR/EMR platform with needed functionality. But that may be unattainable with legacy systems, long-standing contracts or multiple platforms.
The answer is interoperability, or the power of open architecture. Many applications are built today using open architecture for easy data integration with existing EMR/EHRs, and other applications. Vendors should be committed to making sure everything operates together by streamlining integrations with interfaces and APIs. Processes should be automated too.
Integration that enables ease of use must also be top of mind when managing patient data across the organization. Data warehouses and data management tools should connect data in ways that empower managers and leaders to report, analyze and act on data-based findings in real time.
And there’s another reason integration matters: engaging patients most effectively. When patient data is saved in one central location and smoothly dispersed throughout the entire system as needed, engagement is easier and more convenient for patients and staff.
Most critically, the information patients receive—and can easily engage with—is offered in technologies they prefer for each type of engagement. This could mean text for appointment reminders, email for appointment instructions, voice for emergencies (such as an unexpected office closure due to weather) or even paper for billing statements.
In other words, integration makes it possible for staff to engage with patients in precisely the ways that are true for them, increasing patient responsiveness and often reducing staff burden in the process.
The Bottom Line
Integration in healthcare can take many forms:
- Integration of the patient experience
- Integration of pre- and post-care interactions
- Integration with EMR systems for optimal outcomes
Ideally, all of these types of integrations are taking place within your organization today. Your rewards include decreased labor costs and improved efficiency, increased yield and stronger ROI. You’ll also earn the respect and loyalty of patients, and the appreciation of staff for whom patient engagement is only one task during their busy day.
