Top 5 digital patient engagement tools for behavioral healthcare

What are “digital patient engagement tools,” exactly?

Digital patient engagement tools are online platforms that enable patients to interact with their care team using smartphones, laptops, tablets, or other devices. Some of the functions of a modernized patient engagement platform are:

• Digital messaging and communication features
• Digital patient intake and registration workflow
• Automation of patient screeners and analytics
• Custom tools used to track and monitor the wellbeing of patients

These tools are designed to supplement the caring touch of in-person medical visits. We don’t have to tell you that many patient assessments are best conducted face-to-face; the same is even true for most therapeutic interventions. Patient engagement tools can significantly reduce the manual burden on your staff and streamline their workflows to save you time and money whilst elevating patient and provider satisfaction scores.

The market for patient-centered digital tools has become relatively crowded in the medical space, but a yawning gap has opened up in mental health. With the demand for behavioral healthcare steadily increasing in the U.S., there’s an urgent need for software providers to answer the call.

Why do organizations need patient engagement tools?

Let’s consider an example. Compare digital patient engagement tools for mental health providers to online banking. Do you go into your local branch or even call a real person on the phone unless you absolutely need to? Probably not.

If you’re like most people, you find it more convenient and less stressful to monitor your account balances on your online account. Even if you need to talk to someone, it’s usually more efficient to simply type out a detailed message and send it through the portal than to get bounced around from representative to representative on the phone.

Subconsciously (or maybe not so subconsciously), the fact that you can do the majority of your banking over the Internet is one of the main reasons you stay with your bank. Convenience is just one of the benefits. When mental health practices empower patients by adding digital engagement tools, both parties can feel more connected, which helps build trust with patients.

Patient engagement is worth its weight in gold, too. It can help support better treatment outcomes, higher patient satisfaction rates, and an increased chance of treatment adherence. These factors combined lead to a better patient experience while helping healthcare organizations save precious time and resources.

Top 5 Digital Patient Engagement Tools for Behavioral Healthcare

Behavioral health practices have specific needs that many other medicine specialties or PCPs do not share. For instance, giving new patients a chance to complete forms outside of the waiting room may be even more useful including assessments like PHQ-9 and GAD-7 before their initial appointment.

The five digital patient engagement tools we mention below are by no means the only ways an integrated online patient platform can level up your practice. Still, these suggestions serve as a starting point and can help you identify what sort of tech solutions might take your care to the next level.

 

1. Streamlined Messaging

One of Linear Health’s tools to bolster patient engagement is our conversational messaging. After running mental health clinics ourselves, this tool arose out of the need to streamline patient communication between different staff members and patients and their guardians/caregivers. Group chats can end the need for admin staff playing phone tag, frustrated from things falling through the cracks, all of which can lead to burnout and poor patient experiences. Seamlessly having a single view of all patient touch points (voice, sms, documents, screeners and more allows for a better experience for providers and admin staff supporting them. As a result, patients are more engaged which creates better outcomes, creating this fly wheel of positive impact across patients, their families, admin staff and providers.

2. Clinical Assessments (Screeners)

The right digital tools can save your office time and resources by providing patients with appropriate pre-visit questionnaires. We offer digital products that automatically send assessments like the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 and put them on a recurring schedule that can be customized to suit each patient’s needs. Patients can complete these screeners independently designed for an optimised mobile experience, without feeling overwhelmed in the physical waiting room or

You can also build your own HIPAA-compliant forms and set an automated schedule so your patients can provide important updates throughout their treatment schedule.

3. Automated Reminders

Few people write down appointments and meetings on paper calendars these days. It’s also true, however, that many people do not fully utilize digital calendars, either. Without appointment reminders, your practice may not be bringing in as many patients through the door as you could be.

Therefore, It might be helpful to choose a digital patient platform with options to automate appointment reminders. Your patients might appreciate reminders at specific intervals, such as seven days, three days, or one day before the appointment. Sending reminders multiple ways—through email, text message, phone call, or portal message—can further decrease no-shows.

4. Webforms and eSignatures

HIPAA-compliant webforms with built-in eSignature functionality are highly useful for mental health clinics, simplifying processes like intake forms, ROI form, consent forms, and other patient paperwork. Patients can securely complete and sign these forms from their mobile solving the common problem where patients turn up in person on on a telehealth visit and haven’t filled in the paperwork for the provider. With Linear Health’s HIPAA compliant webforms, a patient can fill out an intake form and sign a consent to treat form before their first appointment, making the process smoother for both the clinic staff and the patient.

5. Post-Appointment Surveys

When time is limited, and your office staff has enough on their plates, one of the first casualties is post-visit surveys. With the right digital platform, though, these forms can cease being an afterthought. Linear Health can help you gain actionable insights without using up your staff’s manpower.

How to Choose the Best Patient Engagement Tool

Before deciding on a platform, think about what you want to accomplish. Do you want to:

• Free up time for your administrative staff?
• Reduce the percentage of appointments that result in no-shows?
• Lessen the average time patients spend in the waiting room?
• Accurately gauge overall patient satisfaction?
• Simplify storage of essential forms and assessments?

The beauty of purpose-built software products like Linear Health’s is the increased ability to choose only the features you want. If your digital patient engagement tools aren’t making your life simpler, you probably want to reassess things.

Linear Health Unlocks New Engagement Opportunities

Implementing digital patient engagement tools sounds like a great idea until you use clunky platforms that aren’t integrated. Many software companies that provide digital patient portals focus on physical health and place mental health into a separate bucket that often feels like an afterthought.

Linear Health is one of the few software providers that prioritizes behavioral healthcare professionals. We know you don’t share the same needs as general practitioners. Our platform is designed to make your life easier so you can concentrate on delivering exceptional care. Not sold yet? Book a demo and see how we can elevate your practice.