In 2007, healthcare providers began to administer a standard patient satisfaction tool called the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS, or "H-caps") survey.
HCAHPS asks patients a series of questions covering communication with both nurses and doctors, hospital staff responsiveness, hospital environment, medication management and discharge instructions. Hospitals have to collect, submit and publicly report HCAHPS data. If they don't participate, then they may lose a portion of their annual Medicare payment update.
HCAHPS data is also aggregated by Medicare and posted on the government's Hospital Compare website. Starting in 2013, Medicare began making incentive payments to hospitals that achieved good HCAHPS scores.
Based on all of these factors, hospitals have begun to understand that it pays to make patients happy. However, many hospitals have a long way to go. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 90 percent of medical inpatients can't even identify their treating physician at the time of discharge. So much for high ratings on doctor-patient communication.
To help hospitals improve their HCAHPS scores, Lincor Solutions has designed the LINC portfolio containing four patient engagement solutions.
PatientLINC, for instance, puts communication services, clinical information and entertainment options at a patient's bedside. Using a touchscreen monitor, patients can take real-time satisfaction surveys, read prescribed patient education materials and enjoy television, movies, audiobooks and other entertainment.
Doctors can use ClinicalLINC to access patient medical information on a bedside terminal. The terminal links to a patient's electronic medical record (EMR), and doctors can share information from their terminal screen to the patient's touchscreen monitor.
Another Lincor tool, MediaLINC, turns flat-screen TVs in patient rooms into Smart TVs that offer not only entertainment but also educational patient videos. The final LINC solution, MobileLINC, shares information with patients' mobile devices via the hospital's broadband network. LINC solutions can be adopted either individually or as an integrated set.
Although LINC can't transform doctors into warm and fuzzy conversationalists, they can equip patients to better manage their care both during and after their hospital stays. Plus, by providing bedside entertainment and shiny technology instruments, they can improve patient satisfaction, HCAHPS scores and, ultimately, hospital revenue.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker
