Types of patient engagement solutions and how much they cost

It is opposed to the conventional rigid system where the doctor prescribes one treatment course, and the patient feels free to either accept or ignore it instead of attempting to discuss other options. Nowadays, the healthcare sector is turning to technology to increase patient engagement in general and handle COVID-19 in particular. Using technology, doctors can reach their patients anytime and anywhere, foresee and mitigate deterioration in patients’ conditions, and provide helpful information at the right time. These goals can be achieved with the help of patient engagement software — an application or a set of interconnected systems designed to facilitate communication between patients and healthcare providers, offer educational resources, and otherwise manage the patient-doctor relationship.

If you want to purchase/build a patient engagement solution for your hospital, here is a list of basic features your system can offer:

Poor patient engagement strategies have a drastic impact on hospitals and the healthcare sector in general — and that’s not to mention patients’ outcomes. Here are some of the consequences of not keeping patients engaged:

Tools for patient engagement leverage innovative technology to improve user experience. Many organizations are already deploying technologies to reach out to patients at least 12 times a year, with AI and IoT being the most promising solutions in their toolbox.

Already back in 2021, healthcare organizations have deployed 3.2 million medical IoT devices on their premises. This number is expected to surpass seven million by 2026, with over 3,850 connected devices per smart hospital. One of the most prominent applications of IoT in healthcare is remote patient monitoring. Patients use connected devices to capture relevant medical information and share it with their doctors. For example, IoT devices can collect data on vital signs, such as heartbeat, glucose levels, weight, mood swings, and sleeping patterns. All this data is transmitted to the provider, allowing them to catch on early signs of change in patients’ physical condition and overall wellbeing. When patients are directly involved in tracking their medical data, they become mindful of any changes in their current condition, which will make them more compliant and eager to participate in treatment options selection.

Here’s what Kevin Pawl, Senior Director of Patient Access at Boston Children’s Hospital, says about AI:

AI solutions in healthcare can increase patient engagement in a variety of ways:

If you decide on acquiring a patient engagement software solution, you will have three options: off-the-shelf, content management system (CMS)-based, or fully customized solutions. While choosing among the different options, consider the following criteria:

There are a plethora of patient engagement solutions readily available for the healthcare sector. Hospitals can choose from a wide array of features and pricing models. Some patient engagement solution providers offer predefined types of subscriptions, while other companies give clients the liberty to select the features they want. Every patient engagement platform has its primary focus. Some are specialized in appointment scheduling, some on EHR integration, and some on e-prescriptions. The monthly subscription can vary from $19/month for a basic feature to $499/month and beyond for more comprehensive solutions. And of course, there are additional customization, support, and licensing costs to consider. The table below presents some examples of available patient engagement solutions at different price ranges.

These solutions are custom developed using existing content management platforms, such as Wix and WordPress. These platforms allow building most of the basic functionality that patient experience solutions require, such as patient registration, appointment scheduling and rescheduling, patient-provider communications, patient education, and even EMR/EHR integration. With CMS-based solutions, you can either opt for a hosted platform (Wix, WordPress.com) or download the open-source version of WordPress (WordPress.org); the latter gives you more control over your system, but it is more expensive as you need to hire software engineers and designers to help you customize it. Hosted platforms might look like a more lucrative and cost-efficient solution. However, their monthly plans seldom cover maintenance, and you’ll have to pay for third-party plugins and extensions separately. As a result, this option offers minimal functionality. That is why we’ll focus only on self-hosted CMSs below. The costs of developing a CMS-based solution for patient engagement can fluctuate around $40k-$50k for systems with the basic functionality, such as appointment scheduling, online payment, and secure patient-provider communication. Such a solution is typically developed and deployed within two months. If you want to enhance the basic solution with new functionality, you can either purchase and integrate third-party plugins, or develop custom plugins. Building a custom WordPress plugin will cost you $2k-$5k for a simplistic extension that adds one minor feature to your existing solution. A more complex plugin with an extended functionality will cost up to $20k. Meanwhile, a cumbersome plugin that requires in-depth analysis can easily add up to $45k and more. Characteristics of CMS-based patient engagement tools

Such a solution is developed specifically for your organization to cover your unique needs and cater to your internal processes. You will have full ownership of the final product. The vendor or your team will customize this software following any relevant changes in your organization. Unlike CMS-based solutions, custom-built platforms are developed from scratch, which gives you the freedom of choice when it comes to technology. Together with the vendor, you can select the web development framework, the database type, front-end technology, and data visualization format. This type of patient engagement software is easy to integrate with third-party systems because you are in full control of the code. One example of a custom-built solution is this automated appointment scheduler that integrates doctors’ schedules into the EMR system and facilitates appointment management. Another example is this AI-based solution that manages data of patients diagnosed with cancer and assists doctors in developing personalized cancer treatments. It also contains a social platform that allows patients to share their experience and support each other. The cost of a custom-built patient engagement system starts from around $50k. Under this price tag, you will get the basic patient engagement features, such as appointment scheduling, patient feedback, billing, and payment, as well as a simple chatbot integrated from third-party services and basic analytics. Such a solution will take at least three months to develop. More complex patient engagement tools will cost at least three times more. For example, if you want a solution that offers all the basic functionality in addition to connected wearable devices that help monitor patients’ condition, intelligent chatbots, and an AI-driven analytical system that can perform risk estimates for individual patients, that will cost you at least $120k-$150k. Characteristics of custom-built patient engagement solutions:

Some providers are still skeptical about deploying patient experience software. They fear that elderly patients will not be open to navigating digital spaces. Sometimes doctors don’t want to admit they can use help communicating with patients. If providers used healthcare software in the past and had a bad experience, this can also cause resentment. Despite all the challenges, the organizations who tried patient engagement technology can attest to its considerable benefits: