How can healthcare organizations increase patient engagement?

In addition to affecting businesses, the pandemic has accelerated technical advancement. It has driven us to get the expertise required to adopt technology to provide a better client experience.

To save lives and improve the patient experience, the healthcare sector has always been nimble in implementing new technologies. Particularly AI and automation have helped the medical sector reach new heights. Healthcare professionals may treat patients while carefully monitoring their vital signs thanks to smart wearables and remote patient monitoring. The advancements in patient engagement software have made it possible for healthcare practitioners to provide a more thorough experience.

Patient Engagement: What Is It?

Patient engagement guarantees that patients and medical professionals work together to advance the patient's health. Clinicians must give patients a voice in their healthcare experience if they are to build patient engagement strategies that enable them to actively participate in learning about their symptoms, illnesses, and treatment options and make decisions about them.

Patients engage with their health and actively participate in their care and healing. The patient ultimately decides how much they want to participate in their health, and they can choose to be more or less involved.

The importance of patient engagement in healthcare

Healthcare must use efficient patient engagement tactics and solutions. It enhances the patient's overall health while easing the burden and stress on healthcare professionals. Here are a few advantages of engagement:

·        Increased Customer Retention and Satisfaction: Patients who take an active role in their care experience respect and hearing.

·        Enhances the Long-Term Health and Well-Being of the Patient: Patients make better long-term decisions about their health and wellbeing when they actively participate in their care.

·        Reduces waste: Disinterested patients don't read flyers, pamphlets, or directions for follow-up care.

·        ‍Potentially Preventable Readmissions (PPR) are decreased: Unengaged patients are more likely to break aftercare rules, which increases their likelihood of being readmitted within 30 days after discharge.

·        Reduces overall expenses: Engaged patients regularly schedule follow-up appointments, require fewer visits, and have reduced no-show rates.

Solution for Patient Engagement: A Boon for Healthcare

A patient-centered approach is being attempted by several healthcare practitioners. Thanks to the patient engagement solution, patients may now access and share their electronic health information through wearables, have in-depth health conversations with clinicians, and do much more.

The patient engagement solution can be used for —

·        e-prescription sharing

·        Transmit a care summary

·        Access for patients

·        Text message and online scheduling

·        Pre-visit preparation

A patient engagement program serves as a link between patients and medical professionals. Contacting their providers by phone, text, or email makes it simple for patients to have conversations about their treatment. ‍

Best Practices for Increasing Patient Engagement

·        Engage Patients Automatically

Active and meaningful patient interaction requires a lot of time, even for a single patient. Automate patient engagement with technology rather than managing each engagement by hand. Automated patient interaction strategies are equally effective and can boost patient aftercare and even payment collection efficiency.

·        Patient Population Segments

The ideal patient engagement strategy caters to the unique needs of each patient. For certain patients, a great potential for patient engagement may not be the case for other patients. Make sure you are dealing with the appropriate set of patients by segmenting your patient population according to their demographics, psychographics, and/or social determinants of health (SDOH). ‍

·        Engage with patients before they arrive

Before a patient even sees a doctor, patient involvement can start to develop. Your clinic or institution is already behind the curve in patient engagement if the first time they consider a patient is when they arrive. Simple pre-visit procedures like intake forms, clinical reminders, and appointment reminders are where Healthcare Healthcare patient engagement solutions start. By discussing this information before the patient arrives, both the doctor and the patient gain.

·        Maintain Engagement During Aftercare

Release of a patient does not signify that they have recovered. Any patient's treatment plan must include aftercare, but tragically, more than 40% of patients misinterpret, ignore, or refuse to follow aftercare instructions. Noncompliance may amount to 70%

Participation of the patient in the aftercare procedure improves adherence to the aftercare recommendations. Because it shows your concern for them even when they are not admitted under your care, it also helps to build a connection built on trust and understanding. ‍

·        Use shared decision-making exercises

Patients typically visit a hospital or clinic where medical professionals use their expertise, knowledge, and experience to determine what is wrong and how to fix it. Patients are perceived as being ignorant and unqualified to speak about their condition. Shared decision-making goes against accepted healthcare practices, but it improves patient outcomes, boosts patient participation, and helps cut down on hospital admissions.

Shared decision-making changes that narrative by democratizing healthcare. Shared decision-making places the patient on an equal footing with the therapist as opposed to a dictatorship where a professional makes all decisions. They work together to decide on required testing, treatment options, the patient's ultimate care plan, and the procedure for obtaining patient payments. ‍

Patient Engagement in Your Practice: Benefits

Patient engagement is not always easy. The main barrier to integrating patient interaction into care delivery, according to 63% of the 555 healthcare leaders and physicians surveyed, is "time commitment by healthcare team."

Here's one defense: Businesses that engage their clients actively have to devote more time to each one, which reduces the number of clients they can see daily and reduces revenue. That, however, does not tell the entire tale. Additionally, increased revenue and time savings are produced by patient involvement in healthcare. ‍

Patients who are less involved are twice as likely to put off obtaining treatment and three times more likely to have unmet medical requirements, according to research on patient engagement. As patients participate more actively in their care, we see "higher levels of preventive health behaviors and preventative care, as well as increased self-management of health conditions." The following are some of the key advantages of patient engagement software:

·        With more information and understanding, patients are more likely to actively participate in their own health, wellbeing, and healthcare decisions, which leads to better care and fewer ER visits.

·        In addition to improving care, patient involvement has financial advantages because it reduces no-shows, increases revenue, and keeps your patient base.

·        By collaborating and including patients in the decision-making process, healthcare providers can make better decisions about a patient's health, fostering the patient-provider relationship and boosting patient retention.

·        Doctors are better prepared to serve patients in the most time- and money-effective way possible.

Technology for Patient Engagement: What People Want

Healthcare service providers with several locations have historically faced significant difficulties due to the absence of a complete patient history. Some files won't be available if a patient changes from a healthcare provider in Location A to a healthcare provider in Location B. This enhanced the possibility that clinicians wouldn't fully comprehend the patient's history.

In the most recent Accenture Digital Health Consumer Survey, 39% of respondents agreed that strong digital interaction has a substantial impact on the patient experience. More than 26% of consumers are willing to switch providers for high-quality digital services. Most importantly, 50% of respondents said that having a bad digital experience with a healthcare provider ruins the entire experience and makes them hesitant to use that provider again.

Utilize AnodynePay to enhance your patient engagement strategies.

AnodynePay provides a patient interface that uses automated processes to deliver voice, text, and email, encouraging patient involvement and increasing outcomes. For healthcare providers looking to increase patient involvement and happiness, we provide full patient billing services. To find out how you can do better than the competition in terms of marketing strategies and patient engagement solutions, schedule your demo now.

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