How Hospital Mobile Apps Can Improve Patient Engagement for Better Care Delivery

What Do Patients Need in Medical Applications?

1. Easy-to-use Functionality: Patients look for user-friendly functionality while using the medical application. You can ensure that through intuitive flows and transitions, and design a seamless onboarding process for increased patient adoption.

2. Access to Medical Records: The medical application you develop should integrate with an EHR system, enabling real-time data intake and increased patient engagement in healthcare interactions. This ensures secure and compliant data sharing and allows the patients to access critical health data.

3. Appointment Management: Mobile apps for hospital management system should allow patients to book appointments conveniently, reduce administrative burden, and enhance staff productivity through digital hospital app appointment scheduling.

4. Alerts and Reminders: Hospital apps developers can create real-time push notifications for patients, triggering medication reminders, refill notifications, and appointment alerts, ensuring they receive critical updates directly to their smartphones.

5. Seamless Payment Method: Patients seek seamless payment methods that allow easy mobile transactions, reduce billing lags, and facilitate medical services or insurance payments while integrating secure payment gateways under PCI DSS standards to ensure personal data security.

Best Types of Hospital Mobile Apps for Patient Engagement

There are several healthcare mobile apps, including pregnancy, wellness, hospital administration, and more. However, here we have picked out the five most commonly used ones. These have a significant impact on patient experience too.   

1. Urgent Care Apps

The emergency care system is an essential requirement of integrated healthcare management. Mobile apps in healthcare address this need by developing urgent care apps. Some developers even integrate this section into their existing mobile hospital applications. A health emergency can come up anytime. But with urgent care mobile health apps, patients can easily reach out during emergencies. And, of course, this boosts patient engagement too.

2. General Hospital Apps

Healthcare mobile solutions can also provide general hospital information. Patients are becoming more specific about the services and quality. Better reviews and services attract patients or boost their experience. So, general hospital apps for doctors are a great way to reach out to potential patients about hospitals’ services.

3. Physician Referral Apps

Patients’ search for a good physician is an uphill task. However, custom mhealth app development vendors suggest hospitals with physician referral apps. This app is like a directory that lists all doctors and their information. So, a patient looking for a specialist need not waste time finding one; just this app and the user can pick the suitable doctor.

4. Outpatient Apps

For any practice management, outpatient care services need special attention. It impacts the patient engagement solutions of the hospital. Many hospital app development teams have outpatient apps to help patients get the best quality of care. Moreover, cancer patients or critically ill patients benefit from this outpatient app the most. It even helps their doctors or practitioners keep track of their health better.

5. Tracking Apps

Taking care of patients is no easy task. But it can be made easier with mobile health apps. Hospital mobile software applications can help patients with medication and appointment reminders. This type of app will benefit patients and hospitals too. Patients will get better care, and hospitals will be satisfied and healthy.

6. Clinical Communication App

Clinical communications apps offer virtual functionalities like voice calling, video conferences, and messaging to streamline interactions between healthcare providers and facilitate quick responses.

7. Disease Management and Diagnostics App

Symptom checkers are popular healthcare apps that allow doctors and healthcare professionals to monitor patients’ drug adherence, lab results, and current health conditions, and provide coaching on their health journey.

8. Drug Reference App

Drug reference apps for hospitals offer comprehensive information on medicine, pharmacology, indications, dosages, interactions, contraindications, costs, and more.

Top Trending Modules in Patient Engagement Mobile Apps

Hospital mobile apps, all different types, benefit both entities, and however, it depends a lot on the app’s features. No matter which app you use, there are a few common features that directly impact patient engagement.   

1. EMR/EHR integration

Mobile healthcare apps must have access to EMR/EHR. It’s one of the most desired features in mobile health app development. Most integrated healthcare solutions providers offer this feature to boost patient engagement. It’s because patients today are interested in having control of their health records. It also helps hospitals with population health management. Moreover, healthcare providers are skeptical about including this feature. But it’s worth having this feature. The mobile healthcare app will boost patient engagement in hospitals with good privacy. It even improves healthcare interoperability in hospitals.

2. Timely Feedback and SMS Notifications

Another must-have feature in mobile healthcare apps is providing patients with timely feedback. SMS notifications help patients to remain updated and informed about their ongoing treatments, upcoming appointments, and more. And when patients get complete information, they are satisfied. This is an excellent boost to hospitals’ patient engagement.

3. Doctor’s Profiles

Including doctors’ profiles on the hospital mobile applications is a great feature to boost patient engagement. Doctors’ credentials, specializations, and other professional information are what patients look for before making an appointment. So, offering this information on the app will make the search easier for patients. Healthcare providers can utilize healthcare analytics solutions to help patients find a suitable doctor.

4. Appointments

Earlier scheduling appointments were time-consuming and mostly over calls. With mobile healthcare solutions, this task of appointment scheduling has become easier. Patients can directly go to the appointment sections in the mobile app to select a suitable doctor and book an appointment. This also directly impacts patient experience, as their job is made easier.

5. Video/text consultations

Along with appointment scheduling, video, and text consultations should be added as must-have features of mobile medical apps. Telehealth is quite popular these days, and patients also prefer it. So, the medical app development team in hospitals or mhealth providers must include this feature to boost the client hospitals’ patient engagement.

6. Wearables and IoT

Healthcare app development with IoT and smart wearable technology are popular for monitoring health metrics like heart rate, steps, and calories burned. These devices help maintain good overall health and provide immediate assistance to medical practitioners by connecting the physical device to the cloud. This technology helps medical practitioners stay informed and effective in their practice.

7. Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology is a secure method for managing large amounts of data in a distributed database. It operates as a chain of transactions that are impossible to hack, defraud, or cheat. Blockchain has the potential to save the healthcare industry up to $100 billion by reducing costs related to data breaches and counterfeit fraud. Healthcare applications can use blockchain to improve health predictions, reduce medical errors, and provide sustainable treatment.

8. Cloud Computing

Cloud computing has significantly impacted healthcare by providing on-demand solutions for securely storing, administering, and accessing sensitive information. It allows medical practitioners and patients to store, share, and access data from anywhere, anytime. Cloud-based Android/iOS apps allow patients to stay updated on health updates and receive timely consultations. Healthcare providers can easily access EMR systems, medical billing solutions, insurance plans, and other necessary details through cloud-based healthcare applications.

Benefits of Hospital Mobile Apps for Boosting Patient Engagement

As mentioned earlier, hospitals’ mobile apps offer multiple benefits to hospitals and patients. Some of these benefits of hospital mobile apps are-  

1. Provides Transparency

One of the major benefits of the hospital mobile app is transparency between providers and patients. With features like access to EMR/EHR, patients get more clarity about their health information. And Hospitals also receive timely information about patient health through the integration of wearables. Through the wearables, doctors get vitals and make decisions. So, a hospital mobile app is a connecting bridge between patients and hospitals. Besides using medical informatics, hospitals can improve information transparency.

2. Eliminates Emotional Gap

The relationship between the patient and provider isn’t just about care delivery. Empathy and emotional intelligence help the patient-doctor relationship. It allows patients to connect with their care providers well and share their fears and other stress. So, a hospital mobile app is capable of doing this. Patients and doctors can connect via video or audio chat for consultations. Moreover, patients can also refer to the app to get help from hospitals anytime; chatbot-like features are also included. So, when patients and providers can connect emotionally, patients’ engagement goes high.

3. Patients take control of their health

Another benefit of mobile healthcare applications is that patients are also decision-makers. When patients get access to their health information and easy health access, hospitals’ patient engagement is boosted. Patients can make decisions keeping in mind their financial and other constraints. Even hospitals are also benefited benefit from this.

4. Patient Customization and Tailored Treatments

Customized mobile applications enable medical practitioners to analyze each patient’s unique medical history, streamlining the process of tailoring treatments. This is particularly beneficial for dealing with large patient volumes, as it allows healthcare providers to efficiently navigate patient records.

5. Emergency Services Integration

Hospital app services for patients often incorporate emergency services integration, allowing users to quickly access emergency contacts, share location, or call for assistance during critical situations, thereby enhancing their safety and well-being.

6. Real-time response

Healthcare apps enable doctors to respond proactively to patients’ medical needs, providing effective treatment anytime and anywhere. Patients can request assistance and consult available doctors immediately. Mobile app users can avoid visiting doctors for minor problems or questions, as they can receive answers directly from the app.

How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Hospital App?

Hospital mobile app development service usually costs between $50,000 to $300,000, depending on the complexity of the application and several other factors. Starting with an MVP or prototype is crucial, as it includes minimal features and functionalities that will be validated with end users. This will approximate the total cost of the app development. Basic hospital applications can cost between $25,000 to $50,000, while an advanced app can cost $150,000 to $300,000 or more.

Secondly, choosing the right platform, such as iOS or Android, is crucial for reaching the right audience. Additionally, the complexity of the application can increase the chances of technical issues and bugs, further increasing the cost of management. Generally, maintenance and support costs are estimated to be 15-20% of the initial development cost per year, involving continuous monitoring, bug fixes, security updates, and user support. These costs ensure the software remains functional, secure, and up-to-date with the evolving technological landscape. A few other additional costs include regular backups, server maintenance, and software licensing fees.

Conclusion

Hospital mobile apps for patients are undoubtedly the best way of healthcare digitization. Patients and hospitals benefit in multiple ways. And patients’ experience of the specific hospital also improves. However, healthcare providers must plan and budget if they are interested in mobile app development. Opting for a customized app is a wise choice. So, mhealth solution providers offering hospital mobile app development services must use cloud computing in healthcare for the app. Cloud solutions for the app will ensure better data management. Hospitals must include features that cater to patients’ needs and demands better. And also offer privacy and security. So, ensuring HIPAA compliance is a must too. Above all, a hospital mobile app with HIPAA compliance and all patient-centric features will boost patient engagement and enhance their care efficacy.