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Time to improve Patient Engagement

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The Healthcare system has undergone massive change in its operations with the sudden arrival of Covid-19. New sanitizing protocols have been placed and healthcare organizations had to focus on ensuring they have enough capacity to face the emergency. With this dramatic restructuring, organizations had to put patient experience at the back of their mind. Patients too started to hold over going to a clinic and receive care. 

However, with the ‘new normal’ these patients are considering returning and receiving their due treatment. To convince the patients to return and re-enter the healthcare systems must again start focusing on patient experience. And, that’s where Patient Engagement comes. 

Patient Engagement paves the way to a great patient experience. Both are two pieces of the same puzzle, that is, the healthcare system. When healthcare providers collaborate with the patients in the decision-making process about their care plan, the interaction leads to Patient Engagement.

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How to increase patient engagement

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Empower Patients with Knowledge

Improving Patient Engagement involves care provided to empower patients with knowledge on treatment options. The providers must guide them through the procedure, post-discharge recovery, and self-care for any chronic health issue. 

  • Promoting open and ongoing communication between patients and care providers via multimedia platforms leads to an increase in engagement rate by 60% or more. 
  • Compared to those patients who are actively involved in their treatment plan, less engaged patients are 2 times likely to delay their care.

Providing information about healthcare to the patients in a way that they can understand and opening up communication with doctors helps patients to be more prepared for their hospital journey. 

Moreover, when healthcare providers are actively involved and guide patients on how to take care of themselves, patients start to trust the care providers. The trust leads to high patient engagement and improves the health outcomes.  

Open communication via proactive notification

  • 69% of patients claim that they are more likely to go for healthcare providers who communicate with the patients via email. 

Patients want to be involved when choosing a care plan that is appropriate for them. They want to understand the cost of the care and treatment before they begin their treatment. Proactive notification enables healthcare to improve the patient experience by educating them at the same time. 

Notifications are opt-in services. Patients expect you to send them information relevant to their care plan or daily appointment, reschedule, or pills reminders. Healthcare providers can send patients personalized messages based on the care provider’s knowledge about the patient’s condition.

  • 70% of patients say that they are more likely to choose care providers who send texts or emails when it’s time for follow-up or preventative care. 

Proactive notifications encourage patients to act upon them which make their situation more manageable. This leads to changes in patient’s behavior and improves their well-being. When patients follow their prescribed care routine it improves their health and there is less need for them to revisit hospitals. 

Healthier patients result in lowering costs for healthcare facilities. This makes notifications an effective care service that not only improves patient experience but also patient engagement. 

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Meet them at their comfort place with Virtual care

With pandemics and lockdowns in place, patients are opting to use a multimedia form of communication rather than visiting medical facilities for any health emergency. Patients are more comfortable at video conferencing with their care provider, taking tests at home, or calling medical support services for emergencies.

Healthcare providers can leverage mobile platforms to offer patients channels to communicate with their doctors at the comfort of their homes. 

  • Patients can use video calls or chatbots (app or website) to get help and discuss their health issues with their doctors or nurses. Virtual consultation has made meeting doctors easier and less stressful. 
  • The healthcare call center is another virtual care that patients have begun using to seek medical guidance. With more people using testing kits to determine their Covid-19 status, patients have realized the importance of health support services. 
  • Healthcare providers can utilize virtual care to educate patients about their treatment, and discuss their health conditions. 

Unlike before with long waiting lines and chaotic hospital environments, virtual care has made ‘seeing a doctor’ more relaxing.

 Now that patients are reconsidering seeking care from the healthcare system, offering them virtual care as a part of initial engagement can help enhance the patient experience. 

Listen to understand the patient expectation

Patient Engagement is an ongoing process that includes surveying, interviewing, and evaluating a patient’s experience. It is important for a care provider to understand and unveil what the patient expects or wants from you. 

Providing excellent patient experience is a vital step in empowering and engaging patients with their care plan. They want more than care from their healthcare. Well-engaged patients make informed decisions about their care plans. They know what they want and expect from the care providers.

The Healthcare journey is a long emotional journey and not everyone will be happy with every part of it. Using surveys and interviews to evaluate patient experience can help organizations to understand what improvements and changes they need to make to provide and maintain a consistently positive experience. 

If the patients are satisfied with the care they receive from the care providers they are more likely to comply with the prescribed treatment and care regime. Listening to what they have to say, organizations can align their resources and operations with the patient’s priorities, expectations, and needs.

Leverage Healthcare Software tools to design Patient Journey

A patient’s journey is an emotional investment. As a healthcare provider, you should be well aware of every emotion a patient goes through during their journey. 

A patient’s experience begins way before the patient books an appointment and searches for a care plan. It depends on their health history and the emotional buildup from the complexity of their customer journey. 

Make the best use of Healthcare Software to track every up and down of their emotion throughout their journey. Segment patient journey based on the intensity of their treatment or situation. To make their journey easy, set expectations to prepare them for their first level of engagement with the organization. 

To improve a patient experience means improving every touchpoint in a patient’s journey. Keep track of high points as well as the pain points. Look at the ratio of satisfying moments and pain points in order to figure out how to improve the low moments. 

The end of the patient’s journey is also as important as the pre and mid-journey. Make sure to collect end-of journey feedback from the customers. The data can be used to understand how customer’s emotions change throughout the journey at different moments.

Improving Patient Engagement enables you to provide a Personalized Experience.

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With the integration of automation technology in the Healthcare Industry, healthcare providers are able to track 

  • what doctor a patient prefers
  • if they prefer remote, in-house, or in-office visit
  • patient’s health history
  • patient’s potential health issue

According to Deloitte, 75% of patients seek a partnership with their healthcare provider to make decisions about effective treatment. Patients want their providers to understand and receive personalized healthcare experiences.

Equipped with the right information patients can be offered individualized options to choose the services they prefer or insurance they may like. This helps create patient-centered care that helps empower patients in their decision-making process and ultimately improves the patient experience.

For healthcare providers measuring and utilizing patient engagement insights is an integral data that helps them improve satisfaction scores as well as the health outcome of their patients. 

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