Medicom Health
  • Solutions
    • Health Risk Assessments (HRAs)
    • Follow-Up & Nurturing
    • Promotional Services
    • Self-Care Planners
    • Rx Savings Assistant
    • Close
  • Articles
  • Company
  • Support
    • Client Portal Log-In
    • Tips & Support
    • Contact Support
    • Close
  • Contact Us
  • Most Recent
  • Blog & News
  • Events & Webinars
  • Case Studies
  • Tips & Support

Case Study: Gundersen Health SystemSelf-Care Planners Improve Patient Satisfaction and Access

self-care
August 24, 2018 / Tony Huth / Uncategorized

CHALLENGE

Gundersen Health System needed a way to educate and care for patients, while simultaneously improving access to providers for the consumers who needed care. Because many patients with joint pain, spine pain, even urinary incontinence can often improve symptoms without medical or surgical intervention, the quest was on to find a way to keep unnecessary appointments to a minimum, so patients with the greatest need could be seen in a timely manner. Providers understand that patients don’t like to wait for months or spend money to be seen when they are uncertain about whether their symptoms even warrant an appointment. A form of a pre-appointment screening solution became the logical solution.

SOLUTION

As Gundersen’s Health Risk Assessments became more and more successful, and they saw consumers becoming more digitally savvy, they seized on an opportunity to partner with Medicom Health to create Self-Care Planners (SCPs).

By design, Self-Care Planners:

  • Are self-directed programs designed by board-certified physician specialists and physical therapists using evidence-based treatment guidelines.
  • Create ongoing engagement through a 6-week program, that can be extended if the consumer would like to continue receiving the education provided.
  • Allow patients to track and record progress on smartphone, tablet, or desktop.
  • Identify who should be seen by a physician or specialist.
  • Will require patients with certain conditions to see a provider before starting the Self-Care Planner. And, if symptoms change, and users should see a provider, the tool will notify them to do so.
  • Are used as part of care continuum from self-care to care by the health system, as needed.

The SCPs allow for the system to build a lasting relationship, create more opportunities for interaction, improve access to education, and care for personal health concerns all through an engaging digital platform. In short, the SCPs provide a cost-free option for patients to try before scheduling an office visit..

Further, the SCPs provide data back to the health system about patient wants, needs and behaviors.

The data is also fed to the client’s CRM for more effective future segmentation, outreach, messaging, and of course, ROI tracking.

Promotion of SCP was targeted to consumers via email and e-newsletter campaigns, sponsored Facebook ads, SEM, banner ads, landing pages, print ads, even mall displays.

SUCCESS

Overall, Gundersen Health System wholeheartedly believes digital tools can make a more meaningful impact on the lives of consumers.


Typical Self-Care Planner User

Meet Mike, a 52-year-old long haul truck driver.
Mike has severe pain in his right knee from a football injury 30 years ago. He can barely walk after getting out of his truck.

His high-deductible health plan makes it difficult to afford out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and being on the road 5 days a week means doctor’s appointments are difficult. Further, Mike doesn’t have a primary care provider.

How Self-Care Planners Works

STEP 1 – Using his cell phone
Mike registered and completed setup by assessing current symptoms and impact on daily activities. He learned his joint symptoms were severe.

STEP 2 – Mike gets his symptom assessment and daily care plan

Mike’s Self-Care Plan

  1. Lose weight and track weight weekly
  2. Record joint symptoms weekly
  3. Do Level 1 cardio, mobility and flexibility exercises daily

STEP 3 – Daily Activities
Mike performed the exercises as described in the SCP video. After he finishes, he documents his completion and can see sample videos on the next page.

STEP 4 – Weekly Activities
Every week, Mike is alerted to assess his symptoms and record his weight. A checkmark shows the activity was recorded. A “happy face” appeared when a goal was met like losing weight or improving symptoms.

STEP 5 – Change Exercise Level
At the end of the second week, Mike earned an alert to consider changing to the Level 2 exercise plan.

STEP 6 – Six-Week Assessment
Mike’s knee pain was better after 6-weeks of self-care, but he still limped when he walked. He could have continued using the SCP, but he decided to make an appointment with a doctor by clicking the Find a Doctor link in the tool.


These tools and resulting data can provide broad benefits for patients, physicians, and health systems without much investment. Not to mention, SCP are easy-to-deploy, but create powerful connections to your facility and address modern healthcare challenges.

Pamela Maas

Chief Business Development and Marketing Officer

Gundersen Health System

ABOUT

Gundersen Health System is a physician-led, not-for profit healthcare system located throughout western Wisconsin, northeastern Iowa and southeastern Minnesota caring for patients in 19 counties. Included is a regional referral center with regional hospitals, a 325-bed teaching hospital, the designated Western Academic Campus for the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health, and a Level II Trauma and Emergency Center. Gundersen is repeatedly named among the Top 50 hospitals in the nation, placing it in the top one percent.

early detection, health care costs, increase revenue, patient engagement, physician resources, roi, Screenings, segmentation, self-care planners
MHI Download

Gundersen Health System Case Study

For more information click here to view/download the PDF

Self-Guided Demos

View Product Demos

Learn more about “v3” HRAs

Subscribe to News

Thank you!

Thank you for subscribing to Medicom Health News.


Convert Web Visits into Office Visits

marketing-sheet-thumb

Download PDF


Other Case Studies

From Unknown Digital Prospect to Patient Encounter:
Population Health & Diabetes

Gundersen Health System:
Self-Care Planners Improve Patient Satisfaction and Access

Using HRAs to promote brand awareness and community health:
Hospital Foundation Implements HRAs to Improve Women’s Health

Yuma Regional Medical Center (YRMC):
HRAs at Events

No-Cost Improvement for Improved Completion Rates:
Improving Completion Rates Without Spending Money

Growing Weight-Loss Surgery Revenue:
Using digital tools to drive engagement and increase surgeries

OSF HealthCare:
Striking Big with Stroke Awareness

Leveraging Facebook campaigns to increase HRA completions:
Facebook Campaigns Engage Patients

Advocate Health Care:
Digital Engagement with A Strong Calls To Action

Allegiance Health:
SEM to Increase Health Risk Assessment Completions

Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions, comments, requests, feedback, etc.

Site Highlights

  • Health Risk Assessments (HRAs)
  • Rx Savings Assistant
  • Case Studies
  • HRA Promotion
  • Self-Care Planners
  • Partnerships

Recent Articles

  • data-driven marketing

    Data-Driven Marketing For Healthcare

  • sticky CTAs

    Are Your CTAs “Sticky” Enough?

  • healthcare digital marketing trends survey

    Recommendation: 2019 Healthcare Digital Marketing Trends Survey

  • hra-creation

    Benefits of Using a Pre-Built Solution vs. Creating Your Own

  • ah-ha moments foster health behavior change

    Patient Nurturing: Foster Ah-ha Moments to Encourage Health Behavior Change

  • hitrust-security

    HITRUST Security Changes

Medicom Health

400 First Avenue North, Suite 550
Minneapolis, MN 55401 USA

Contact

  • (800) 971-0785
  • Contact Us
    • Facebook
    • Linkedin
    • Twitter
© 2019 Medicom Health
  • Back to top

What do we mean by “HRA?”

HRA stands for “Health Risk Assessment.”

At their simplest, HRAs ask health related questions and apply algorithms to calculate results to stratify users into groups.

The most popular type of HRAs are those used by health insurance companies.

They often use clunky, lengthy annual HRAs to quickly gather self-reported health metrics and determine how much you might cost them over time. They are not typically designed to help the individual take concrete action.

Our HRAs are different:

  • They are designed specifically to educate and motivate users about a specific health concern.
  • They have very tailored recommendations for next steps which can be edited in the Admin Portal.
  • They are designed to be used on a mobile device– quickly and conveniently.

We believe if you make it easy for users to educate and motivate themselves, they will willingly opt-in to your messaging.