D igital care coordination solutions enable care providers optimize efficiencies and orchestrate outcome-driven strategies in streamlining the COVID-19 vaccine booster programs.

This fall brings a new turn of events in terms of the COVID-19 booster vaccines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded the eligibility criteria for the booster dose. As per the announcement, individuals who took Moderna/Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines with the following eligibility criteria are recommended the booster dose.

• People aged 65 years and older and adults 50–64 years with underlying medical conditions
• Residents aged 18+ years in long-term care settings
• 18–49 years of age with underlying medical conditions
• 18–64 years of age with increased risk for COVID-19 exposure

People excluding the above criteria may get their booster shots in the upcoming months about six months from now. However, the confusion around the whole scenario could further build complexities around the issue as the process evolves. Healthcare systems would therefore need to build a robust strategy—powered by an agile distribution model to quickly adapt to the changing regulations.

Automated patient engagement solutions play a transformative role in such scenarios, where the entire process can be partly automated for frictionless collaboration and seamless patient-physician experiences. From appointment reminders, patient scheduling, smart waitlist, patient outreach, patient education and secure chat to care team workflows, telehealth, zero contact check-in, population health, patient monitoring surveys and patient notifications, digital patient engagement solutions are designed to simplify healthcare experiences for all the stakeholders involved in the vaccination care journey.

Care coordination has evolved over the past few years, especially virtual and digital patient management solutions have witnessed major transformation in the wake of the global pandemic. Patient management programs are increasingly adopting next-gen tools and technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big data and analytics, deep learning, chatbots to harness the capabilities of digital patient engagement solutions.

These technologies are leveraged to promote interactiveness and cohesiveness among patients, physicians, payors and pharma—thereby enabling seamless workflows and streamlined operations across the continuum of care. For instance, automated chatbots simplify patient communication and patient education by instantly interacting with patients to schedule or remind further appointments—and trigger automated patient education materials including aftercare post-vaccination materials in interactive audio, video, infographic, gaming formats etc.

While digital patient engagement solutions have been extensively used for various care coordination programs, vaccination is one of key areas where digital adoption has been overlooked. As a result, this has led to added frustration among patients and other stakeholders amongst changing processes and regulatory modulations.

Consider the fact that a leading Medical Practice’s patient engagement portal crashed due to overwhelming vaccination requests from individuals,resulting in huge disruption in the vaccination program planned and additionally, loss of massive patient data gathered from various critical sources over the years. These incidents highlight the significance of having a well-orchestrated platform for care coordination that can stitch together data, tools, processes and workflows involved in the complex framework of patient engagement.

Amidst the chaos around the current scenario, it’s essential that care providers gather insights and experiences to carve a niche among healthcare consumers by offering a frictionless experience through the booster vaccination process.

Care providers can leverage patient engagement solutions to

• People aged 65 years and older and adults 50–64 years with underlying medical conditions
• Quickly determine patient eligibility for vaccination initiatives
• Send patient education materials that highlight the importance of getting a booster vaccine—supported by relevant statistics
• Send multi-lingual virtual content across various populations and geographies
• Reduce no-shows, especially reducing waste of unused vaccines in the current state of high demand-supply gaps in vaccine distribution
• Trigger automated reminders on next-scheduled dates of their vaccination shots.

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