Investing in patient engagement helps organizations and the patients they serve.
Health care has been shifting to a consumer-dependent market for years in response to a growing customer service mindset that compares health care providers to restaurants and retail.
The internet — social media, in particular — lets people speak their minds about health care, and what they say matters. To win your patients’ favor, you need to provide the best patient experience you can across the entire care continuum — before, during, and after clinical encounters.
Good patient experiences increase lifetime value and create advocacy through positive reviews and recommendations. Patient engagement, a branch of patient experience that focuses on making sure patients and clinicians work together to improve outcomes, is essential to achieving success.
While engaging patients in their care may be time-consuming and costly, when done well, your efforts can pay off with minimal investment and maximum output.
Here are four steps that will help your organization improve its patient engagement strategy.
Increase Patient Access
The first step toward effective patient engagement involves increasing access to care. That puts the responsibility on your shoulders to remove barriers and ensure timely access to help patients achieve the best possible health outcomes. You can implement patient access in three stages.
- Finding care – Patients need to be able to find care when they need it; services such as clinician locator lines can help.
- Scheduling care – Use facilitated scheduling services to set appointments. Their automated systems give patients more autonomy and relieve the burden at the front desk, reducing busy signals and long hold times. Customized reminders also help decrease no-shows.
- Sharing information. Develop one-time or recurring marketing campaigns to share important information about your organization. Campaigns might include events your organization sponsors or participates in, public service announcements, news, and community health-related activities.
Provide Clinical Support
Consider deploying a 24/7 health information and triage support line staffed by experienced RNs. You can use such services to answer general health questions, offer clinical triage, and guide patients to appropriate levels of care.
Post-discharge care coordination is another avenue for clinical support. It reduces gaps that occur in transition, assists patients in coordinating follow-up visits to PCPs or specialists, and facilitates follow-up with high-risk patients.
By addressing this care gap, hospitals and health systems can recognize four significant benefits:
- Better quality of care across the continuum
- Retained or newly-gained market share
- Increased patient satisfaction
- Financial growth
Partner with Your Community
Partnering with the community where your facility is located is another innovative way to foster effective patient engagement and improve your hospital’s reputation. Once you view the community as your patient, you will take providing substantive measures to improve population health seriously.
Here are two ways to increase visibility and become a source of truth for health in your community.
Partner with Local Employers to Help Get Their Employees Needed Care
Establishing deep relationships with key groups and major employers will make your hospital a trustworthy partner to your community. In addition, support worker’s compensation, occupational health, and general wellness programs.
Use Community Outreach Programs to Promote Brand Awareness
Work with local businesses in the manner just described, sponsor community events, and provide health education focused on injury prevention, opioid addiction, diabetes management, pregnancy, and nutrition. Local religious, social, and cultural groups will welcome your interest and promote such programs to their members.
Related Resource: Rebuild Health in Your Community: The Ins and Outs of Patient Engagement
Invest in Technology
Advanced health care technology can help automate and streamline patient engagement. That includes everything from telehealth and telemedicine to patient management platforms like those listed here at Capterra.
Patient management platforms are especially useful as they can:
- Give quick access to patient details
- Enable timely and productive follow-up touchpoints for a variety of situations
- Offer automated care text alerts
- Provide advanced patient analytics and dashboards for feedback
Conclusion
Effectively engaging patients in their care are essential to improving health outcomes. Even though it can be a lot of work, the right approach and technology can lead to significant benefits. For organizations, it improves operational efficiency, reduces overhead costs, streamlines information, and enhances patient experience. Patients engaged in their health care are more satisfied with their treatment, have fewer symptoms, and pursue healthier behaviors.
Make the investment — it’s worth the payoff.
