Increase Patient Engagement With Multiple Outreach Modalities

Today, patients increasingly expect personalized experiences. When patients are engaged on their own terms, they are more likely to participate in their care. So how do you successfully engage patients via automated outreach? With multimodal communications that enable you to reach and generate responses from patients via their preferred method of communication. Multimodal automated communications give you the competitive advantage you need to deliver meaningful experiences with improved outcomes. This story leverages CipherHealth data to track UC Irvine’s journey as they added Voice outreach to their SMS program and increased patient engagement by 20 percent.

Background

UC Irvine Medical Center implemented CipherHealth’s Outreach Solution when looking to standardize their post-discharge outreach. In the interest of better supporting patients after their hospital stay, obtaining actionable data and reducing readmission rates, UC Irvine put in place an SMS program to contact patients. However, an analysis performed by CipherHealth showed that a combined use of SMS and voice calls could more effectively engage UC Irvine’s patients across populations and conditions. CipherHealth’s analysis revealed that, by accounting for modality preference and offering automated voice calls, UC Irvine improved patient engagement rates by 20 percent.

Challenge

Using SMS, UC Irvine initially aimed to engage with 65 to 75 percent of their patients post-discharge. But for the first six months of working with CipherHealth, they were engaging only 40 percent of patients texted and even fewer of the Medicare population.

Multimodal Communications Analysis

To figure out how to improve patient engagement, CipherHealth looked at other Los Angeles-area health facilities using CipherHealth Outreach Solutions for post-discharge follow-up. One facility, which used voice calls to reach patients, engaged with 63 percent. Another LA facility used both voice calls and SMS engaged with 64 percent. Yet another added SMS capabilities and clinical reach rates improved by six percent, with a four percent increase in engagement rates for patients over 60.

Armed with the data provided by CipherHealth, UC Irvine added voice calls to their SMS program. CipherHealth’s analysis revealed that, within a month, UC Irvine improved the number of patients engaged with by 20 percent. They engaged 22 percent more patients over the age of 60. Since CipherHealth had already prepared scripts for their voice calls, there was no additional implementation required.

CipherHealth’s analysis also revealed that, as a result of engaging more patients, UC Irvine’s nursing and pharmacy teams were able to address 20 percent and 28 percent more patient issues than before, preventing even more adverse events from taking place. Overall, a multimodal approach improved clinical reach rates as well as clinical outcomes.

Seniors Text, Too

When the other Los Angeles-area health facility added SMS to their outreach program, the percentage of patients engaged over 60 years of age increased by six percent. The general assumption that seniors are less likely to engage with SMS was false. This at-risk demographic for readmission was more engaged as a result of a multimodal approach to post-discharge communication.

Conclusion

Harnessing the power of both Voice and SMS led to UC Irvine’s improved alignment with their patient’s specific communication preferences and allowed for a more steady reach across age groups — enabling UC Irvine to increase engagement and better monitor their patient population post-discharge. This was particularly significant among older populations which tend to be the highest risk for readmission.

About CipherHealth’s Outreach Solutions

CipherHealth offers a robust suite of multimodal, targeted outreach programs that drive meaningful conversations among patients, providers and caregivers both in pre-care and post-care settings. Messages can be sent via Voice or SMS at a designated time and with a personalized script for the individual patient.