Patient engagement is important in today’s world as it helps to improve health outcome levels. Healthcare providers put patient engagement as their high priority. Patient engagement is a strategy to help patients make informed decisions while reducing the costs associated with administering healthcare services.
What is patient engagement?
Patient engagement is when providers and caregivers encourage patients to make informed decisions about their health. The positive attitude of patients when they are involved throughout their healthcare journey improves patient outcome levels and keeps them satisfied.
The importance of patient engagement in healthcare
Patients consider different healthcare options available to them just the same way when they are purchasing furniture or a car. Patients want to participate in their health journey and don’t want anyone making decisions for them. They prefer to learn about their health conditions from trusted sources and then discuss their care process with the doctor. When health systems follow this collaborative approach patients build their trust and stay invested. Research shows that engaged patients are three times less likely to have unfulfilled medical needs and are more prone to receive timely care.
Advantages of enhanced patient engagement levels
- Involved or engaged patients have better knowledge and support them to stay engaged in their wellness and health which ultimately leads to enhanced care.
- Patient engagement also results in financial benefits as the number of no-shows is reduced and boosts revenue and maintains a patient base.
- When patients are deeply engaged in their healthcare they have a positive experience and are less likely to switch practices.
- Patient engagement leads to improved health outcome levels.
The role of healthcare technology in patient engagement
Hospitals and healthcare providers are leveraging the power of patient engagement tools to drive patient engagement and patient satisfaction scores. Hospitals use a Patient Engagement EMR software solution to automate communication with patients and help patients easily have access to their clinicians. The software also enables providers to share important educational material with their patients.
Key features in a patient engagement software
- HIPAA-compliant messaging platform to ensure safe communication between the patient and the provider.
- Automated reminders and alerts feature ensures that appointments are not missed.
- Medical resources and personalized medical content can be shared with patients.
- Online payment options are available for patient convenience.
- Electronic registration capability.
- self-schedule appointments in a breeze.
Patient engagement is important in today’s health system as engaged patients contribute to the practice by staying loyal and enhancing health outcome levels which is the final goal of healthcare. Technology is playing a vital role to boost patient engagement levels by automating and streamlining patient-doctor interaction and providing unsurpassed patient services.
