Patient Engagement: Increase Practice Revenue and Patient Outcomes

Engaging your patients should be standard practice in the healthcare sector. Your practice can maintain its highest level of performance and encourage health literacy if you have visibility into patient satisfaction.

Patients’ trust in the doctor’s practice is increased by the addition of contemporary technology provided in your practice using EHR software because they know they are receiving better and more cutting-edge care. This kind of patient assurance might also improve the facility’s standing in the neighborhood, bringing in more clients.

Implementing Patient Engagement Strategies Can Be Easy

In this article, we’ll examine a few different patient engagement tactics that are relatively simple to put into practice but have the power to completely change healthcare institutions. By making payment methods and basic health information easily accessible, improving patient care while advancing healthcare system technology can also lead to cost savings and increased revenue.

Surveys, kiosks, online payments, and patient portals are some of these tactics. These methods of interactive patient engagement can aid in bridging the communication gap between patients and providers. The information gathered from these surveys and kiosks can offer vital data that will help you advance and improve your patient-centered practice.

Patient Engagement Can Rise Thanks to Business Surveys and Reviews

With the help of survey data, healthcare professionals can connect with patients who might not have been completely satisfied with some aspect of their visit or who might still have unmet medical needs or queries. These straightforward interactions between patients and doctors bring something special to your practice. Feedback from patients can help you build a better reputation and demonstrate that you genuinely care about how happy your patients are.

Similar to how many businesses do it, many healthcare facilities rely on online reviews to attract new patients. Your practice may be able to turn a bad review into an impressively positive experience for many people to see because of your close relationships with your patients and your concern for their satisfaction.

Patient Kiosks Reduce Staff Time and Costs for the Practice

Another fantastic way to interact with patients and save money is through the use of patient kiosks, which cut down on overhead. Your staff can gain valuable time back by giving patients access to actively engage with their own information through patient kiosks. Patients can quickly fill out the required health information using reusable intelligent devices like tablets or touchscreen information centers. Additionally, data can be streamlined with an intuitive user interface, and quick surveys can be carried out without being intrusive. Providing the patient with yet another means of managing their own personal health data will further involve them in the process of providing care.

Patient portals provide the transparency your patients require

Additionally, because patients can now access their medical records whenever they want, patient portals provide a distinctive experience for the patient. As a result, healthcare professionals now have 24/7 access to system messages, automated results posting, and other analytics gleaned from patient interactions.

Patients can access their billing information through the portal, where they can also set up payment options. According to studies, patients are more likely to make an online payment when they can see the costs of their visits and the availability of a payment plan.

Patients can now pay their out-of-pocket expenses at check-in thanks to patient portals that provide appointment reminders and payment billing options.

Why Pay Online? Clients favor it!

80 percent of consumers prefer using online payment methods to pay for their health plan premiums, according to similar studies. Giving patients the resources they need to take control of their financial stability gives them the peace of mind that many people seek. The combination of surveys, kiosks, and portals closes the gap that has existed between the healthcare sector and patients for far too long. The days of doctors making house calls are long gone, but with the use of contemporary technology, patients and doctors can now be more connected than ever. The feeling of getting individualized one-on-one care that was previously long forgotten in the modern era is being brought back by technology.

Patients who are involved in their billing result in higher provider reimbursements and shorter days of accounts receivable for the health system. The bottom line of your facility and whether it breaks even this fiscal year may depend on this figure.

What is Patient Engagement in Healthcare?

Patient interaction with their health is referred to as patient engagement in healthcare. This includes how and to what extent they learn about their medical conditions and symptoms, whether they look for professional assistance when necessary, and how compliant they are with treatments and preventative measures. In the end, patient engagement is an indicator of interest in health, behavior related to wellbeing, and collaboration with healthcare professionals, families, and the government to achieve desired outcomes.

Here are some typical illustrations of patient involvement in healthcare:

• A patient notices new symptoms, looks them up online, and decides to get in touch with their doctor to get an opinion on the matter. Following a consultation via telemedicine, the doctor prescribes medication and directs the patient to resources that explain how to take it safely.
• A patient schedules a yearly checkup after hearing from their doctor about the value of preventative care, which leads to the discovery of a quickly treatable condition.
• A patient looking to improve their health signs up for a video portal made by their doctor to learn the safest way to start a new exercise regimen.
• Through patient engagement activities that offer individualized appointment reminders, a medical practice that has encountered lost revenue and scheduling issues as a result of last-minute cancellations and no-shows can resolve these issues.
• After having the chance to learn about procedures and establish trust with providers beforehand thanks to remote technologies, a patient who has previously avoided appointments due to medical trauma becomes more proactive about their health.

Why Is Patient Engagement Important in Healthcare?

Patient participation in healthcare is crucial because it improves outcomes for everyone. This includes fewer ER and urgent care visits, fewer elective surgeries, and lower healthcare costs, according to a study. When these elements work together, patients’ lives are improved while our healthcare system is less taxed, which frees up resources for urgent care needs (and, right now, for pandemic response).

Both patients and providers benefit financially from patient engagement in healthcare. Through better resource management, treatment adherence, and preventive care, it also helps save lives. Positive psychological effects on loyalty and trust are advantageous to both patients and providers.

Who Uses Patient Engagement?

Anyone who is currently receiving medical care or may in the future and their families are the end users of patient engagement tools. New adults who are learning to manage their healthcare independently for the first time, pregnant women who are experiencing major medical changes, older patients who may need more support to remember appointments and proper medication usage, are some of the groups that can benefit most from patient engagement tools.

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Why is video so important for promoting patient engagement in healthcare?

Video is crucial even though it is not technically necessary for a patient engagement solution with a healthcare focus. Video helps patients and providers connect and communicate more effectively by incorporating body language, vocal intonation, and facial expressions. Given that more and more people of all ages say they prefer to learn through video, video is also a great tool for educating people about their conditions and treatments. Finally, analytics for tracking how patients are using the tools can be included—or at the very least, should be—in video-based patient engagement solutions.

What to Consider When Choosing a Patient Engagement Solution?

There are a number of important considerations you should make when searching for a video-focused patient engagement solution for your clinic, hospital, or other healthcare facility in order to effectively reach the majority of your patients.

Accessible on all platforms and devices

We all use the internet and information in different ways, let’s face it. This is true for both your staff and your patients, so be sure to pick a video platform for patient engagement that will function on any operating system or device type.

 Simple to use, without installation or downloads

The key to patient engagement in healthcare is removing obstacles for patients. Any patient engagement solution you implement must be simple to use in light of this.  Your patients should be able to reach their destination with just one click.

If available, captions

Engagement of patients in healthcare is largely dependent on accessibility. Captioning ought to be a component of the solution you pick because of this. All patients, who might be encountering some medical terminology for the first time, stand to gain from this, but medical professionals who work with older populations in particular will find it particularly helpful.

Access to translation services

If you want a patient engagement solution that can reach all of your clients and their families, translation options are crucial, just like captioning. Furthermore, it fosters trust and demonstrates your knowledge of the importance of cultural context in healthcare.

Analytics

Analytics are crucial for having a patient engagement platform that is actually effective and for being able to evaluate its advantages. You should be aware of the health education videos your patients are watching and how frequently. Additionally, you should find out if patients rematch a particular segment of a video repeatedly (does it contain particularly helpful and motivating information? perhaps it gets boring or becomes too long? Or requires multiple viewings to understand because it is unclear). For your patient engagement in healthcare solution to be as effective as possible, analytics are essential.