Humans are social beings

Photo by: Brooke Cagle

Humans are social beings and the need for human touch and contact is present in all of our spheres of life including healthcare. When it comes to the world of healthcare, patients need to feel comfortable and relaxed when communicating with their healthcare professionals. Therefore, in this article, we will cover the need for human contact in healthcare and how it can be further established and strengthened using innovative, digital tools and services.

The need for human contact in the world of healthcare

Communication is crucial in healthcare. It needs to be accurate, quick, and effective. However, for patients, there is more to it than that. Patients need to feel that they are properly being taken care of. So, each health clinic needs to try and establish proper communication with patients that will make patients feel comfortable.

A successful healthcare journey for patients is more than simple procedures and diagnoses. Whether a patient is asking for information, scheduling an appointment, or receiving treatment, he or she needs to feel safe, relaxed, and listened to. Health clinics with strong communication policies can enrich their patients’ health. Patients will have a happier healthcare journey when they have a well-established, trustworthy relationship with their healthcare service providers.

Digitalization and the fear of losing human contact

Overall when observing how the world of healthcare is developing, we can conclude that more and more clinics are utilizing digital tools and services to extended their reach and have a faster and easier communication with patients. However, this has caused some concern as to whether health clinics might completely move towards a digitalization where patients have no human contact. Of course, this is impossible so far and would not be productive. At the same time, patients dislike talking with chatbots and call centers for a great number of different reasons and one of them is the lack of feeling that they are talking to a real person. The need for human contact is quite clear and patients prefer to talk to a real person who will listen to them and also provide them the necessary healthcare assistance.

The call center problem

An agent working in a call center can have hundreds of different calls over one day. Communicating with each patient as if its the first one is impossible. Furthermore, agents working in call centers usually work for lower salaries and sometimes do not go through extensive training. This can result in a poor communication with patients calling to schudule an appointments or get some informaton. Patients feel when agents are not being polite. This leads to a very negative experience for patients and they end up feeling the lack of human contact.

The problem of using regular chatbots

When it comes to chatbots, the story gets even worse. Patients can easily notice when they are talking with chatbots. The conversation feels very one-sided and it is obvious that a regular chatbot can only answer a given set of questions and that's pretty much it. So, although chatbots can be useful, in the world of healthcare where human contact is essential, they are not the best.

How innovative AI solutions can help health clinics

There is no doubt that digitalization is good for healthcare. The constant development of new technologies has allowed health clinics to function in a more efficient and cost-effective way. AI is one such example. While relatively new, there have been many technological developments when it comes to AI over the last couple of years.

New and innovative AI-powered services and tools can help health clinics establish better communication with patients and help them increase their outreach even more. However, they need to be implemented properly. We have already mentioned that simple chatbots are not enough for a clear and well-established communciation with patients. However, what about a fully-functioning, natural processing engine designed to deal with healthcare interactions with patients?

The power of a a natural language processing engine made for healthcare interactions

Proactive and humanized care has a positive impact on the patient experience and with the usage of a propriatery natural language processing engine such as Patricia, health clinics, around the world, can engage in a more meaningful and effective communication with patients and so much more. What can exactly this kind of AI do for health clinics and patients? Well, an NLP engine such as Patricia has been trained with over 80 million cases and it can truly help clinics understand the needs of patients. When it comes to patients themselves, they will feel as if they are talking to a real person. A more pleasant and fluid experience for the patient is possible by utilizing the AI-powered digital tools and services that can help patients access and navigate through the different health care services.

The ability of an NLP engine such as Patricia to learn and grow from each conversation makes it an excellent choice for engaging in communication with patients. It can approach each patient differently, depending on their needs, preferences, and so on. Furthermore, Patricia™ today speaks Spanish, English, German, French and Catalan. It has the ability to quickly learn new languages as well.

The need for human contact in healthcare - AI solutions are here

There is no denying that humans are social beings and need human contact, especially in the world of healthcare. However, new digital tools and AI technologies can also help and enhance patients' healthcare journeys. Regular chatbots and call centers are not enough for communication with patients and are becoming increasingly obsolete. With new AI such as Patricia, health clinics can establish a more meaningful, faster, and stronger bonds with their patients. Patients will be able to schedule, reschudule, check for needed information, and overall reach their healthcare professionals quickly and easily.