On February 21, our Vice President of Marketing, Lea Chatham, spoke at Becker's Digital Innovation + Patient Experience + Marketing Virtual Forum. In her session, Finding the ROI In a Mobile-First Digital Front Door, Lea discussed the benefits of healthcare mobile apps and how they can improve both patient experience and overall revenue.
While we encourage you to watch our entire session, here is a short recap of our session.
A Single Mobile Platform is the Future of Patient Engagement
The apps on our smartphones support us in almost every aspect of our lives. We use them for transportation, information, and entertainment. So what about healthcare?
Close to 89% of patients say that it's crucial to have a single platform when managing their care, and half of them would prefer this platform to be accessible from their phones. This growing desire for a single mobile platform isn't going away anytime soon, and it could spell the difference between retaining patients and losing them. In a time when patients are looking for easy ways to manage their healthcare, putting all your patient-facing technology into a single mobile app can improve their experience.
But how can you track growth and success with these mobile applications?
Determining ROI in Mobile-Based Platforms
In her session, Lea looked at how healthcare mobile apps can help to increase revenue and improve the healthcare experience. These apps help streamline administrative tasks and get patients more involved. They have shown measurable ROI in these key areas:
Patient Retention: Retention is a key source for ROI because for every patient you lose, it could potentially cost you up to $200,000. With every patient you retain, you’re retaining that lifetime value instead of spending money to gain new patients.
Call Volume: About 60% of patients are not willing to hold for more than a minute when they call for help, and only 32% will call back. So when you lose calls, you’ve potentially lost that revenue. With a mobile app, you eliminate the need for a call completely, allowing your patients to do things like scheduling or finding directions right from their phone.
Online Scheduling: Over two-thirds of patients want to schedule their appointments online. Not only does this add convenience to the patient experience, but it can also improve your revenue stream. One health system Gozio works with estimated that a mobile app with scheduling solutions could add five new appointments a week, resulting in an increase in revenue over nearly one million dollars.
Reducing referral leakage: One-third of patients are referred to specialists each year, but many book outside of the referring system. As a result, referral leakage can be as high as 55-65%, costing up to $500M a year. Having a mobile app can reduce this leakage by keeping patients in your network. Instead of looking for a provider on Google, they can search on your app and book the appointment. They still feel like they have choices, but all those choices are part of your health system.
Wayfinding and minimizing missed and late appointments: Wayfinding can play a key role in preventing missed or late appointments. One system estimates they can eliminate five missed appointments a week with better wayfinding, saving nearly $1M a year. In addition, it can reduce staff burden. Staff spend a lot of time directing patients, which adds to their workload and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost time.
Build Vs. Buy
It is clear that health systems need a mobile solution, but there’s been much debate over whether it’s better to build your own or buy one from a third party. In our presentation, we looked at the costs of building compared to buying. At the end of the day, it is less expensive to buy one and there is a higher long-term ROI.
Becker's Wrapped-Up
In her presentation, Lea stressed the importance of mobile apps in healthcare, showing how they can boost patient satifaction and profits. She recommended buying rather than building these apps, as it's more cost-effective and aligns with patient preferences for a single platform. To get the details, watch the recording of the session, Finding the ROI In a Mobile-First Digital Front Door.
