Patient engagement is an important theme discussed by many clinicians and hospital leaders. The healthcare industry is a competitive marketplace where patients have several choices about what doctors to see and what clinics to visit.

The term “patient engagement” itself is somewhat confusing and often misused, as it is used to describe everything from patient portals to social media to tech gadgets that enable patients to actively participate in their own health & wellness.

Unfortunately many organizations tend to view their patient portals and websites as both the ‘strategy’ and the ‘answer’ as a means to engaging patients in their own health outcomes. This is a problem as these options merely serve as passive roads that lead to where you want to reach. But without any additional ongoing, active triggers & motivations to activate the positive patient behavior, the roads would remain ‘the road not taken’ (pardon the pun at Robert Frost’s expense).

The right mobile communication tool can set a practice or a clinician apart from the rest. Such a tool would allow the patient to combine her knowledge, skills and willingness to manage her own health with the right interventions to nudge positive patient behavior and outcome.

Meet Buzz.

With Buzz, the days of faxing documents, looking through a rolodex, and playing phone tag through voicemails are over. Buzz is one integrated solution that allows the sharing of documents, text, and secure calls in a HIPAA compliant and completely secure manner. As a clinician your interests are caring for patients and families. This tool not only makes that easier, it makes it better.

Keeping patients and families engaged through a mobile platform is a no brainer. Buzz allows you to stay connected with patients throughout their care process, which improves engagement and patient satisfaction. It improves the integration of care by allowing communication amongst the care team—this too largely benefits patients as they receive better and more coordinated care. Simply put, more engaged patients leads to better outcomes.

Let’s dive in with some details.

A hospital admission entails three key processes: admission, hospital stay, and discharge.

Buzz benefits each of these in a different but meaningful way.

Admission

• Integrating admission communication between physicians, charge nurses, and emergency department to floor hand-offs
• Updating patients and families on reasons for admission, location in the hospital, and patient status
• Communicating with specialists to obtain consultations through a mobile platform

Hospital Stay

• Coordinating care between nurses, physicians, residents, physical and respiratory therapists, and all other members of the care team
• Updating patient’s families on clinical progress and discharge planning
• Improving hand-offs between hospitalists and better coordination amongst teaching teams

Discharge

• Communicating with skilled-nursing facilities, care coordinators, and primary care physicians
• Charting discharge documents and insurance authorization forms
• Updating the family on discharge plans

With Buzz we strive to make life better for both clinicians and patients. Mobility is a reality in many other industries, and it is just about time that healthcare catch up through responsible, engaging, and secure technology.