Do Digital Health Significantly Improve Patient's Inpatient Experience?

Digital health has been evolving for a long time, especially during the Covid 19 epidemic. Simultaneously, patient experience has become a critical component of healthcare delivery, particularly during hospitalization. If treatment is essential, patients have higher expectations during hospitalizations and want their stay to be a positive experience even during the most difficult times.

A patient’s hospital experience can be dramatically improved with digital health. Important aspects of the patient experience are access to information, needs to be heard, communication, involvment and flexibility. The majority of those aspects can be accessed through digital health in hospitals.

Digital tools combined with human assistance result in a significant improvement in healthcare organizations as well as a favorable patient experience. It does in addition result in better hospital organization, smoother hospital stays, better healthcare results and higher patient loyalty. Furthermore, by planning the patient’s stay, the average length of stay may be shortened and Enhanced Recovery After Surgery can be developed which is what patients and health professionals expect. All this leads to a greater VBHC (Value-Based Health Care).

Planning the hospitalization is a major step for patient’s experience

Except in an emergency, it’s critical for patients to be able to prepare for hospitalization prior to arriving at the hospital. It helps to minimize anxiety by providing patients information and making the admission process more fluid.

First and foremost, the hospital’s health site allows patients to access information: patients can obtain personalized information based on their sickness or surgery (films, articles, pieces of advice...); they can add specific information: confidence person, consent to treatment or other specific documents, complete administrative data for an online admission, and construct their medical files.

The French government has recently developed a digital storage system for each citizen who wishes to have it, which is called « Mon Espace Santé » i.e. my health space. Each individual can have a free and secure cloud storage account where he can store administrative data, medical history, medical results, vaccinations, treatment and medical reports.

As a result, hospital medical staff can prepare for the patient’s stay by having them complete “Mon Espace Santé” and gathering medical documents, with the patient’s permission to compile the hospitalization file.

By gathering information, sharing data, and empowerment preparing the stay, the patient’s experience is improved. This planning allows the hospital to be aware of any patient with disabilities or special requirements and plan a special welcome for them. According to some observations this planning allows 99 percent of the patients arriving at the hospital to be accompanied directly to their rooms without having to wait. Both are important parts of a good patient’s experience.

And how can one be confident that every patient benefits from it, regardless of his or her capacity to use these digital tools ?

It has been noticed that approximately 20 percent of the patients are unable to connect to the internet and approximately 20 percent are unable to complete the required files on their own. It’s nonetheless critical to assist them.

To optimize each patient’s experience, it’s essential to have human resources in a dedicated call center who can assist them and provide them with appropriate aid. We can consider boosting their digital health literacy as a result of this assistance, which will be beneficial to their healthcare journey and future hospitalization.

Combining digital tools and human resources can lead to the patient’s total positive experience.

What about the discharge ?

Discharge, which may be a difficult time, is another aspect of hospitalization that might be addressed. When asked about their experience, patients say they expect better coordination and feel comforted.

At the end of the hospital stay, reports, treatments, and other prescriptions are automatically transmitted to « Mon Espace Santé ‘’. It allows patients and their healthcare professionals to get all of the information they need from their own homes, ensuring care continuity, coordination, and safety. No document may be misplaced because it is retained in the patient’s medical file for the duration of his or her life.

Furthermore, patients can fill out questionnaires on the hospital’s health site about their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It helps to evaluate PROMS (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures) and PREMS (Patient-reported experience measures). The information will aid in the improvement of hospital services as well as allow patients to access individualized information about their sickness. Hospital employees can also be noticed and call the patient if something goes wrong.

Returning home, softwares that are interoperable with « Mon Espace Santé » can help healthcare professionals work together more effectively. Patients can access a secure health messaging platform, and they will be able to upload results from their medical devices and access a medical diary. It enhances the patient’s ability to communicate with their professional healthcare providers.

The discharge organization contributes to the patient’s positive experience.

What conclusion ?

Digital tools paired with human support result in major improvements in healthcare organizations, especially during hospitalization. Each step of the road can benefit from it, allowing patients to gain more control and have a better experience.

With digital health fast-expanding, how do we ensure that everyone benefits from it without being forgotten? Everyone needs a digital education and easy access to digital materials, as well as a backup plan if this is not possible. To ensure quality, fairness, and equality in care, it is critical that everyone admitted to the hospital gets support and has the greatest experience.