SSM Health is a Health System Headquartered in St. Louis, missouri, with 23 hospitals and more than 650 physician offices serving Illinois, missouri, oklahoma and wisconsin.
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The challenge
For SSM Health, Continuous Improvement is a High Priority. When it looks at online scheduling – and the metrics that drive it – Staff was determined to do better. This would help the Communities and Patients The Health System Serves Find the care they are searching for quicker and easy. Further, giving patients some of their time back allies is a priority in healthcare.
“SSM health realized the need to establish an enterprise-achl Online Website Scheduling Experience Strategy, “Said Geoff Wester, Director of Digital Patient Engagement Strategy at SSM Health. We are prioritized keeping up with evolving consumer expertations of ease and speed of booking care.
“While we had a strong presence digitally, our patient experience needed to improve the needs of consumers, especially mobile users who account for abhirds of outs of outs Traffic, “He Continued. “We wanted to improve the digital patient engine for our patients, Making it Easier to Find Care, Care That Consures are Searching for on Google. Journey with a search, and google prioritizes fast websites. “
About Half of Users Abandon Websites that take Longer Than Three Seconds to Load, He Added. As such, a sluggish experience does not just just create friction, it pushes a healthcare organization further out of Reach for the very people looking for care.
“Online Scheduling presented another Hurdle,” Wester said. “Patients do’t always know what type of visit they Need – Whether Urgent Care, Virtual or Primary Care – Leading to Eiter Limited Search Results or Abandoned Booking Atampts. Dynamic Approach – One that Met Consumer Expectations with Optimizing How Patients were Matched With Care. “
Proposal
SSM Health Began Working With Vendor Dexcare to Create a Digital Patient Engagement Strategy. The primary goal was to brings e-commerce best practices to healthcare.
“While we still believe it is important to educate our patients, we realize them often have a clea Care a Quick and Easy Process, Giving Time Back to our patients, “Wester explained.
“We Created Clear Call to Actions for Scheduling Primary Care, Pediatrics, OB-GYN, Urgent Care Locations and Express Virtual Care Services,” He Continuated. “This aligns with the expectations of consumers that the experience is fast and effective, essentially on mobile. It also also also also ensure Find, and our exceptional care would be easy to access. “
The Health System also wanted to deliver choice and care options to consumers – access to near Urgent Care Locations, Express Virtual Care and Care TEAM Members. By Streamlining Scheduling and Guiding to Available Care OptionsThe technology reduced friction and unnecessary steps for patients.
“This Fits Well with SSM Health’s Growth Goal of Increasing Primary Care Lives and Aligning Our Open Scheduling Strategy with New Patients Who are searching for care on,” Wester said.
“Our search functionality with our main web site also required an enhancement,” He added. “Healthcare search tools have traditionally related on Rigid, exact matches, but Patients don’t’t look for a doctor’s name or a specialty – they descibe Symptoms, Conditions or CARE NEEDINS. SSM Health’s Goal was to make the experience more intuitive to ensure when patients are performed a search on our website, they would find Find Find Relevant, Available and Approves Options. “
Meeting the challenge
SSM health implemented the technology to create a seamless, intuitive experience – from the initial search to booking an appointment. Whiteher Patients Start on Google or on the Health System’s Website, The Technology Delivers Real-Time available, a full range of care options and the most relevant provides-Autometrically Sortally Location, availability and relevancy.
The platform is integrated with two main source systems. The first is SSM Health’s Provider and Location Master Data Management System, which is connected to many systems within ssm health. The second is the EPIC EHRTo ensure accurate availability for locations and providers is displayed and aligned with all other scheduling modalities.
Results
The health system’s main goal with the new technology was new patient acquisition via its website.
“SSM Health has experienced a 19% increase with this metric; More than 77% of appointments are books as ‘new patient’ since the dexcare went live,” Wester reported. “We boosted Organic Traffic from Google, which means more patients
The metrics that LED to this Increase Include:
- 85% improvement in mobile click-through rate in the last year With increasing speed, visibility also increase, especially in mobile.
- Quadruppling the Online Booking Completion Rate.
- In 6-10% of these engagements, alternative or similar care options are selected and bied at the same success rate as Above. By Doing this, SSM Health is keeping patients engaged with care that may not have not have initially considered but are they ultimately selected.
Advice for other
“The manner in which patients seek care is evolving,” Wester observed. “They expect speed, convenience and choice. Through with booking care.
“Collaboration with many stakeholders is key to success in this work,” He Advised. “Several Departments and Teams Across the Organization are needed to make somewing like this come togeether. Expertise is needed from operations, marketing and communications, analytics, analytics, and technical tems that are alle. Aligned in bot strategy and goals. “
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Email him: bsiwicki@himss.org
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