Self Service Ticketing Boom In Healthcare Industry

One of the most common assumptions surrounding the use of an employee ticketing system is that it can only be used for ITSM. Although it is widely used for assisting the IT department in getting employee issues resolved, the ticketing system is used in different departments as well as a number of different industries. 

Over time, the Healthcare industry is getting increasingly digitized. Medical centers have started switching to electronic health records (EHRs), virtual diagnosis, and software platforms that automate a number of processes carried out within a healthcare center. These processes include employee and patient support. 

Whether healthcare professionals or the patients they are catering to need answers to their questions, the self-service ticketing system provides them with personalized solutions to their problems. When the modern employee service desks are implemented in medical institutions, they streamline the support system throughout the facility and help the doctors, nurses, patients, and the administration get their problems solved. 

Before we get into the importance of a self-service ticketing system in the healthcare industry, let us understand its need over the traditional service desk. 

Why Is Traditional Support No Longer Relevant In The Healthcare Industry?

No Centralization Of Support 

The traditional service desks provided fragmented support to the employees working within a medical institution. Different staff members had to resort to different platforms to get their issues resolved. This often resulted in a chaotic atmosphere without centralization of the support provided. 

Also, the traditional support in the healthcare industry was different for different entities. While the employees could raise support tickets, the patients had to resort to calling/emailing their healthcare experts to obtain personalized answers to their questions. 

Not Everybody’s Cup Of Tea 

The traditional ticketing system had its own complications that required the users to be well-versed with the software platform. When it comes to the healthcare industry, it is natural to assume that the employees will not have enough knowledge about programming and navigating through complex software platforms. 

This would result in the healthcare professionals finding themselves using a system they barely understand. Ultimately, this would result in the employees resorting to making repeated calls and sending multiple emails to get their work done. 

Delay In Support 

The number of support agents answering questions is often outnumbered by the number of support requests made by the number of requests made by the employees. As the traditional service desk places agents at the very first level of providing support, it overburdens them with a plethora of requests coming towards them. 

This, in turn, results in a delay in the issues getting resolved as it would take time for every agent to get to all the cases and resolving them effectively. This may also affect the quality of support provided to the employees as the focus is on getting the maximum number of cases resolved. In other words, the traditional employee ticketing system is more agent-centric instead of being employee-centric. 

Insufficient Knowledge Management 

The traditional support system did not allow an organization to make optimum use of its enterprise knowledge. This often resulted in the employees obtaining generic solutions to specific problems. Employees often had to look for the answers in the long texts provided to them, resulting in insufficient use of knowledge management. 

Carrying Out Repetitive Tasks 

The traditional service desks focused solely on generating, tracking, and closing support tickets raised by employees. When it came to task automation, management had to carry out repetitive processes like onboarding employees, setting/changing passwords, etc. This made employees spend a lot of their time repeating the same processes every time a request was made for the same. 

The Importance Of Self-service Ticketing In The Healthcare Industry

All the drawbacks of the traditional employee service desk discussed above can be resolved by implementing a self-service ticketing system within a medical institution. This system is a part of the modern employee service desks that are driven by AI technology. 

The AI-driven service desks make use of chatbots that help users navigate through the platform and provide them with personalized solutions to their problems. These virtual assistants eliminate the need for support agents in the first level of support and bring them in only when users need extended support. 

The use of a modern ticketing system helps doctors, patients, and the administration in streamlining their processes through process automation and machine learning. It helps almost everyone working in the healthcare industry to save their time and effort in getting their work done and obtain personalized solutions to their problems. 

How Does Self-service Ticketing Work?

The AI chatbots play a crucial role in providing self-service ticketing service to healthcare workers and patients. They help the users in getting personalized and context-based solutions by themselves. This makes them increasingly independent as they are no longer required to seek help from authorities and peers. 

The self-service ticketing feature makes the ticketing process invisible for the employees. 

When your employee logs in to the service desk, they are assisted by an AI chatbot that stays with them until their issue is resolved. When the employee asks a question or raises an issue, the chatbot scans the knowledge base and comes up with the most suitable answer tailored for the concerned employee in a few seconds. If they are satisfied with the solution, they can log out of the platform and carry on with their work hassle-free. 

However, if they are not satisfied with the solution and need further support, they can choose to get their case routed to a dedicated support employee. In such cases, your employee will not be required to raise their ticket manually. The platform will do the same for them and add their ticket to the timeline. The virtual assistant will track the support ticket until it reaches the agent and the agent resolves the same. 

Throughout the process, the chatbot will act as a direct link between the employee and the agent as the case is getting resolved. Once the agent is ready with a personalized solution, the virtual assistant would communicate the same to your employee. Once the issue is resolved, the service desk would automatically close the ticket and log all necessary details into the database for future reference. 

This way, healthcare employees and patients can obtain personalized information, answers, and solutions by making minimum efforts and using an AI-driven service desk. 

Importance Of Self-service Ticketing For Doctors And Healthcare Workers

While the patients resort to doctors and caretakers for getting their queries answered, it is often difficult for the medical staff to obtain all necessary information and advice on a prompt basis. The use of a self-service ticketing system allows doctors and other healthcare workers to obtain personalized help from the institution on a single unified platform. 

Keeping A Track Of Patient Enquiries 

Doctors manage health records and updates about their patient's health on a regular basis. It is important for them to keep a track of the smallest details about every single patient they are catering to. 

A modern service desk allows them to access specific records, documents, the status of treatment, and all necessary updates while they are dealing with specific patients. The automated platform eliminates the need for lengthy paperwork and provides extensive support to the healthcare workers right at their fingertips. 

This allows doctors and healthcare workers to cater to each of their patients with speed and efficiency. Given the sensitive nature of the records and the treatment processes, a digitally streamlined solution helps them provide personalized care services to the patients in need. 

Seamless Consultations 

There may be situations where doctors need to consult dedicated specialists before diagnosing their patients or prescribing suitable medications to them. Without a collaborative platform in place, it would take some time for them to reach out to the experts and obtain the required information. 

Using the modern service desks allows doctors to seamlessly collaborate with a number of experts on a centralized platform. Whenever they need to consult a specific specialist, they can log in to the help desk, ask their questions and obtain expert advice within seconds. 

Moreover, as the modern service desks store all records on a centralized platform, it helps the specialists to obtain details such as treatment history, medical reports, and all relevant health records of the patient in question. This allows them to provide support that is tailored specifically for the concerned patient. 

Having All Details At Their Fingertips 

Instead of ransacking their lockers, reaching out to the administration, or searching their digital data logs, the self-service ticketing system allows doctors and healthcare workers to have all necessary details about their current and past patients at their fingertips. 

Unlike its traditional counterpart, the modern service desk allows medical institutions to make the most of their knowledge base. The platform allows doctors to obtain health records of their patients as and when they need them, along with details about their journey with them so far. This allows them to stay updated with the needs and requirements of all their patients, helping them provide personalized services with complete context. 

Importance Of Self-service Ticketing For Patients

Along with doctors and healthcare workers, the self-service ticketing system helps patients obtain personalized help and healthcare advice from the experts within a few seconds. 

Quick Answers To Their Problems 

Whether they are getting treated within a medical facility or obtaining healthcare services remotely, the modern service desk allows them to obtain quick and personalized answers to their questions with the help of AI chatbots. 

Whether they have questions about their bills, the status of their treatments, the medicines to take, the routine to follow, the appointments scheduled, the medical reports prepared, or anything important to their journey with a healthcare center, the platform helps them obtain instant support. 

This helps the patients save a considerable amount of time spent standing in queues and waiting rooms to get themselves diagnosed. 

Tracking Their Transactional History 

Apart from getting their queries resolved, patients can also keep a track of their entire transactional history with the medical institutions they engage with. Whether they want to obtain their billing details, list of medicines prescribed in the past, the reports taken, the healthcare advice obtained, or any other information regarding their relationship with specific medical centers, the modern service desks help them access extensive details by making a few simple clicks/taps. 

Flexibility In Diagnosis And Consultation 

With a digitized self-service ticketing system, patients can obtain remote healthcare services while being home or on the go. Seamless mobile customizations allow patients to share their issues with the doctors, send them their reports electronically, and obtain expert consultations at their fingertips. 

Also, the modern service desk allows medical institutions to keep their patients updated about the medicines to take, proper guidelines to follow, and appointments to adhere to from a centralized platform. 

Importance Of Self-service Ticketing For Healthcare Administrators

Administrators at healthcare centers serve as the connecting link between the patients and the doctors. Right from scheduling appointments to managing transactions, their database needs to stay up-to-date at all times. 

Answering Repetitive Questions 

Administrators often have to deal with repetitive questions that revolve around the forms to fill for specific purposes, the specialties possessed by the doctors, the insurance providers accepted, and much more. The use of a modern service desk allows them to provide automated answers to specific questions as and when they are asked. 

Ensure Security Of Data 

Many healthcare centers are required to adhere to specific data compliance regulations to keep the records of their patients secure. They cannot afford to get any sensitive data leaked or accessed by unauthorized personnel. 

The modern service desks allow healthcare administrators to keep all the datasets, including documents, files, health records, and reports of the patients within a single secure platform. It allows medical institutions to store paperless documents in a system with layered protection, eliminating an array of potential threats. 

The Final Word

Looking at the applications of a modern service desk and its self-service ticketing system in the healthcare industry, it is safe to say that such a digitized approach is the future of the industry. It is advisable for healthcare institutions to switch to automated platforms to leverage the care services provided to their patients, doctors, and administration.