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Strengthening the Digital Front Door During the Pandemic

By The SHSMD Team posted 01-26-2021 12:23 PM

  


Hospital and health system digital front doors have become more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis. For two critical access hospitals, the pandemic was a catalyst that made them move quickly to strengthen their digital front doors.

The ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ Opportunities

At Lexington Regional Health Center in Nebraska, strategy leaders acted quickly when the pandemic hit, educating their diverse patient base about the coronavirus and adopting a telehealth platform focused on behavioral health.

A nurse practitioner specializing in mental health had been active in using telehealth to reach out to the communities Lexington Regional serves, which includes large Spanish- and Somali-speaking populations. The hospital also deployed its bilingual chief medical officer and Somali staff interpreter on social media to connect with immigrant populations, finding further success.

A normal Facebook post might receive 300 views, but Lexington Regional’s messages during the height of the pandemic were recording 10 times that number. In addition, digital appointment reminders and a new online provider directory have been implemented.

Prioritizing which digital initiatives to pursue first can be a daunting challenge, particularly given limited resources, and Lexington Regional started the process in September 2019. The Digital Pulse tool from the American Hospital Association (AHA) served as a jumping-off point for strengthening the organization’s digital strategy.

The free tool allows AHA members to pinpoint existing resources in their organizations that can help scale digital transformation and to benchmark their capabilities against other industry leaders. The assessment revealed a number of new opportunities that Lexington Regional could tackle quickly.

A ‘Think Big, Start Small’ Approach

Riverwood Healthcare Center, a 25-bed critical access hospital in Minnesota’s Northwoods, also took the assessment. Using Digital Pulse — and collaborating with the AHA, vendor partners, community representatives and other hospitals — has helped hasten Riverwood’s digital transformation. A similar “think big, start small” approach has produced results faster than expected.

When the pandemic reached Aitkin County, Riverwood began seeking out ways to better connect with patients and improve the overall health care experience. Leaders had planned to launch provider video visits in 12 to 18 months, but they streamlined the process and began offering the service in just 72 hours to meet the sudden pressing demand. It has since launched additional digital solutions, including a staff COVID screening tool, patient symptom checker, new chat feature, and online seminars for patients and team members.

Using design thinking and rapid innovation, Riverwood is now in the process of developing a new prototype for its experience to better meets the needs of constituents. While this idea and many others had been in motion at Riverwood, the pandemic was a strong push to quickly tackle problems and deliver tangible solutions.

Lessons Learned

For both health care organizations, Digital Pulse was a useful tool to help them innovate quickly and pursue long-desired change. At Riverwood, other key steps included:
  • Starting an “aggressive and progressive” project management platform to help prioritize and manage tasks.
  • Implementing daily team huddles to enhance communication with staff, remove barriers and facilitate the accomplishment of established goals. 

Leaders at both organizations also emphasize the need for board engagement. At Lexington, staffers reported their findings from the Digital Pulse assessment and provided updates on wins along the way.

They add that rural strategy leaders should never hesitate to ask for assistance when tackling digital initiatives. Critical access hospital do not have the resources that larger organizations possess, and information sharing between large and small hospitals across the industry is valuable.

Learning More

SHSMD members can read the full article in the most recent edition of Spectrum, including details about how these organizations planned to strengthen their digital front doors and the metrics that measured success. Nonmembers, learn more about SHSMD and join. SHSMD members can also share resources, ideas and questions with peers in the MySHSMD community.

AHA Digital Pulse is a tool for provider-based AHA members to learn where existing capabilities can support scaling digital transformation by benchmarking an organization’s digital capabilities against other industry leaders and identifying what tools are fueling success.

Defining the New Digital Front Door is a webinar about building a digital strategy that will engage and acquire consumers and ways to align digital marketing with a person’s journey to care.

Navigating Response and Recovery with a Digital Front Door Platform is a webinar about Piedmont Healthcare’s mobile platform, PiedmontNow, which allowed the health system to immediately update protocols and communicate essential information when the pandemic hit.

Building the Digital Front Door: The Mayo Experience is a webinar that explores the ongoing work of the Mayo Clinic to improve the patient experience, capture patient calls for effective scheduling and ensure patients get scheduling assistance right away.

Perfecting the Patient Journey with a Digital Front Door Platform is a white paper that examines the essential transaction-ready features a platform needs to provide a single, mobile access point for multiple touchpoints in the patient’s journey and ensure seamless consumer interactions.
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