Its almost few weeks since mTatva (www.mtatva.com) launched HealthPIE. And almost everyday I have been asking myself.. What are the issues patients are facing on HealthPIE? But being a human and owning mTatva I also ask myself are patients liking HealthPIE? I thought of writing down about the later question here. I am very closely associated with almost each patient we are acquiring. I am always around the patients noticing them while they are waiting for their turn for doctor, standing in billing queue, standing in front of pharmacy and so on. I have done some analysis with data we have and I want to share some intermediate findings here.
Digital prescription
This is the first patient interaction from mTatva. Patients get digital prescription on their phone. Have you ever understood the doctor’s handwriting written on prescription fully? Most of us would agree that we don’t understand the handwriting. On top different doctors use different cryptic language to write down medications. This is what Digital prescription solves. Patient immediately gets an sms with all medication schedule written in a consistent language we all can understand.
This has been very appreciated by our patients. There are multiple benefits to it. I have seen patients trying to understand the medication schedule (when to take which medicine – name, time and before food or after food etc) on paper prescription. Patients with more than 3 medications find it really hard to memorize everything in that few seconds interaction about that information from pharmacist or doctor. Digital prescription helps patient’s giving these instructions on your phone accessible anytime.
There was a case where a patient came to us and told that he did not understand one medication schedule at all and misunderstood how he has to take it, but with digital prescription he was clear. He thanked us for avoiding a mistake which he would have made without Digital prescription. Also he was happy that now he can refer this as he always have access to his phone rather than his prescription to take medications.
Medication SMS reminders
Let me admit this: Most of us patients forget taking medications one time or the other. Problem is even more severe towards last couple of days of medication or for long term medications when patient is not bed-ridden. In such cases medication reminders has come really beneficial for patients big time. A sense of adhering to his/her treatment gives high confidence in patients leading to faster recovery. And of-course taking medication on time helps.
Though there are certain cases where patients remember taking medications and do not want these alerts. But these are less than 10%.
Personalized information
This has been the highest impact and satisfying experience. There has been comments to us from patients like “I have been never been so well informed before, hope this is available in all hospitals”. Our information solves a big pain point for a large patient segment. Mostly elderly patients and women patients have many questions and concerns about their illness and health conditions. They have so many questions that most of them does not even remember to ask all of them. And many patients are good citizens thinking about large queues outside or being considerate to doctors. So end result is that many of these patients walk out unsatisfied from hospital or clinic. And this is what our personalized information works on.
It has been a satisfying experience in last few weeks to serve some of the un-served customer problems and see a satisfying look on their faces. And some of the young and tech-savvy patients find it really cool as well.
Off-course during this we are also learning where we are lacking and what we need to improve on. We continuously works towards enhancing the patient experience.
To login to mTatva: www.mtatva.com
Download HealthPIE app: www.mtatva.com/app