Today’s healthcare industry bears a startling resemblance to a Charles Dickens novel. It is the best of times, and the worst of times. In an age where advancements in technology have extended patient lifespans, many healthcare systems are struggling to pay their bills. Deloitte pegs healthcare spending at over $3.8 Trillion in 2014, and providers are desperately searching for any cost-cutting solutions. Many found a means to treat their own symptoms, with a prescription of mobile apps.
It seems to not make sense. How would hospitals save money by spending thousands to build an app? Today, almost 60% of the U.S. population owns smartphones. Patients, especially seniors, are adopting tablets at a rapid rate. Successful hospitals are leveraging branded mobile apps not only to engage their patients and boost HCHAPS scores, but to achieve cost reduction by launching efficient mobile apps.
Take medication adherence, for example. Non-adherence accounts for over $300B of healthcare costs. A user-friendly smartphone or tablet app, enabled with medication reminders and timed push notifications from the trusted provider can help your forgetful patients and reduce readmissions and non-adherence costs. From chronic disease management to general info to way-finding, hospital employees themselves are coming up with efficient mobile scenarios to reduce costs.
But how can non-programmers prototype, test, build and launch sophisticated mobile apps without hiring expensive developers? Wake Forest Baptist Health, for example, has used the MobileSmith platform to create an award-winning app and save many thousands in app development and management costs. With branded hospital apps, providers now have a means to combat the rising cost fever of healthcare, and with this free guide to proven mobile use cases for cost reduction, healthcare organizations are now well-placed to create their own cure.
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One customer of ours, for example, has created a branded app for its five Urgent Care centers using our platform. The app is hooked to their wait times database and shows nearest UC center, dynamic wait times, and GPS directions from the user’s location. So, potential ER clients can easily find, look up, and get to the more affordable primary care options. A great use case for ER cost savings (not to mention the fact that they saved up to 70% in development costs by going with us).
“A user-friendly smartphone or tablet app, enabled with medication reminders and timed push notifications from the trusted provider can help your forgetful patients and reduce readmissions and non-adherence costs.”
Do those forgetful patients know how to use a smartphone?
“How would hospitals save money by spending thousands to build an app?”
Do they want to reduce billings to save money, or just costs?