Patient Engagement blog 01 2

PATIENT EXPERIENCE

The case for Patient Engagement

5 min read

Free Download: Enhance your Patient Experience program by using these major PX trends. Increase Patient Satisfaction. Reduce Churn. 

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The healthcare sector has undergone several transformations over the last decade. There’s an increased focus on creating a positive patient experience, which started with HCAHPS surveys. Patient engagement is an essential piece of the puzzle which makes up a great patient experience. 

With many customer touchpoints being digital, healthcare organizations have a lot on their plate when it comes to inculcating a culture of Patient Engagement.

What is Patient Engagement?

Patient or Member engagement can be described as healthcare providers and patients working together to achieve a holistic patient experience, reduce costs and to improve health. To achieve patient engagement successfully, healthcare providers need to open a two way channel of communication with their patients, and regularly conduct patient experience surveys to stay on top. 

A thorough patient engagement program would ideally build upon every interaction at each touchpoint with the customer to achieve better patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Why is it needed?

Patient expectations are difficult to manage at the best of times, and this has only been exacerbated in a world battling a pandemic. Engaging your patients will have several benefits over the long term.

After employing multimedia programs meant to help patients understand complex health information or information regarding self-care or upcoming procedures, 86% of 29 participating hospitals improved doctor-to-patient communication, and 69% improved their overall rating by 4% or more.

Patient Enablement: Engaged customers are knowledgeable customers

Patient enablement is a person’s ability to understand and cope with illness after a consultation.
A positive Patient Experience and proactive engagement is known to benefit patient enablement. Enabled or knowledgable patients are more capable of managing their care, and can help with preventing diseases in a community as well.
Surveying patients at multiple touchpoints can be effective in teaching them how to manage their care, and allows for patient enablement as well. This can be a key factor in ensuring improved health outcomes.

Improved Patient Experience

Healthcare is a deeply personal thing for most people. Patient engagement programs can help keep your customers informed and loyal as well. This has a positive domino effect in improving your organizations’ overall PX. 

Patient engagement also helps in offering personalized patient experiences, which can be a sticking factor for customers weighing their options or even choosing their insurance. In their mind, it would feel reassuring to step into a healthcare facility and have staff already cognizant with their treatment history.

Reduced Costs

Patient engagement is a major driver for reducing patient churn. It costs far less over time to retain customers rather than acquire new ones, and better engagement and PX translates into reduced costs for any healthcare organization.

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Enhance your Patient Experience program by using these major PX trends. Increase Patient Satisfaction. Reduce Churn

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Enabling Patient Engagement

Get your tech stack ready

Research shows that Facilitating ongoing communication between patients and physicians via apps and online portals can improve engagement rates by 60% or higher. In the digital age healthcare organizations need to ensure that their tech stack is empowered with the right tools to take feedback at every important touchpoint. An omnichannel survey platform can help collect feedback as well as provide dashboards and tools for analysts to get the most from the data they collect. 

You need to ensure that all your communication with your customers is mobile friendly, as 57% of email opens are on a mobile device (smartphone, tablet).

Be ready to listen

Listening sounds simple enough, but it rarely is. Healthcare is an emotional topic and the feedback you get from your patients may be unkind. You need to prepare to tackle such feedback diplomatically and if possible, use it constructively. This generates goodwill and will help reduce churn.

Healthcare organizations must not limit gathering feedback to Patients alone. Healthcare staff are an integral part of Patient Engagement, and are a key factor in improving customer loyalty as well. Regular employee experience surveys will help ensure your organization is running up to par, and can help prevent issues from occurring.

Want to measure and improve the patient experience of your healthcare system? Check out our Patient Experience Hub to learn how to glean insights that can help you measurably improve the quality of your healthcare services. 

Voxco is trusted by Top 50 Market Research firms, Global Brands & Universities in 40 countries. Voxco offers full omnichannel capability including CATI, Predictive Dialler, Online surveys, offline CAPI, and Panel Management.

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Sidhant

Sidhant

Sidhant Shori is a Content Marketer at Voxco. He's got a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering and leverages his interest in market trends as well as his experience in creating content. He's also a Sci-Fi geek and enjoys video games and movies and also likes reading thrillers.

TAGS : patient experience, patient engagement, surveys

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