Technology and the Patient Experience

In addition to cutting-edge tools and devices, some healthcare leaders are finding that even putting consumer feedback on a website can play a role.

This article first appeared in the April 2015 issue of HealthLeaders magazine.

All too often, technology manages to get in the way of superior patient experiences in healthcare. Despite the benefits technology brings to healthcare, it also can intrude on doctor-patient communications. Too much gathered information remains locked up, unavailable to the public. But at more and more healthcare organizations, attention is shifting to leveraging technology to make the healthcare experience better and more transparent.

Dignity Health, a San Francisco–based system that employs 56,000, has started using Google Glass, along with technology and services provided by startup Augmedix, in patient encounters. "It was with great delight that I got to bring something to bear that actually had a different experience for our physicians," says Davin Lundquist, MD, CMIO for physician integration at Dignity.

In previous encounters, when a personal computer was in the exam room with doctor and patient, "half the time the doctor has their back to [the patient], typing, and the other half of the time he's cursing at the computer, because he has his back to [the patient] and is typing," Lundquist says.