Patient Engagement: Top 5 strategies to improvise Healthcare in 2023

In this highly advanced world where patients know what they want and need, patient engagement is not just merely a topic now.

It is a table-turning subject matter that could overturn the healthcare perspective in just a matter of time.

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. 

This concept concentrates on the extent to which providers and patients can improve health outcomes together. It focuses on interventions that help patients to manage their health and positive patient behavior.

RELATED: Patient Engagement: #3 Master plans providers should focus on

Why are Patient Portals and Patient Engagement 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 provide access to patients from test results, and medical records, to bill payments. 
• Providers say that patient portals increase patient satisfaction & improve communication.
• 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.

RELATED: How to make Patients use your Patient Portal? [top 6 successful tips]

5 Strategies to improve Healthcare Patient Engagement 

1. Increase patient adherence & compliance through proper education

Integrating patient engagement strategies is very vital for providers. This empowers patients to be engaged and take charge of their health journey. Adhering to prescribed medications is very crucial for patients as the opposite can cause deadly damage to their health.

This can be avoided by staying connected to your patients between visits. This improves compliance and patient adherence resulting in good health outcomes and quality of care. To make sure your engagement strategy reaches all patients of different backgrounds, you must create appropriate learning materials. 

The education or learning material must have the following qualities;

• It should be made available online & offline
• It should be legible and understandable
• It should be simple and should also be offered in a regional language (sixth-grade reading level is preferable)
• The resource can be in forms like posters, podcasts, infographics, youtube videos, patient portals, etc.

2. Split your patient populace

Patient segmentation or splitting is to personalize patient engagement resources easily. This ensures each person is tended according to their health needs. Patient segmentation uses information from EHRs to split patient populations into separate groups. After this process, tailoring to each group’s particular needs will be easy.

Understand how, when, and where to approach each type of patient. It is to create an effective patient segmentation model while keeping the restriction on the usage of PHI in mind.

3. Create a multichannel engagement strategy

Patients expect better transparency, responsiveness, and open communication from providers. After segmenting your patient population find the type of education you prefer to provide to patients of each segment. You can reach and target them with the following 5 multichannel engagement campaigns.

1. Phone calls
2. Direct emails
3. Emails
4. Text messages
5. Social media

4. The shortcut to expansion: Telehealth

Most patients now prefer telehealth over hospital visits. This is because they can improve access to care and motivates patients to be more engaged in their healthcare. Stats state that over 94% of telehealth users reported being “very satisfied”. And the COVID-19 pandemic ignited telehealth’s growth and understanding of its worth.

Telehealth provides various tools that allow providers and patients to communicate without interruptions. It provides access through video conferencing, telephone, telephone, or live chat.

5. Finally get an effective patient portal

These portals help patients not to forget any details of their visit with their physicians. It is the perfect tool to keep patients engaged, and increase their efficiency & quality of care.

The patient portal platform is an extra tool to be used in concurrence with your Electronic Health Records. It allows patients to learn more about their conditions, treatment plans, medications, and more. It is very vital to offer patients a portal that can educate them and ensure patient adherence and compliance. An efficient patient portal must have the following features;

• HIPAA-compliant patient program
• Automated task management
• EHR/EMR integrations
• Streamlines communications
• Analytics and tracking
• Online appointment schedulings
• Access to health information
• Intake form fill-outs
• Payment and billing facilities
• Updation of medical history
• Prescription refills and requests, and more.

Patient Portal Software from Vozo

Vozo patient portal software has incredibly empowered patients with advanced & simplified portal features. This includes secure one-to-one messaging and easy appointment scheduling. Also provides easy access to lab reports and record consultations. Requesting and refilling e-prescriptions are way too simple now. 

Your problems: 

1. Integration or implementation issues?
2. Doubting the support system?
3. Looking for a portal under your budget? 
4. Switching or upgrading to the Vozo patient portal?
5. Finding troubles with usage or functions?
6. Facing an issue with getting patients to opt-in?
7. Security concerns?

Our solutions: 

1. Our software can be easily implemented & integrated with any EHR system. It improves practice workflow and productivity.
2. Our team of professionals is readily available 24/7 to get things done for you no matter what’s your practice size.
3. Vozo patient portal fits your budget perfectly with monthly subscription plans.
4. Switching to our portal is a very simple process, you won’t even need any help, yet our team has your back.
5. We provide various step-by-step tutorials and help to get you on track with the portal.
6. Our portal is simple to use and understandable to all. Once they get to try this then there will be no turning back.
7. Our portal has strong privacy and security safeguards in place.

“Let’s empower your patients with the best cost-effective patient portal, together”