Case Study: 13,000 Patient Digital Patient Engagement & Informed eConsent in an Oral Surgery Practice

How 5thPort improved patient understanding, reduced administrative effort, and strengthened informed consent workflows. This case study is relevant for practices seeking digital informed consent and patient education solutions.

This case study shows how a two-surgeon oral and maxillofacial surgical practice used the 5thPort digital patient engagement and eConsent platform to support over 13,000 patient encounters. By digitizing patient education, intake, and informed consent, the practice reduced administrative burden, shortened consultations by 30%, and achieved a 96% patient satisfaction rating.

As operative techniques improve, and reimbursement models dictating efficiencies, an increasing number of surgical procedures are performed on an outpatient basis. In the U.S., 52.7% – or more than 11.5 million surgical cases – are performed each year in ambulatory care centers following outpatient protocols. 

This rapid increase has created a patient management challenge that can become overwhelming, resulting in fragmented patient experiences. A challenge that Dr. Berube’s oral and maxillofacial surgical center wanted to solve.

Objectives

1. Improve the patient appointment experience
2. Eliminate duplicate data entry for administrators
3. Reduce informed consent risks
4. Enhance overall patient engagement

The Transformation

With over 13,000 surgical and anesthesia patient experiences performed by two surgeons, the team documented the impact of the digital transformation on their patients, staff, and the practice. Our oral and maxillofacial surgical center implemented 5thPort in 2019. 5thPort is a cloud-based digital patient engagement and e-consent solution. 5thPort is designed to help healthcare organizations facilitate patient and administrative experiences through a digitized, standardized, centralized, documented and efficient workflow.

Transitioning to 5thPort allowed for complete digital patient engagement throughout our operation.

Key Outcomes Observed

Almost immediately, 5thPort streamlined administrative efficiencies coupled with improving patient knowledge of procedures, potential risks, and post-operation recommendations.

1. Administrative Efficiencies

Once 5thPort was deployed, patient intake forms were digitized and could now be consumed by patients and their loved ones on any digital device or personal computer. Instead of referencing schedules, reviewing patient charts, manual typing intake paperwork into the EMR, and manually drafting informed consent forms, the administrative staff could now create a complete customized digital engagement in 5thPort. On average, it took 2 minutes to create each customized digital engagement and send the digital content and consent to patients for remote review. No more typing paper forms, no more routing paper forms to consultation and surgical appointments, no more scanning of paperwork back into the chart.

Further, with the administrative dashboard, we had real time audit capabilities of all paperwork which resulted in no lost, altered or incomplete forms.

2. Improved Patient Experience

Improved provider and clinical practice workflow efficiencies along with a positive patient experience, enhanced the healthcare conversation. Patients are sent a remote digital engagement which is a composite video/ text-based patient education fully customized based on diagnosis and procedure. Video education modules, comprehension testing, teach-back learning, digital informed consent and patient survey capabilities are all streamlined on the 5thPort platform.

Following the video content the patient’s comprehension is tested on critically important risks using questions with teach-back learning. We found we could shorten consultation appointments by 30% as patients had watched education videos before their appointment promoting high level efficient consultations. The result is less teaching and more substantive clinical conversations.

3. Risk Management

5thPort seamlessly hosts the digital consent form directly within the teaching module. Every section of the inform consent form can be “locked out” by the patient should they have questions for the doctor. These “locked out” sections are flagged on the doctor’s dashboard, requiring questions to be addressed before the consent can be completed.

Following this digital protocol, no patient should ever say “I wasn’t told” (video content), “I didn’t understand” (comprehension testing), or “I didn’t have a chance to ask questions” (consent form question lock out option).

Results Summary

• 13,000+ patient engagements completed digitally

• 30% reduction in consultation time

• 96% of patients rated the experience at the highest level

• Zero lost, altered, or incomplete consent forms

Conclusion

Digitizing patient education and informed consent at scale improved patient understanding, reduced administrative effort, and strengthened risk management across 13,000 surgical encounters.

The 5thPort digital cloud-based patient engagement platform integrated seamlessly into our clinical workflow. Overall, we have realized a reduction in administrative tasks along with enhanced patient education which supported improved outcomes. 5thport enhanced our patient experience, employee experience and business effectiveness – creating capacity to see
more patients per week.

If you value meaningful use initiatives, shared decision making, robust highly documented informed consent protocols and enhancement of Triple Aim objectives – the 5thPort platform could be the answer to your digital engagement challenges.

Download the case study and learn how the healthcare transformation, and digital transition to 5thPort allowed for complete patient engagement throughout the surgical practice and helped in automating their everyday manual tasks.