Healthcare communication: 7 things you should know in 2024

Healthcare communication has changed immensely. What used to refer to doctor-patient communication now includes much more. The new ways of communication in our daily lives are also changing the way patients communicate with their healthcare and insurance providers.

In 2023, we expect the existing healthcare communication trends to intensify. One of the major healthcare trends is live and in-app chat messaging: download our eBook to find out how it supports achieving an excellent patient experience.

Here are the healthcare communication trends for 2024

1. The need for secure healthcare communication is on the rise

Statistics show that data security breaches in healthcare are getting worse. More precisely, there is a 25% year-over-year increase in healthcare data breaches according to HIPAA Journal. Moreover, the total cost of data breaches in the healthcare industry in 2020 was a staggering $13.2 Billion.

Even though healthcare-related businesses must comply with HIPAA regulations, data breaches still happen. This leads to a lack of trust between patients and healthcare providers.

When patients’ PHI (Protected Health Information) is compromised, they are less likely to stay with their current healthcare provider. Research shows that people are more privacy-conscious than ever before: 32% of people are willing to or have already switched companies or providers over their data privacy policies.

Due to the risk of losing their patients, Health Tech, insurance companies, and healthcare providers must ensure secure healthcare communication. That’s why they opt for HIPAA-compliant chat: that way they can rest assured knowing that they took maximum precautions to protect their chat communications.

➡️ Find out what are the 10 best HIPAA-compliant messaging tools.

HIPAA compliance includes several technologies to protect patients’ PHI. Encryption, self-deployment, access controls, and other techniques are used to minimize the possibility of data breaches. For healthcare-related businesses, adjusting the software to make its use HIPAA compliant is a must.

In healthcare, we see a lot of on-premise deployment compared to other industries. In 2019, on-premise deployment captured around 54% of all solutions implemented in healthcare. 

For healthcare communication tools, on-premise deployment ensures that all communication never goes out: you are in full control of your data. 

2. Digital communication is the new norm

20% of patients feel they cannot easily reach their doctor’s office. This is no wonder since patients spend on average 8 minutes on the phone when scheduling medical appointments, and their calls get transferred 63% of the time.

Moreover, the way we communicate altogether is changing. Younger generations are especially prone to using instant messaging and chat solutions in their daily lives - and this goes both for private conversations and talking to businesses.

In healthcare, the digital communication trend is evident in the following numbers:

• 57% of patients expect doctors to send automated text, voice, or email reminders.
• 68% of consumers choose healthcare providers that offer to book, change, and cancel appointments online.

Digital capabilities are what sets healthcare providers apart. Patients want to schedule doctor appointments online easily; they want reminders for follow-up care; they want lab test results delivered digitally.

Why live-chat support? Live chat solutions on websites and in-app chats have become a staple in customer support. 41% of consumers prefer live chat as a customer support channel.

In healthcare communication, chat solutions have undeniable advantages for patients and businesses alike. By integrating with other solutions, automation possibilities (and therefore increased operational efficiency) are better than ever.

However, there is still the danger of data security breaches, and as we learned, those risks are high for healthcare-related businesses. 

3. Need for patient-centric healthcare communication

Patients are consumers. Healthcare-related businesses should look into customer service best practices in order to optimize their patient experience.

One of the main pillars of customer support calls for a customer-centric approach. Following this logic, healthcare communication should be patient-centric.

In the age of digital healthcare communication, this calls for systems inoperability. In order to give full attention to patients and have their issues resolved in timely manner, chat solutions need to be integrated with self-scheduling software, Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and other systems needed to resolve patient issues faster.

Interoperability and automation increase healthcare chat’s operational efficiency. Chatbots are another way to focus on patients. Research shows that 52% of patients acquire their health data through the use of healthcare chatbots.

Chatbots can serve to answer FAQs like insurance claims, documents, symptoms, and more.