PATIENT ENGAGEMENT: Definition, Software, Strategy & Solution

PATIENT ENGAGEMENT
Image credit: Sequence Health

Do you know that those who take excellent care of themselves medically are 9 percent more probable to have a normal level of blood pressure? It has been shown that patients who are involved have better and more consistent health outcomes and spend less money. Meanwhile, for patients to actively engage in their care, healthcare providers must incorporate a patient-centered approach to treatment into their overall care strategy. Keep reading to discover more about the patient engagement strategy, software, solution, and platform.

What Is Patient Engagement?

The term “patient engagement” refers to patients who take an active role in their healthcare by researching their conditions and deciding which treatments will be most effective for them. A broader conception of patient collaboration would encompass the patient, their family, their advocate, and the healthcare providers. In addition, it permeates the realms of management and policy formulation within institutions.

In addition, the term “patient engagement” refers to the collaborative effort of patients and their care providers. Through open lines of communication with their clinicians, people who are getting treatment are encouraged to take an active role in making decisions and taking care of their diseases. In today’s healthcare system, it’s not adequate for nurses and doctors to just contact others and offer advice and resources.

Patients aren’t engaged if they don’t give feedback and give ideas about how to run healthcare. It’s also not sufficient for patients to do their research and have questions ready for their doctors. Patient participation can’t grow if practitioners don’t impart knowledge, promote healthy routines, and actively seek out their patients’ input. There needs to be consistent two-way communication between the healthcare provider and the patient for patient involvement to be successful.

Difficulties in Encouraging Better Patient Engagement

Individual and institutional roadblocks continue to make it hard for patients to get involved. Patients’ reluctance to take initiative might stem from several different sources. Patients often lack the health literacy and/or access to digital resources necessary to make well-informed healthcare decisions. However, certain people might not be as likely to participate because of their background, age, gender, religion, or cultural norms.

Hence, to ensure that all patients are comfortable with their choices, health centers must keep these considerations in mind when developing engagement initiatives. Even on the provider end, there are structural problems. Whether it’s because of the old buildings or the unfriendly staff, the traditional healthcare system isn’t set up for patient involvement. Insubordination with treatment protocols and inferior outcomes can also result from doctors lacking the time or knowledge to effectively involve their clients in their treatment.

Patient Engagement Strategy 

The patient engagement strategy includes:

#1. Develop a Strategy for Participation

When developing a patient engagement strategy, unmet patient requirements and stagnant support must be addressed. Patient engagement programs prepare people for therapies and evaluate their success.

In this environment, patient engagement can include online health care, medical checks, diet or pharmaceutical control, regular checks, psychological support, and more. They can make patient involvement plans more thorough and feasible. Digitally applying the engagement strategy optimizes patient information delivery and automates the process.

#2. Clarify and Simplify the Language

Patients may avoid care due to rejection fears. Medical language can mislead and frighten patients. Because some patients have difficulty understanding the technology, patient engagement solutions should be communicated in simpler terms on online platforms. Implementing a patient engagement platform should consider patient ease and accessibility. However, if patients leave, your platform may not serve your institution.

#3. Specify the Results for Several Groups of Patients

Post-surgery patients have different needs. Delicate support measures like regular reassuring remarks can help people with a higher emotional toll before surgeries more than those with simpler subsequent needs.

#4. Provide Patients With Customized Therapies

Seventy-two percent of people seeking medical attention say they wish to receive it in a more individualized fashion. This is just another argument in favor of the patient engagement strategy. It will assist you in recognizing and responding to the unique care requirements of your diverse patient population.

Furthermore, increasing the usage of digital technologies and connectivity will aid in providing individualized medical attention. How many of your patients are bilingual? What kinds of messages are more likely to be heard when talking to certain patients? When individualized solutions are available, people’s preferences are most likely to be taken into account. This could include facilitating two-way communication in the patients’ preferred language using the patients’ preferred method of contact, such as text, phone, or email.

#5. Stimulate Patient Education

Patient education is another strategy for patient engagement. Patient education should also include materials explaining the patient’s diagnosis, treatment plan, and medications. Verify that the data given meets the specific needs of the patient. Asking each patient individually how they prefer to receive information is important since people learn in different ways.

Patients will have a better grasp of their healthcare experience if they have access to thorough and detailed written documents.

Patient Engagement Software

Patient engagement software encourages patients to participate in their health care, improving outcomes, doctor-patient relationships, and healthcare experiences. Patients want empathy, recognition, rapid responses, and easy access to information from hospitals, medical practices, and other healthcare organizations. Below is a list of patient engagement software:

#1. Klara

Klara is an all-inclusive patient engagement software with features including two-way communication, automated planning before and after visits, email management, set reminders, and much more.

#2. TeleVox

This patient engagement software allows users to perform a variety of patient contact tasks, such as managing their care, scheduling appointments, and communicating with one another in real-time.

#3. A Healthcare Mytonomy on the Cloud

Effective health interactions and faster access to services are just two of the numerous advantages that medical organizations may provide by utilizing the Mytonomy Cloud for Healthcare. Included features in this patient engagement software include a video content, e-learning modules, CRM,  health and budget tracking, questionnaire tools, email- marketing etc.

#4. Patient Pop

PatientPop, situated in Santa Monica, helps medical clinics grow. The platform has tools for taking care of medications, automation, an online platform, and a lot more.

#5. Updox

Updox is a cloud-based HIPAA-compliant telemedicine solution that assists medical doctors, pharmacists, and long-term care facilities. They also assist in optimizing patient interaction, connections, teamwork, records management, etc.

Patient Engagement Solutions

Both patients and medical professionals can benefit from the investment in patient engagement solutions. First, it helps people improve their health literacy so they can take charge of their care. Professionals in the healthcare sector now have a logical and easy way to implement tailored contact with their patients.

As a second point, a patient engagement solution may easily spread health awareness. Less work needs to be done to manage patients, and patients are more likely to stick to their treatment plans. The most effective patient engagement solutions will streamline routine administrative work, freeing up the provider staff to concentrate on what really matters.

Additionally, a well-planned patient engagement solution helps shield health providers’ bottom lines by reducing costs through more efficient use of practice management systems (PMS). Such technologies can help healthcare organizations streamline their supplier procedures and stay in line with stringent security and safety standards.

Patient Engagement Platform

Healthcare providers and patients can work together more effectively before and after medical procedures with the help of a patient engagement platform. When a patient engagement platform is part of the overall plan, the patient can be more involved in their care. Below is the advantage of a patient engagement platform:

#1. Improves the Reputation of the Hospital

Reputation for hospitals can benefit from a patient engagement platform. Enhancing patient involvement and confidence on the web increases the likelihood that they will rate their doctor favorably. Based on the results of this research, it is clear that a substantial portion of potential patients will take note if a nearby hospital improves its internet image.

Hence, with the help of patient feedback collected in real-time, healthcare organizations can pinpoint where there are gaps or inequities in their present care procedures and swiftly address and refocus them for change.

One of the most effective methods to differentiate your service from the competition while maintaining a focus on the needs of your patients is to use a consumer health engagement platform. There is a strong link between hospitals’ chances of being named “Centers of Excellence” and their ability to show that they provide excellent care and have a great reputation by using the latest IT.

#2. Enhances Patient Experience & Satisfaction

The patient engagement platform has the potential to enhance both the condition of the patient and their happiness while in the hospital. Doctors and care teams can prevent problems that could cause unnecessary pain or even lead to a patient’s discharge by talking to them at key points in the treatment process.

In addition, patient engagement platforms facilitate ongoing conversation and information provision. Patients may take charge of their rehabilitation by completing prescribed care tasks from the comfort of their own homes, whether using a smartphone patient engagement platform or a traditional desktop computer.

Patients who have a doctor based several hours away save significant time by not having to drive to and from visits. They can recuperate in the comfort of their own homes, reducing their stress levels and fostering a deeper appreciation for the care they receive from their team.

#3. It Positively Affects Patient Outcomes

With patient-specific care, you can get good results every time while reducing problems. However, such approaches have historically been difficult to implement, expensive, and time-consuming to scale. Undoubtedly, the most practical way to scale up high-quality, systematic teaching, activities, and interactions without having to hire more people is to use a patient engagement platform.

#4. Increases Payer Reimbursement Rates

Interoperable electronic medical records (EMRs) can receive massive amounts of patient data from patient engagement platforms in hospitals. Without this, determining which factors are most important in ensuring high-quality care might be difficult.

Bundled payments are a type of reimbursement model in which a single payment is made to a group of providers for a session of treatment based on the total estimated cost of providing that care rather than on the individual fees charged by those providers.

If a provider’s expenses for a given episode go above and beyond the agreed-upon payment amount, the patient will be responsible for the difference. And that’s why it’s crucial to minimize care inconsistencies and hospital readmissions. Health organizations may improve patient satisfaction and income by proactively evaluating data and fixing problems before they arise. Both parties benefit from the arrangement.

Why Is Patient Engagement Important for Health Systems?

The majority of patients are beginning to compare their healthcare alternatives to other major purchases, such as automobiles and retirement savings plans. They object to having someone else decide medical matters for them. They’d rather take an active role in their healthcare by learning as much as possible from reliable sources and collaborating with their doctor to make the best decisions possible. Health systems can benefit from the patient trust established through this collaborative method of care delivery. In fact, even though they don’t have enough information to make decisions, patients who are involved in their care are much more likely to get the care they need when they need it and much less likely to go without care they need.

What Are Examples of Patient Engagement?

Patients can play an active role in ensuring their safety. For instance, keeping track of their prescription dosages, notifying their care providers when they experience severe symptoms, or reporting any adverse events they experience.

What Is the Definition of Engagement in Healthcare?

Patient engagement in health care implies that an individual is willing and able to choose to take an active role in their medical care in a way that is important to them. This is done in collaboration with a healthcare professional or organization, and the goal is to either improve the quality of care or get better results.

What Are the 4 PS of Patient Care?

Predictive, preventative, individualized, and collaborative treatment are the four pillars( 4 Ps) of the concept of clinical medicine that present real chances to shift the current healthcare narrative.

References

  1. MEDICARE TAX: Meaning, Rate & Answered Questions.
  2. REMOTE MONITORING: What It Is, Application and Jobs
  3. Practice Management Software: Definition & Top Picks
  4. PATIENT DEMOGRAPHICS: Definition, Examples & Form
  5. EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TOOLS: How It Works, Best and Free Tools
  6. COST OF GIVING BIRTH IN USA WITHOUT INSURANCE
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