Healthcare and chatbots, really? Healthcare is a serious business, how can even chat box help? Most of the times, we relate in-app chatting with websites like dating or shopping. Many of us tend to become dubious when we are all ears to artificially intelligent bots in the context of healthcare and medical practices. However, life and death situations are very common in the healthcare industry, and a quick and precise help is the only way to successfully get away with them.
With chat integrations on healthcare websites, paramedics, doctors, and other medical professionals will be able to take the right decision at the right time, if at all they have smooth access to patient information. Well, Chatbots can assist with this.
Sundry of medical institutions are choosing to create medical chat box in order to serve the internal record keeping purposes. The Healthcare Communications studied almost 2000 NHS (National Health Service) patients and found that 68% of people wished to manage their appointment bookings via their smartphones, and almost 72% of people wanted to receive digital alerts to check the availability for their last minute appointment. This comprehensible and progressive preference for the digital engagement methods is underpinning the vital role live chats can play in engaging the clients in the healthcare industry.
Why add Chat to your Healthcare Website/App?
The most important aspect of healthcare is the patient confidentiality, and regardless of what means of communication is used, it becomes quintessential that the security is upheld at any cost. Chat integration allows the patients to speak with the doctors in confidence. Basically, chats are secured to the highest level of encryption, thus making them as safe as the payment page of any website.
Since waiting time in the healthcare industry has always been an issue, therefore, with chat integration, patients do not have to spend a long time waiting to be seen by a medical professional. Through chat integration, they can be easily connected to an advisor straight away, which in return augments the satisfaction levels of the users, as they receive the guidance quickly on the inquiry made.
People who are unable to leave their houses or face difficulties in communicating face to face, the text-based communication can help aid the visitors. The best-known example for chat integration on a healthcare website is Practo. It helps patients chat with doctors and find a solution to their problems.
Let’s delve deeper and understand the top 5 in-app messaging use cases of chat in the healthcare landscape.
Text Chat
What do you get with chat? Imagine getting expert health consultation over chat? Text chat allows patients to connect with doctors in a more congenial environment. It enables the proper understanding of the patient and promises quick action and enhanced brand experience to your user giving you an upper hand over your competitor’s website. When done in the right manner, chat cannot only engage visitors but also convert and delight them. Moreover, it is also helpful in delivering helpful support materials to the customers.
Use case scenario: With texts, hospitals and doctors can reach a wider range of population including those who are not geographically close and can also improve the appointment attendance.
Voice and Video Chat
Want a virtual consultation with a doctor? Voice & Video Calling & Conference can be utilized in consulting your doctor while you are sitting right there at your place. Video communication can provide medical care over long distances. Improvements in the video quality, the internet speed and the ubiquity of smartphones, voice and video chat for virtually consulting a medical professional can prove to be very efficacious.
Use case scenario: This is particularly useful in the emergency situations where the patients have acute symptoms and need to be attended to right away. Moreover, it can also prevent overflow in the hospitals especially during high volume times like the flu season.
File Sharing
Want to share your medical reports within chat? The file sharing can be a new way for your patients to send their medical records to their health care providers. Now, this is really a patient-driven interoperability. The doctors just need a device and an internet connection, which is now pretty common in today’s era of digitization.
Need for the physical copies will end and there is no need to ask the medical provider who holds the record for access. With file sharing, the user engagement will experience an upswing and the conversation would pan out to be more interesting with file sharing.
Use case scenario: In situations of emergency, where the patient cannot move out of the house, the past reports of the patient can easily be shared with the doctor. This enables the medical provider to analyze all the past medical reports and begin the treatment accordingly.
Role Based Access Control
The healthcare industry, in particular, can benefit a lot with proper implementation of RBAC (Role Based Access Control) solutions. Site owners can restrict some of the Chat Integrations features to a certain tier of users and divide the users as free or premium.
The users can then purchase either a membership or premium features on a quarterly or yearly basis. Monetization channels can also be created, as the premium features are restricted only to certain users depending upon the type of services they wish to avail.
Use case scenario: Patients can be divided into Premium and Free user categories and features like Voice and Video Calling which can be used for Virtual Consultation or File Sharing which can be used for more detailed consultations can be limited to just the premium users. So if a Patient requests Virtual or Detailed consultation they would have to upgrade themselves to a premium membership.
Credit Deduction Feature
Availing all the chat features like voice and video chat, and sharing files directly with your medical professional and text chatting for consultation might require a premium subscription at some point. For customers to make full use of your healthcare website or app, the credit deduction feature will deduct the credits from the accounts of the users.
For instance, the text consultation can be free but to use other features like the voice and video chat, the user might need to buy some credits and consequently, the credits will be deducted from the account of the user, thus, maintaining a transparency in the entire process.
Use case scenario: There is always a time restriction when it comes to seeing a doctor, but getting your credits deducted from your account to consult a doctor is hardly a matter of few minutes.
Adding on and Ending with these points..
Multiple opportunities for enhanced engagement, brand experience, and internal business gains are certain for the healthcare providers that successfully implement the chat integration on their website.
Through chat integration, patients can get their follow up questions answered through the online chat option, consult a doctor virtually through voice or text chat, share files or reports online through the file sharing feature, and access premium features through based access control and credit deduction functionality. Not just patients, healthcare experts can improve their efficiency and reach a wider user base with such a technology.
The healthcare industry is evolving and the scope to engage user-base is more than ever. Chat integration in your healthcare website can prove to be the next big step for your health organization by not just monetizing your users, but also helping them with better features.
Team CometChat
