Patient Engagement: The Patient Portal Of Modern Age

Patient engagement has become the center of attraction again in healthcare these days. We can say that it has become the patient portal of the modern age. Yes, it is true. It is now the hot and most concentrated topic in the continuum.

Health care was traditionally based on the types, quality, and methods of care delivery. But now with all the changes to security policies, health standards, and viewpoints, the concentration is circulated upon only one singular subject: “Patient Engagement”.

Patient engagement is found to be very important now as it can impact the entire healthcare process from the point a patient enters and exists a healthcare regimen. Many findings have been made which affect the healthcare systems as a whole in many positive ways with high patient engagement.

RELATED: Top 3 Elements Of Patient Engagement (Checklist)

What Is Patient Engagement?

According to a source, “patient engagement” is a broader concept that combines patient activation with interventions designed to increase activation and promote positive patient behavior, such as obtaining preventive care or exercising regularly. 

Why Are Patient Portals Important?

It is all thanks to Meaningful Use, the majority of the focus on patient engagement has been around patient portals. For portal usage, practices have to meet both MU2 and MU3 approaches.

• Patient Portals play a significant role in providing patients with access to test results, medical records, medical histories, allergy details, and even tools like online scheduling and bill payments. 
• Providers believe that patient portals increase patient satisfaction and improve the communication between patients and physicians.
• Patients also feel like they could be loyal to their physicians who provide them with a portal through an EHR.
• There are also negatives or challenges to portals but they are just one component of true patient engagement.

The Challenges Of Patient Engagement

• The biggest challenge in creating patient engagement is not always providing access to health information.
• It is also about shifting the expectations and attitudes of clinicians and patients toward the concept.
• Addressing and solving this problem needs a big culture change in healthcare.
• Patient engagement may hold the key to improved access, communication, and outcomes. But the transformation is slow.
• This is because any change needs all the players’ attention and involvement.
• And a shift in culture toward a truly patient-centric model means a big step toward revolutionized change. It requires interaction and attention from every person across the spectrum.
• This involves changes in the way things are done.
• This change might be much bigger than the portal alone as technology plays a critical role in it.

RELATED: Digital Patient Engagement Tools: Why You Need It In 2022?

How Can The Change To A Patient-Centric Model Be Done?

• The change starts with patients finding providers who are appropriate and finding their way down to where the final bill is paid.
• The patients can look out for providers online, go through patient reviews, and book appointments from home.
• They can find answers to their queries about the practices easily.
• When the patients call the office, their calls will be answered quickly.
• The patients receive reminders through texts, emails, or phones.
• To speed up check-in for the encounter they can complete pre-registration information.
• The patients won’t have to wait for long hours after check-in. Even if there is any delay, alerts will reach the patients from the facility so that they can reschedule if they want.
• As all the needed patient information in the EHR are available to the providers, the patient encounters will be smooth in the exam room.
• The reports and needed information can be shared with the patients in the exam room.
• The patients even before leaving the practice receive a detailed visit summary.
• The patients will receive methods to provide reviews of the practice.
• Then patient portal helps the patients to do follow-ups, review lab results, medical records, etc.
• To pay their bill online, the patients receive emails or texts with a link and more.

The Future To Excellence

A practice can do a lot of other things to facilitate a positive experience that makes the patients want to come back and be engaged in their health cycle and this can improve health outcomes.

This experience with the combination of engagement is what patients want than just providing a portal. Patients these days wants to maintain a strong relationship with their providers and they want to be the one who is in control of their medical decisions. They also want to participate and actively engage in shared decision-making with their physicians. This opens up bigger opportunities for all healthcare providers to start shifting their ways to meet the patient’s needs and provide care accordingly.

This is the absolute chance to look beyond just Meaningful Use and portals and to get into the aspects of patient experience, their convenience, and engagement. “Welcome to Vozo. The perfect solution for achieving advanced and better patient engagement”.

Vozo Patient Portal allows practices to gather attention by creating more spaces for better patient experience, and engagement and showing them how convenience can be achieved in the right way.

Our portal allows patients to schedule appointments fitting their convenient time and place. It also sends reminders to let them know of their schedulings during their busy work time. Vozo Patient Portal is so easy to use that it makes every function look so simple. Our portal for patients to start with doesn’t require the consent of any physicians or medical providers.

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“Let us transform the way patient engagement is defined, together”