Increase Patient Follow Through Using Tech

As occupational therapy practitioners, increasing patient follow through can be tough! If you have already read 7 Steps to Make it “Stick” when Teaching Tech to Older Adults, you already know that there is a lot of strategies that you can implement to help with this.

But how can we make sure that what we are recommending is actually being implemented or purchased by our patients?

Sometimes we even struggle to know what new and upcoming adaptive equipment is out there to make the right recommendations or that their care partners have access to these recommendations from their own homes. 

 No one said it would be easy!

This sponsored post from Direct-Rec is really coming at a perfect time because this is a great free solution to some of the issues we have with patient follow through.

What do you do to help with patient follow through?

 

You do what every OTP does, get out your cell phone and Google the helpful item you want to recommend. It takes you an extra 5 minutes of navigating in front of your patient while they wait but you finally find it and end up doing one of the following things:

• Show your phone to the patient and hope they remember the product’s name for when they search for it later
• Write the product and link down on a piece of paper and hand it to the client
• Text them a link from your personal cell phone

None of these are good options for you and your patient. Patients are inundated with new verbal and paper suggestions following a therapy appointment and forget or lose your recommendations all the time. If you text from your messaging app on your phone, you expose your personal cell number to your patients.  Plus, it may not be HIPAA compliant to contact them in this manner! 

Ugh . 

Luckily, there is a new app that can help you share your best ideas to increase patient follow through with your patients, quickly and safely: Direct-Rec

Direct-Rec is a FREE app that helps you store your best digital therapy ideas at your fingertips.  It’s like a parking lot where all your adaptive equipment recommendations can live alongside helpful YouTube videos and the Google Docs you hand out to patients. You can even park photos that you might need to share with patients.

Keep track of your favorite things in Direct-Rec

 

To create a “Favorites” list, you simply paste the web address of any product, video or source and Direct-Rec saves that web address as one of your favorites for quick access when you are with a patient. 

 

For example, have you ever wanted to share an adaptive product AND a video on how to use it?

Let’s use this stocking donner and a how-to video as an example.

 

In Direct-Rec’s “Favorites” tab, you can store links to this stocking donner and video that gives the patient tips to use it. The links can be sent together via secure email or text on your cell phone or tablet.  The patient gets these links directly, and can click them open to view them without the need to access a health portal. 

Quick and easy for both you and your patient.

How does Direct-Rec find what your fellow therapists are recommending?

 

Direct-Rec also helps you find the products your OT peers are recommending. It includes a vast list of products that other rehab professionals find helpful. It is also sorted into categories, like “Diagnosis” and “ADL”, so you can quickly find ideas that might work for your patients. This database of adaptive/health products grows as clinicians add new helpful ideas to their “Favorites” lists.

We can all learn from each other!

 

Once you send a recommendation from the app, Direct-Rec gives you the bonus of allowing you to view whether your patients have actually opened the links you recommended. This helps with patient follow through as you are able to see what they have clicked on.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know which patients are actually taking your advice? 

Wouldn’t it be nice to know as you prepare for a future therapy appointment? 

Direct-Rec helps you track all the exchanges you make with your patients and what your patients open within the “Track” feature of the app. 

Some frequently asked questions about Direct-Rec:

 

Do you collect any patient information? 

No!

We do not collect ANY patient information and never want to. When you share information with a patient, you do so outside the app through your already established secure work email or text channels.

Direct-Rec helps you by generating a master link that contains all the items you wish to share with them. They simply open the link and get directed to the web pages you wish to share.

Direct-Rec is free!? What’s the catch?

Direct-Rec was born from a desire to help medical professionals share helpful therapy information. We are passionate about making caregiving just a little bit easier and don’t charge rehab clinicians or their patients for this service.

Direct-Rec earns money through affiliate fees on certain ecommerce sites that are generated after you recommend a product and a patient purchases it. This affiliate fee does not increase the price of the products for your patients. 

I’ve got suggestions to improve the app.  Do you want them?

YES! Absolutely.

Direct-Rec is a new company and prioritizes all feedback from users so we can help you do your job better. Please reach out through the contact HERE if you have ideas or just want to chat!  

I want a demo.  Can I get one?

YES!

If you would like a demo, please contact us here.

Our Guest Blogger

Carla Macklin is a 4x startup founder with a deep interest in improving small aspects of health care in innovative ways. While not an OT herself, it was while running an adaptive products company that she realized just how important a role rehab therapists play in making the right recommendations for patient recovery. She is a cantankerous patient herself, loathing hospital portals while trying to find safe and creative solutions so she doesn’t have to remember her portal passwords. Carla has an honors degree from Williams College and lives in Cleveland, OH with her husband and two daughters.