May 31, 2021

Can Healthcare Chatbots Improve the Patient Experience?

By Alan Lawson

Do you have patients that need constant reminders to take their medications? Health institutions are adopting technology into their systems and ensuring every patient has a patient portal software. This is beneficial to both the patient, the patient-caregiver, and the doctors.

Healthcare chatbots have a lot of benefits to the patient because they act like a constant reminder, information service provider, and a communication channel.

Functions of a chatbot

Taking patients’ information and analyzing it

Patients can have an actual conversation where they can tell the chatbot where they are not feeling well.

Answering patient questions like a human being

A chatbot acts like chatting to someone on the other side but it is a machine. 

Booking appointments for patients 

Patients can have their appointments booked at their convenience.

Looking up medical information and prescriptions

If you need any information about the drugs prescribed to you for example side effects, chatbots act as a good source of information.

Ordering supplies for a patient

Patients who are not able to go pick new drugs at the hospital or drug stores can use chatbots and get new supplies.

Motivating the patient to take their medication and stick to the schedules

Benefits of a chatbot

  • Improved home-based care. Patients who need home-based care are motivated by a chatbot to constantly take their medicine. This makes it easy for patients to operate without constant monitoring by nurses.
  • Compares drug information. A chatbot can compare and contract drug information hence recommend what to go by in case there is a dilemma.
  • Check up on patients. Patients whose recovery symptoms need to be monitored operate very well with chatbot services. They can just answer the questions asked and review the statistics generated.
  • Secure compared to popular search engines. The information shared through a chatbot is very secure and patients do not need to worry about their privacy being evaded.

Types of chatbots

Information chatbot

This gives automated information in case a patient enquires anything. Enabled with a customer support service that can handle immediate information about outbreaks, health news, and updates. This chatbot has the ability to connect a patient with a specialist in case they need one.

Conversational chatbot

This chatbot is set to answer questions asked by the patient. Addresses questions that have been repeatedly asked by others and have a section of pre-answered questions. Patients can use this to get personal questions without the worry someone else will know about it.

Prescriptive chatbot

Used to deliver prescriptions to patients with particular conditions, signs, or symptoms. Patients who need therapy sessions such as those going through a mental disorder or recovering from surgery or accidents can also use this particular chatbot. 

In conclusion, chatbots can be used to give the patient a better experience and even motivate them to do better because it is like chatting to a private doctor directly. Especially the use of patient portal software has enabled doctors to monitor patients remotely. You can also check out other documentation here on this website.