Tips on Effective Patient Engagement Solutions  

Patient engagement refers to the active participation in healthcare patients nowadays have with their providers, more of a partnership between the medical team and the patient. 

The patient puts effort into researching details about their ailments, symptoms, and care options to make more informed decisions about their conditions. There’s a greater level of communication between the clinicians and the patient allowing the patient to share in managing their treatments. 

It’s no longer enough for a medical team to merely offer the details and give options, leaving it at that. When the patient fails to respond, there’s a lack of contribution to the “equation,” so to speak, no patient engagement, and no care management. 

In that same vein, it doesn’t suffice when patients do the research and come prepared with questions, but the medical provider fails to offer guidance, educate on ways to improve, or motivate involvement from the patient. That’s not establishing patient engagement. 

Go to https://healthcaremarketreview.com/top-10-ways-to-improve-patient-engagement/ for advice on changing your patient engagement strategy. 

With what is supposed to be a mutual and equal partnership, the only way patient engagement will thrive is through effective communication and a solid commitment on each person’s part. 

What Are Some Effective Solutions to Improve Patient Engagement 

Patients nowadays are taking active participation in their care. That involves researching their conditions, including the symptoms and the prospects for treatment, to decide the most suitable treatment for them. 

With open communication between the clinician and the patient, the partnership is an efficient and effective method for getting more personalized care than in the distant past. 

While patient engagement solutions are a favored method for healthcare practices, there’s always room for improvement. Let’s look at a few solutions to help improve patient engagement. 

• Educating patients in a language they can understand. 

A lack of instruction or poor comprehension leads to failure to comply in most situations when patient engagement strategies are ineffective. 

When a doctor simply passes out medication, instructs on how to take it, and recommends following up after so many days without further details, the patient is less likely to comply than if more information was provided – information in a language the patient can comprehend. 

As a medical provider, if you need to use worksheets, a website, or “talk to me like a three-year-old,” then do that to help your patient understand what’s happening, and they can then make their own treatment decision. 

Instead of prescribing medication, you can discuss other options as partners in care. 

• Be available for continuous care. 

When a patient receives their orders for medication and care, their treatment is not officially over until the individual is fully recovered. Continued monitoring should be considered an aspect of the encounter until the individual is sustainable and healthy without medical supervision. 

Research shows a reduction in hospital emergency room visits when doctors take part in ongoing supervision, plus increased patient satisfaction. 

• Keeping it simple 

Medical details can be exceptionally complex, especially when patients have no background in medical terminology. The information needs to be simplified in layperson’s terms so people can understand what is being said. 

It’s among the most significant obstacles patients and medical providers have when it comes to patient engagement. Whether it’s a patient or their caregiver, it’s imperative that you, as the doctor or nurse, recognize that the individual understands everything that you’re communicating. 

You must start with simple language if that person needs help or clarification. Medical professionals use these terms as a second language as though everyone is privy to the terms, but not everyone is. 

When talking to someone who has never used these terms, it’s vital to return to regular language so there are no mistakes with instructions. If there’s no common language, explain the medical word to help them make sense of it. 

You can also use images or worksheets to demonstrate the instructions if it’s easier for everyone involved. 

Visual aids are an incredible tool that simplifies details. It is a common language for everyone and allows for greater recall compared to text. Go here for guidance on improving your strategies for patient engagement. 

Final Thought 

The ideal patient engagement experience is for the healthcare community to take the opportunity to reach out to their patients where it’s most convenient for that person rather than where it works best for the medical provider. As a clinician, you can make concessions, but a patient is less able to do so. 

In an ideal partnership to make engagement more friendly, you can offer patients options such as text messaging, phone calls, emails, zoom meetings, and, of course, patient portals. This approach makes communication easy, straightforward, and manageable for them. It also ensures their comfortability, so they want to engage with you. An anxious patient will not comply.