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Spotlight: Career

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Internist Beverly J. Lessane, MD, is a busy doc by day, aspiring country music diva by night.

'The Career I Would've Had If I Hadn't Become a Doctor'

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift in health care. From exposing 

 concerns to stressing inpatient capacity to highlighting the human toll of delivering care, we have learned that our health care system is imperfect, but there are some bright spots on which we can capitalize.

Patients once again are becoming the central players in the health care delivery system, and their experience in that system matters. How they are engaged in their care matters. And because of this, patient experience matters more now than ever.

Improving the patient experience is a major step toward delivering on the promise of true patient-centered care, and by looking at the overall patient experience, we can assess the extent to which patients are receiving care that is 

respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values

. This further allows us to elicit feedback on the equity and appropriateness of care delivered. This type of patient data will help us make informed decisions about the type of services — and the manner in which they are provided — to ensure equitable care is provided to all patients.

Digital engagement technology can be an equalizer

One convenient way to deliver those services and collect that data is through digital engagement technology, which can be seamlessly integrated into a health system or hospital's existing processes. Digital engagement technology is also a pathway to allow for greater flexibility in outreach and response to patient needs while also increasing equity and access. Imagine how quickly we can access our banking information, purchase an item for pickup, or even chat with friends. The same is possible with digital health care. If a patient is able to digitally engage with their care team, without worrying about if they can receive time off of work or arrange caregivers for their children or even more commonly, fret about finding transportation to their appointment, they can focus on the care being delivered to them and how it’s meeting their needs.

 technology and how will it make for a better experience for patients? Digital engagement technology provides patients with a lower barrier to entry into the health care delivery system. Moreover, patients of all socioeconomic status can be engaged in this manner. We know that mobile phone ownership is high and thus no longer considered a barrier to digital healthcare among low-income people. According to 

, roughly 90% of lower income Americans own a mobile phone, with 95% of those owning a smartphone, having the capability to text, and maintaining at least 3G internet access.

Such democratized access to digital technology means patients who often need the most support can be easily reached and have their needs assessed in an environment that is conducive to success. To increase the likelihood that health information and related content is actually used by patients, it needs to be tailored to patient context and communication preferences. Smartphones are what is in the palms of lower income American hands, not computers. To keep this information simple and encourage engagement, health education and patient information can be 

delivered through secure links sent via text messaging

We have to empower patients to choose the best way for them to communicate with providers and health systems. Patients can learn how to share and control their data, because that level of ownership and engagement tends to lead to better compliance, which in turn improves outcomes. Furthermore, this mitigates the expensive occurrence of last-minute cancellations and the dreaded no shows. However, there is something more here to be valued. More engagement means more feedback and increased feedback means more opportunities to fine-tune how care is delivered. When we seek to differentiate the services being provided, digital engagement technology allows for a greater, more personalized reach, which can yield improved patient experience.

How to use social determinants of health data to improve care

Data can tell us a great deal about how an individual is accessing the health care system and how that experience is for them. Digital health care technology allows for near instantaneous collection of patient reported outcomes to be analyzed, informing the next encounter. As the appetite for more data-driven solutions that address social determinants of health (SDOH) increases, tools that allow health care organizations to digitally extract data on the patient experience can not only help to improve patient engagement but can also serve to improve health equity.

Two-way messaging, automated outreach and workflows, and SDOH survey collection allow organizations to screen for SDOH needs over time, collect SDOH data, navigate patients to facilities or community resources, capture longitudinal risk, boost routine care to those least likely to receive it, and escalate patients with complex needs or clinical risks sooner. Offering live community-based virtual navigators who ensure workforce diversity and cultural competency then further helps ensure that the most vulnerable patients don’t fall through the cracks.

This feedback loop and bi-directional communication with actual people builds a level of trust and a sense of being heard and seen that patients are experiencing in other consumer driven markets, but craving in health care. The problem is not the data itself, but in the elements we are extracting. We have to ensure we are eliciting patient feedback in safe and non-retaliatory ways and that the patients can see and feel how their personal experiences are impacting changes across the delivery system. The data that’s collected then needs to be shared so that providers know how best to interact with patients.

Leveraging patient data — including SDOH data — can help improve the health care experience and support efforts to improve the equity of care delivered. The questions lie in how to do so in a cost-wise way that also drives care improvements. Digital engagement technology that allows for empathetic, two-way communication gives organizations the ability to provide a personalized experience and also collects meaningful data that can inform future care decisions — on both a micro and macro level — something that is very much craved by patients and needed for healthcare organizations.

Chelsea King Arthur is Vice President, Population and Digital Health at

Actionable patient data lives in your digital engagement tools — use it!

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Consider the patient experience

Hospitals, healthcare facilities and physicians’ offices across the U.S. are grappling with inflation, rising labor costs, severe staffing shortages, and critically low margins resulting in closures nationwide. Additional challenges include disagreements between payers and providers, patient engagement and retention, and cybersecurity.

Medical professionals use advanced technology to deliver optimal patient care on the frontline, but data shows that many business offices in the healthcare industry are hesitant to do the same. 

 that up to 85% of payments in the healthcare industry are still made by check or other paper-based methods.

And that brings us to the topic of pain, as in the Pain Points experienced on a daily basis by finance teams at healthcare-related businesses:

Paper invoices and documents can easily get lost or misplaced, leading to delays in processing payments and difficulties retrieving information.

Physical storage of paper documents requires space and can be prone to damage, such as fire or water damage, which could result in the loss of important financial records.

Manual data entry of invoice details is time-consuming and increases the likelihood of errors, such as incorrect payment amounts or vendor information.

Matching invoices with purchase orders and manually receiving documents can be tedious and error-prone, leading to payment discrepancies and disputes.

Tracking the status of invoices and payments becomes challenging without a centralized system, leading to delays and difficulties in managing cash flow.

Without real-time visibility, it is harder to identify bottlenecks in the AP process and address them promptly. This can lead to missed payment deadlines and strained relationships with vendors.

The healthcare industry has specific regulations and reporting requirements related to resident billing, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements, and other financial aspects.

Manual processes increase the risk of non-compliance, making it more challenging to accurately track and document the necessary information, increasing the likelihood of errors and audit failures.

As hospitals, healthcare facilities and physicians’ offices expand their portfolio of vendors and services, manual AP processes become increasingly complex to manage effectively. Hiring additional staff to handle the increasing workload can be costly, and the risk of errors and delays also rises.

Routing physical documents for approvals can introduce significant delays, especially if approvals must go through multiple individuals or departments.

Lack of automated approval workflows can result in lost or misplaced documents, confusion regarding approval status, and difficulties in enforcing consistent approval policies.

Generating accurate and detailed audit reports becomes time-consuming and error-prone when relying on manual processes.

Retrieving data from various sources and consolidating information manually increases the risk of inaccuracies and inconsistencies in financial reporting.

Fortunately, 2023 is in the digital age and tactical solutions exist to provide pain management and streamline operations for finance offices. Many routine Accounts Payable (AP) processes can now be automated such as handling patient intake, transferring electronic health records, offering virtual facility tours and more. The effectiveness of these tools has resulted in healthcare finance professionals being able to use both human and financial capital to focus more on patient care rather than on time-consuming, paper-pushing tasks.

By moving to an automated payment and invoice platform, staff members at hospitals, healthcare facilities and physicians’ offices can save hundreds of hours a year that were spent tracking invoices as well as printing, stuffing and mailing checks. Finance automation creates opportunities to develop and execute strategic initiatives such as increasing revenue, investing more time in employees, and emphasizing employee benefits.

To increase efficiency and achieve resiliency, especially during times of economic downturns or uncertainties, AP automation delivers the control and adaptability that healthcare finance teams need in a number of ways:

Manual processing is costly and drastically slows down the invoice-to-pay cycle. Cloud-based AP Automation solutions make it easy for healthcare entities of any size to go digital and achieve increased efficiency and profitability. Best-in-class finance automation software saves countless hours on invoice and payment processing, while also significantly lowering both the invoice costs and the payment processing costs.

It’s nearly impossible to take advantage of perks like early payment discounts if a hospital, healthcare facility or physicians’ office is already struggling to get invoices approved and processed on time due to manual workflows. With AP Automation, healthcare entities can take advantage of incentives like this and save money to grow the organization’s bottom line.

Payment Automation solutions securely manage costly and time-intensive audit processes such as:

This audit, required by the Nacha Operating Rules, states that all participating depository financial institutions, Third-Party Service Providers, and Third-Party Senders conduct a risk-based ACH Rules Compliance Audit each year.

Medical professionals use advanced technology to deliver optimal patient care on the frontline, but data shows that many business offices in the healthcare industry are hesitant to do the same.

Beverly J. Lessane, MD

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