Virtual Assistants give patients instant responses to healthcare queries at key points along their pathway. This clever AI has seen a recent surge in popularity, helping patients access trustworthy answers 24/7 during a crisis, all without adding extra pressure to staff workloads.
These helpful chatbots engage in a friendly and humanlike way, with the ability to seamlessly transfer to another channel during the conversation, if required.
Why the rise in chat bots?
- Scalable: From 5 patient questions to 5000, virtual assistants can answer every single one of them simultaneously
- Available 24/7: Patients can engage with chatbots outside of normal operating times, improving their experience by removing the need to wait around for a reply
- Instant answers: Virtual Assistants are the fastest response channel, providing patients with trustworthy answers in real time or redirecting the query to a source that can help further
- Reduces inbound phone traffic: patients avoid lengthy phone waiting times, freeing up call handlers to focus on more complex enquiries or urgent calls
- Savvy automation: Virtual assistants are conversational and personalise the interaction, using the patient’s name and natural language that continues to evolve
- Credible source: Chatbots put an end to rampant misinformation, especially during a crisis, with responses curated from verified sources only
Virtual Assistants can deliver 30% more productivity by repeatably doing mundane tasks with endless endurance
Empowering interactive healthcare
- Website hospital visitor FAQ’s chat
- Virtual appointment rescheduling assistants
- Staff wellbeing support
- Support for patients with chronic conditions
- Symptom checker and remote monitoring
- Health crisis FAQ’s trustworthy source
- PALS support and guidance
Appointment rescheduling bot
Empower patients to reschedule their own appointment to a time that works for them and free staff of manually rebooking slots.
This clever conversational bot elevates your hospital to the next level in digital engagement, reducing missed appointments by giving patients choice and generating huge admin savings.
The rescheduling bot can be embedded within the patient portal too, providing users with a personal virtual assistant to make changing appointments fast and easy.
Case study: Covid-19 chatbot provides patients with answers 24/7
During the pandemic peak, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust was one of the busiest hospitals in the UK. To help patients access accurate information fast, without adding to hospital pressures, Healthcare Communications worked with the trust to develop a FAQ’s Covid-19 chatbot.
Patients can now engage with the clinically approved chatbot via the trust website, which provides instant answers to over 200 of the most frequently asked Covid-19 health related questions.
Results
- Over 1400 patients have used the bot from March – June 2020, freeing up call handlers to answer more complex enquiries, reschedule appointments, and take emergency calls
- 23% of chatbot requests took place out of office hours, when it’s not as easy for patients to get an immediate response to their enquiry