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ORLANDO – Making the best use of the right technology can transform a primary care practice, according to Dr. Daniel Feiten.
Parents are living in a mobile world. They do their banking online, they order pizza online, and they want to manage some aspects of their family’s health care online when possible. Many pediatric practices, however, are still living in a typewriter world, said Dr. Feiten, a pediatrician in private practice in Centennial, Colo.
During a session on technology at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he noted that it’s not always easy to incorporate new technology into an existing practice – and in some cases the transition can actually increase workload. Among those he recommended as potentially cost-effective and worth considering are a website with a symptom checker, and a digital answering service.
A survey of parents from his group practice showed that for 56%, the main reason for visiting the practice’s website was having a sick child. They wanted to know if their child needed to be seen by a doctor, and they wanted access to a symptom checker to help them determine that, Dr. Feiten said.
In another survey of 2,600 parents who have used such a symptom checker, 61% said the application saved them a call to the doctor’s office, 19% said it prompted them to call when they weren’t planning to do so, and 93% said they would prefer to find the symptom checker on the doctor’s website rather than having to use another source.
Furthermore, 93% of respondents said the symptom checker was the most important feature, and 72% listed patient portals (for appointment requests and other communications) as an important feature as well.
A third of them considered physician and staff photos to be important.
"What does that say? It says that we are moving away from the mentality of using a website or a web presence to get patients," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that the functionality parents want is a simple, quick way to determine whether their children need medical care.
"Websites should be functional tools rather than marketing tools," he said.
The symptom checker should be the prominent feature of the website – available on the home page, with easy access and drop-downs, he said.
An analysis in his practice showed that while the impact on answering service calls was minimal 5 years after launching a website with a symptom checker, the parents who said they used the website brought in $19,000 that year.
"That’s a nice return on investment for the little you would pay to have a symptom checker on your website," he said.
Dr. Feiten said that digital answering service applications allow patients to page an on-call physician via the website or a mobile phone. The applications direct parents to write concise descriptions of their children’s symptoms, and the programs can be adapted to direct pages "to the right person at the right time on the right device."
The relatively new technology offers a number of advantages over live answering services – not the least of which is improved accuracy for electronic health records. Consider the spelling of a patient’s name, for example. (How many ways are there to spell ‘Michaela?’ Dr. Feiten, mused). A parent will get it right, he said.
The applications are also easy to implement on a website or mobile device, and the cost is half (or less) that of live instant message answering services, according to Dr. Feiten, who predicted that "this will be the next revolution in after-hours."
Potential savings in the United States is $34 million each year, he said.
His practice has been using the service for 2 years, and an analysis showed that only 1 in 84 parents said they expected the availability of the service would increase the number of after-hours calls they make, and in fact, after implementation, visit volume increased 5%, but after-hours message volume increased by only 1.2%.
"The feedback that we get from parents is that they love this type of service," he said.
Many practices may find that it is best to make both types of answering services available, as not all parents will embrace this technology.
A related technology that has the potential to improve communications between physicians, and which a number of companies are currently developing, is message management software, he noted.
It will provide an efficient system to get messages quickly to the intended recipient, with criteria built in to ensure messages aren’t missed (such as live-agent validation for messages that aren’t picked up in a timely manner).
"I’m really excited about this," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that these "rules engine" applications are "the wave of the future."
Dr. Feiten is cofounder of MedSecure (an answering service), and cofounder and co-owner of Remedy Web Inc. (a web design and development company), but he receives no remuneration from these companies. He is on the board of directors of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.
ORLANDO – Making the best use of the right technology can transform a primary care practice, according to Dr. Daniel Feiten.
Parents are living in a mobile world. They do their banking online, they order pizza online, and they want to manage some aspects of their family’s health care online when possible. Many pediatric practices, however, are still living in a typewriter world, said Dr. Feiten, a pediatrician in private practice in Centennial, Colo.
During a session on technology at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he noted that it’s not always easy to incorporate new technology into an existing practice – and in some cases the transition can actually increase workload. Among those he recommended as potentially cost-effective and worth considering are a website with a symptom checker, and a digital answering service.
A survey of parents from his group practice showed that for 56%, the main reason for visiting the practice’s website was having a sick child. They wanted to know if their child needed to be seen by a doctor, and they wanted access to a symptom checker to help them determine that, Dr. Feiten said.
In another survey of 2,600 parents who have used such a symptom checker, 61% said the application saved them a call to the doctor’s office, 19% said it prompted them to call when they weren’t planning to do so, and 93% said they would prefer to find the symptom checker on the doctor’s website rather than having to use another source.
Furthermore, 93% of respondents said the symptom checker was the most important feature, and 72% listed patient portals (for appointment requests and other communications) as an important feature as well.
A third of them considered physician and staff photos to be important.
"What does that say? It says that we are moving away from the mentality of using a website or a web presence to get patients," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that the functionality parents want is a simple, quick way to determine whether their children need medical care.
"Websites should be functional tools rather than marketing tools," he said.
The symptom checker should be the prominent feature of the website – available on the home page, with easy access and drop-downs, he said.
An analysis in his practice showed that while the impact on answering service calls was minimal 5 years after launching a website with a symptom checker, the parents who said they used the website brought in $19,000 that year.
"That’s a nice return on investment for the little you would pay to have a symptom checker on your website," he said.
Dr. Feiten said that digital answering service applications allow patients to page an on-call physician via the website or a mobile phone. The applications direct parents to write concise descriptions of their children’s symptoms, and the programs can be adapted to direct pages "to the right person at the right time on the right device."
The relatively new technology offers a number of advantages over live answering services – not the least of which is improved accuracy for electronic health records. Consider the spelling of a patient’s name, for example. (How many ways are there to spell ‘Michaela?’ Dr. Feiten, mused). A parent will get it right, he said.
The applications are also easy to implement on a website or mobile device, and the cost is half (or less) that of live instant message answering services, according to Dr. Feiten, who predicted that "this will be the next revolution in after-hours."
Potential savings in the United States is $34 million each year, he said.
His practice has been using the service for 2 years, and an analysis showed that only 1 in 84 parents said they expected the availability of the service would increase the number of after-hours calls they make, and in fact, after implementation, visit volume increased 5%, but after-hours message volume increased by only 1.2%.
"The feedback that we get from parents is that they love this type of service," he said.
Many practices may find that it is best to make both types of answering services available, as not all parents will embrace this technology.
A related technology that has the potential to improve communications between physicians, and which a number of companies are currently developing, is message management software, he noted.
It will provide an efficient system to get messages quickly to the intended recipient, with criteria built in to ensure messages aren’t missed (such as live-agent validation for messages that aren’t picked up in a timely manner).
"I’m really excited about this," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that these "rules engine" applications are "the wave of the future."
Dr. Feiten is cofounder of MedSecure (an answering service), and cofounder and co-owner of Remedy Web Inc. (a web design and development company), but he receives no remuneration from these companies. He is on the board of directors of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.
ORLANDO – Making the best use of the right technology can transform a primary care practice, according to Dr. Daniel Feiten.
Parents are living in a mobile world. They do their banking online, they order pizza online, and they want to manage some aspects of their family’s health care online when possible. Many pediatric practices, however, are still living in a typewriter world, said Dr. Feiten, a pediatrician in private practice in Centennial, Colo.
During a session on technology at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, he noted that it’s not always easy to incorporate new technology into an existing practice – and in some cases the transition can actually increase workload. Among those he recommended as potentially cost-effective and worth considering are a website with a symptom checker, and a digital answering service.
A survey of parents from his group practice showed that for 56%, the main reason for visiting the practice’s website was having a sick child. They wanted to know if their child needed to be seen by a doctor, and they wanted access to a symptom checker to help them determine that, Dr. Feiten said.
In another survey of 2,600 parents who have used such a symptom checker, 61% said the application saved them a call to the doctor’s office, 19% said it prompted them to call when they weren’t planning to do so, and 93% said they would prefer to find the symptom checker on the doctor’s website rather than having to use another source.
Furthermore, 93% of respondents said the symptom checker was the most important feature, and 72% listed patient portals (for appointment requests and other communications) as an important feature as well.
A third of them considered physician and staff photos to be important.
"What does that say? It says that we are moving away from the mentality of using a website or a web presence to get patients," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that the functionality parents want is a simple, quick way to determine whether their children need medical care.
"Websites should be functional tools rather than marketing tools," he said.
The symptom checker should be the prominent feature of the website – available on the home page, with easy access and drop-downs, he said.
An analysis in his practice showed that while the impact on answering service calls was minimal 5 years after launching a website with a symptom checker, the parents who said they used the website brought in $19,000 that year.
"That’s a nice return on investment for the little you would pay to have a symptom checker on your website," he said.
Dr. Feiten said that digital answering service applications allow patients to page an on-call physician via the website or a mobile phone. The applications direct parents to write concise descriptions of their children’s symptoms, and the programs can be adapted to direct pages "to the right person at the right time on the right device."
The relatively new technology offers a number of advantages over live answering services – not the least of which is improved accuracy for electronic health records. Consider the spelling of a patient’s name, for example. (How many ways are there to spell ‘Michaela?’ Dr. Feiten, mused). A parent will get it right, he said.
The applications are also easy to implement on a website or mobile device, and the cost is half (or less) that of live instant message answering services, according to Dr. Feiten, who predicted that "this will be the next revolution in after-hours."
Potential savings in the United States is $34 million each year, he said.
His practice has been using the service for 2 years, and an analysis showed that only 1 in 84 parents said they expected the availability of the service would increase the number of after-hours calls they make, and in fact, after implementation, visit volume increased 5%, but after-hours message volume increased by only 1.2%.
"The feedback that we get from parents is that they love this type of service," he said.
Many practices may find that it is best to make both types of answering services available, as not all parents will embrace this technology.
A related technology that has the potential to improve communications between physicians, and which a number of companies are currently developing, is message management software, he noted.
It will provide an efficient system to get messages quickly to the intended recipient, with criteria built in to ensure messages aren’t missed (such as live-agent validation for messages that aren’t picked up in a timely manner).
"I’m really excited about this," Dr. Feiten said, explaining that these "rules engine" applications are "the wave of the future."
Dr. Feiten is cofounder of MedSecure (an answering service), and cofounder and co-owner of Remedy Web Inc. (a web design and development company), but he receives no remuneration from these companies. He is on the board of directors of the Children’s Diabetes Foundation.
EXPERT ANALYSIS FROM THE AAP NATIONAL CONFERENCE
