Artera, a company with a nine-year track record of developing healthcare technology solutions, has unveiled a new feature designed to revolutionize the way providers handle patient referrals. Previously known as Well Health, Artera focuses on resolving industry-wide pain points and optimizing patient communication.
This innovative solution, dubbed Artera Referrals, tackles the significant challenge of referral leakage – a problem plaguing the healthcare system. Up to half of all referrals to physicians never reach completion, according to a report by the American College of Physicians (PDF). A recent Definitive Healthcare report further emphasizes that keeping patients within a network and minimizing referral leakage is a top priority for providers.
The traditional referral process can be cumbersome and frustrating for both healthcare professionals and patients. Guillaume de Zwirek, Artera’s CEO and founder, points out that most hospitals rely on outdated methods like outbound phone calls or paper referrals handed to patients. Some providers utilize automated systems, but these often leave the burden of completing the process on the patient’s shoulders.
Artera’s technology steps in to address these issues by facilitating timely patient communication. Automated referral outreach ensures patients receive prompt contact, while real-time responses empower them to schedule appointments, respond to inquiries, or self-schedule directly. Additionally, pre-visit communications streamline the process and ensure both patients and staff are well-prepared for appointments. These features, according to Artera executives, contribute to enhanced patient engagement and loyalty.
“Our new capabilities deliver automated, omnichannel referral outreach to quickly convert more patients and generate additional revenue for healthcare providers.” explains Zach Wood, Senior Vice President of Product and Partner Ecosystem at Artera.
In recent years, healthcare systems have invested heavily in creating digital “front doors” for patients. However, these portals often lead to fragmented experiences, with patients navigating a maze of disconnected channels. Artera developed a solution named Artera Harmony to bridge this gap. This technology streamlines communication by integrating various digital vendors, allowing healthcare systems and practices to manage workflows across multiple departments. Artera Harmony prioritizes message importance and timing, ensuring patients receive the right information at the right time.
Currently, Artera serves over 700 healthcare systems, facilitating an impressive 2.2 billion annual communications for more than 100 million patients.
Artera Referrals boasts a range of functionalities, including configuration and filtering. The system automatically retrieves referral details from electronic health records (EHRs) and initiates outreach to patients to schedule appointments. Providers can customize this outreach based on factors such as scheduling availability, authorization status, appointment priority, and the location of the referral.
Furthermore, the tool empowers providers to manage the timing and frequency of referral messages, preventing overload on call centers and staff. This approach fosters increased conversion rates and a more positive patient experience.
Artera’s referral workflow support extends to comprehensive performance tracking for healthcare staff. This data helps identify areas for improvement in conversion rates and provides valuable insights into the revenue generated through referral communication efforts.
The system grants providers the flexibility to tailor and trigger referral messages based on specific events, including the creation of a referral, changes in authorization status, and updates to the scheduling process. Additionally, healthcare staff can leverage automated functionalities to document information back into the EHR, encompassing appointment confirmations, cancellations, and outreach status updates.
By automating these tasks and empowering patients to self-schedule appointments, Artera’s technology significantly enhances workflow efficiency for healthcare staff. This innovative solution represents a monumental leap forward from the historically manual referral process, de Zwirek emphasizes.
The new Artera Referrals capabilities are readily available for existing and prospective clients. Notably, the system integrates seamlessly with any EHR platform.
Artera’s commitment to innovation extends beyond this latest offering. The company actively explores the potential of analytics and generative AI to develop future technologies and tools designed to optimize patient communication. de Zwirek envisions opportunities to utilize small language models for specific tasks such as message classification and summaries. These models offer advantages in terms of training, fine-tuning, deployment, and operational cost.
Artera’s new features position the company as a leader in streamlining the referral process, ultimately aiming to reduce leakage and foster a more engaged patient experience within the healthcare system.
