Technology Helps Hospitals Adapt to New Approaches for Arriving Patients

One of the biggest pandemic concerns for administrators at Banner Health was the risk to patients who might defer needed care in order to avoid public spaces, says Christopher Stallings, the healthcare system’s senior director of consumer digital services.

Along with the increased use of ­telemedicine and remote monitoring, technologies that speed patients through waiting areas — or eliminate waiting rooms altogether — will be around long after the pandemic recedes, says Stallings.

The hospital system has seen hundreds of thousands of uses of its interactive messaging system for patients, which has made communication and coordination easier for both patients and staff. This kind of system is here to stay, Porter says.

The disruption of the pandemic has made clear the value of some technologies and has also made healthcare organizations more open to new ways of doing things, says Christopher Stallings of Banner Health.