Jim Higgins, Founder

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The face of healthcare is changing. Baby Boomers, the second largest generation in the U.S., are aging into Medicare and potentially putting a strain on healthcare resources. However, that isn’t the only challenge. They are also straining the resources of their children. Gen X and, increasingly, millennials, are taking on roles as caregivers for their Boomer parents, along with caring for their own children. It’s no surprise that Gen Xers are now just as likely to be called the sandwich generation — stuck between caring for aging parents and young children.

Today, 54 million Americans are living in multigenerational households, 

. Caring for parents and children is a big job and many feel there isn’t another choice. 

 showed that nearly half of Gen Xers felt that they had no choice when it came to caregiving. In addition, there is the added burden of the time it takes. The study also showed that, for those providing care, usually to a parent, they might be doing so for as many as eight hours a day.

How can healthcare providers support these caregivers and make things a bit easier on them? Using the tools available in a patient relationship management (PRM) system is a good place to start. Most Gen Xers and millennials prefer digital tools to help manage their healthcare. 

 digital services play an important role when choosing a physician. Given the complexity of managing care for multiple people, this makes sense, but it’s more than the tools, it’s how the healthcare organization uses them.

 are a perfect example of how the way a tool is used can be even more important than actually using the tool. Caregivers could be overwhelmed with reminders and other messages. Although there are some best practices for the most effective reminder cadence, patients and their caregivers might want something different. This is why it is so important to ask. Make sure the PRM system that is used allows the healthcare organization to change settings based on patient preferences. The ideal timing of reminders could be 

, but the caregiver might just want one reminder a week before. Asking about patient or caregiver preferences allows them to decide what makes sense for their needs. This is true for the way the message is sent as well. Do they want text, voice, email or a combination? The goal is to make things easier on caregivers by being conscious of their needs.

Another good example is scheduling. Scheduling and registering for appointments is very time consuming. The typical visit to a doctor consumes 121 minutes of the patient’s time — 37 minutes in travel, 64 minutes waiting for care or filling out forms and only 20 minutes face to face with the physician, 

 This equates to $43 in lost time for each medical visit. 

 that Americans spent 1.1 billion hours per year obtaining such care for themselves or others — time the researchers valued at $52 billion. There are several ways to reduce that time and cost for patients, including digitization of scheduling, form completion and bill pay, in addition to two-way text messaging.

 think that being able to schedule, change or cancel an appointment online is important. It’s not only faster than calling, it also helps patients get in for appointments sooner. The average 

appointment scheduling call is eight minutes

 while scheduling online can be done in a minute or two. The online schedule offers more options at a glance along with alternate providers, which can shorten the wait time to see a provider. Finally, it can be done at any time of the day or night, which is more convenient for those who are working and caring for multiple family members. Ideally, the scheduling solution would auto-populate the patient information for existing patients as well, saving even more time.

 Filling out paperwork can also be very time consuming for patients and caregivers. 

Fifty-one percent of patients prefer a doctor

 who lets them fill out paperwork online. Again, when it’s offered electronically it means they can do it any time of the day at their convenience. It also improves data accuracy and reduces the chance of delays at check-in.

 The complexity of medical billing is a common complaint from patients and collecting from patients is a top challenge for medical providers. Collection rates increase when providers communicate with patients about billing using their preferred channel. 

 would prefer an electronic bill and payment option. It comes back to the same issue of convenience. Caregivers are busy and their time and resources are stretched — they need to be able to do things when they have the time.

 Text messaging has become ubiquitous. More than 

 and 97% use text messaging, the number one app used on smartphones. In addition, people are more responsive to texts. Nearly 

 within 15 minutes. It is the way people want to communicate, and the younger they are, the more likely 

 with their healthcare providers. Text messaging is faster than a phone call and can be done from anywhere, even when a phone call might not be appropriate, like at work or on the subway. It also provides caregivers with a quick and easy way to ask questions or confirm information since they are overwhelmed and may need to recheck an appointment, directions or information about appointment instructions like fasting.

Patient satisfaction is doubly important when you are dealing with a patient and a caregiver. 

 no longer feel obligated to stay with healthcare providers that don’t deliver an overall satisfactory digital experience. By offering convenient, digital solutions, healthcare organizations can focus on caring for the patient while supporting the caregiver.

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How PRM Will Help Caregivers

Annual wellness and other preventive care visits are a cornerstone of effective healthcare. They provide steady revenue — and can even increase revenue &mdash; while keeping overall costs down by helping to keep patients healthy and identify health issues early. In fact, 

 found that healthcare organizations that focused on wellness visits generated greater primary care visit revenue, saw greater stability of patient assignment and brought in patients who were slightly healthier.

Unfortunately, trends suggest that millennials, 

who make up nearly 25% of the U.S. population

less likely to have a primary care doctor

 and engage in preventive care in traditional ways. So how do you get millennial patients to come in for preventive care visits like flu shots and checkups? For hospitals and health systems that might only see these patients in an urgent care, emergency department (EDor specialty visit, using the right educational approach could be the key, along with offering the right combination of technology and services.

Organizations like the Advisory Board and American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) suggest offering more options like telemedicine and working to engage millennials through technology. But that only works if you can let millennials know that you have what they need.

What are the steps to a millennial-based strategy for getting patients excited about wellness?

Include health articles and a frequently asked questions section so that when patients search for advice, your health system is somewhere they can turn. Consider adding a blog where you can share more tips for getting — and staying &mdash; healthy. Better yet, consider 

videos and graphics on your website and blog

, which are more appealing to millennials. And make sure you include information on services like telemedicine and extended hours — along with patient stories and reviews, which the generation values highly.

Health systems should also take advantage of social media. With 

 on social media, it’s all but certain that your patients are there. Sharing health system-generated content through social media is an incredible way to motivate patients to come in for wellness visits.

Using education targeted specifically to the needs and interests of millennials can make a big difference in the success of a healthcare organization’s newsletter campaign. When these patients do enter the urgent care or ED, get their contact information so that the health system can reach out via text or email. Newsletters should be sent monthly, or at least quarterly, by text or email. Again, consider using video or graphics in the newsletter. When creating a newsletter, remember:

 Set specific goals for what you want your newsletter to accomplish. Is it to reduce ED visits and increase primary care visits? Then plan for articles designed to help millennials understand the health and cost benefits of having a primary care doctor. In addition, you might want the newsletter to build rapport between the organization and its patients or let them know about upcoming events or new services that appeal to millennials, such as telemedicine.

No one likes to read a stuffy email — especially not millennials. This is your organization’s chance to show its personality. Millennials are looking to partner and engage. Don’t make staying healthy sound boring. Share stories, give tips or shoot a quick video on the importance of staying ahead of health challenges.

 Through technology, healthcare organizations can access pre-made templates and automatically send the newsletter whenever works best. This helps reduce the time spent working on the outreach campaign.

It’s important that healthcare providers and organizations never assume that patients understand what you are saying. Drop the jargon. Millennials don’t like to be talked down to. If you’re not sure if your message is not hitting home with your patients, try testing it on non-medical, millennial friends. Have them review your newsletter. Invite them to the office to check out your posters, pamphlets and videos. Are they boring? Hard to understand? Or maybe just not impactful? Healthcare organizations can also survey patients to see if their efforts are paying off.

Additionally, educational efforts aimed at millennials need to be brief. Millennials are used to getting information in bits and pieces. Focus on two or three key reasons why patients should come in for their wellness visit and leave it at that.

By creating an ongoing strategy focused on the importance of wellness, a healthcare organization’s chances of getting millennials into the office greatly improve. Through the use of a website, social media, email, text messages and newsletters throughout the year, healthcare leaders can be sure that their message will get through.

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Preventive care can both save costs and generate revenues. But it can also improve patient outcomes.

Patients are getting more impatient, and it’s understandable. Everything is at their fingertips 24/7. In this digital age, people are overwhelmed with information coming from every sector of their lives. As such, healthcare providers face a growing challenge to engage with patients where they are and how they want, to ensure that they show up, come prepared and follow instructions. Success or failure in reaching this goal not only affects patient health and outcomes but also provider payments.

There is no doubt that reminders — whether phone, email or text &mdash; can help get patients to scheduled appointments on time and prepared, but all reminders are not the same. A new 

analysis of 20 million reminder and confirmation messages

 suggests that there are differences based on timing and cadence. Dialing in those two factors really does result in a better response from patients.

First, the data showed that the most effective messages are the weekly and daily reminders. Let’s quickly define those. The weekly reminder is sent less than one month but more than seven days before the appointment, and the daily reminder is sent less than seven days but more than 24 hours before the appointment.

The weekly reminder can increase patient confirmation rates by 126 percent. When a daily reminder is added, it increases the confirmation rate by 26 additional percentage points. Just these two messages increase confirmations from patients by a total of 152 percentage points compared to when no reminders are sent to patients.

The analysis found that the best timing for those two reminders is three weeks and three to five days ahead of the appointment. The confirmation rate for messages sent three weeks ahead is 79 percent, while the rate for messages sent three or four days ahead is 78 percent.

The addition of a message sent on the same day as the appointment increases confirmations by another 4 percent. This isn’t a huge boost for confirmation rates, but the task is easily done through automated messaging and certainly doesn’t hurt as a last-minute reminder.

A message sent when patients schedule the appointment was found to have virtually no impact on appointment confirmations. So, this is one reminder that practices can skip. The one exception is when the appointment is scheduled less than a month in advance. In that case, the message sent at the time of scheduling essentially replaces the weekly reminder.

Using a best practice approach based on data is a good starting point for any healthcare organization looking to reduce patient no-shows. However, it is just a starting point. Providers should analyze their own results, be responsive to patient feedback and adjust their reminders accordingly. Doing so will allow the organization to continue to improve the effectiveness of its reminder strategy.

Healthcare providers can also increase the effectiveness of reminders by including patient preferences and communication options in the mix. Ask patients if they prefer reminders via text, email or phone, what language they want and how often they’d like to be reminded. And offer flexible options to respond like real-time text conversations to ask a question or reschedule.

Reducing no-shows requires a balance of science (the data on best timing) and art (patient preferences). While that requires some effort, the results will be well worth it.

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Jim Higgins, Founder

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