Providing a Human Touch in a Digital World

Practices and patients alike are busier than ever, and the way that healthcare practices are run has been rapidly changing. More healthcare practices are now resorting to digital modes of record retention, patient consultations, and marketing. It can feel frustrating to manage all of the needs of your practice’s digital presence. 

Many healthcare professionals also feel as though their practice is losing its quintessential human touch. However, utilizing digital media and marketing methods provides a unique opportunity for the medical field, allowing professionals to have a greater reach and a more profound impact on their patients.

How Digitized Healthcare Can Still Provide A Human Touch

One of the many more recent developments in healthcare practices is the implementation of virtual healthcare visits. These visits allow patients to connect with their physicians through messenger chats or video calls from their homes. This is one example of digital media giving healthcare practices a greater reach. While the mode of communication has changed, providers can still develop lasting relationships with their patients, and can potentially serve individuals who would not have had physical access to their practice otherwise.

Other concerns that healthcare practices express include how to generate a message that resonates with prospective patients. As of 2021, internet-based ads accounted for 45.9% of all healthcare advertisement expenditures. This was over 12% higher than just 3 years prior in 2018. This trend reflects the rapid changes that healthcare practices have had to adapt to in order to launch successful marketing campaigns. One method of bringing a human touch into online marketing is the use of patient testimonials. Patient testimonials provide invaluable feedback to your practice while offering genuine insight into their experience with their care.

Where Digital Meets Physical: How to Implement The Tools You Have

Properly utilizing the tools available to your practice can create an efficient and long-lasting patient-practice relationship. This includes understanding where digital optimization is beneficial, and where a human touch can create a difference.

Where digital tools may work best

Patients want your practice to be efficient nearly as much as you do. Efficiency means lower wait times, less hassle, and more time for them to get on with their lives. A few areas where digital media can help your practice be successful while enhancing the patient experience include:

• Automated appointment reminders
• Digital patient education
• Online healthcare portals and apps
• Online scheduling
• Virtual healthcare visits as an option

By utilizing just a few of these digital tools, a healthcare practice can devote more time and energy towards other tasks.

Where the human touch is essential

Regardless of all other factors, patients need to feel like they are being heard. That is why there are a few areas where the human touch is a necessity, including:

• Human phone operators
• Face-to-face interaction during virtual and in-person visits
• Receptionists and front desk staff
• Marketing staff

People don’t like to take the time out of their day to struggle on calls with uncooperative bots or tedious tablet questionnaires. In small areas such as these, it can be a relief for patients to know that they have been heard or are not alone in their healthcare journey. Other areas such as using a human marketing staff rather than AI tools can add that additional layer of human connection.

An experienced practice manager can provide direction for optimizing your digital and physical presence within your practice.

Valet Health Can Help

Valet Health knows that trying to keep the human element within an increasingly digital healthcare field can be exhausting. That’s why we offer a large suite of services, including reputation management, content creation, technical support, and social media management so that we help your healthcare practice become digitally optimized while preserving the human touch that makes your practice unique. For more information, contact us today or fill out the form below.