7 Proven Strategies to Build Patient Engagement and Satisfaction

7 Proven Strategies to Build Patient Engagement & Satisfaction

Effective patient engagement is essential as patients have become informed consumers who expect more value and better outcomes.

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Building patient satisfaction depends on providing patients with the best experience possible. Medical transcription services help providers deal with the challenges of EHR use as focus on their patients. Effective patient engagement improves patient outcomes and retention rates. This is crucial in today’s competitive healthcare environment where patients have become informed consumers who expect more value and better outcomes. Here are seven proven strategies to build patient engagement and satisfaction: •

Develop a shared care plan: A care plan is an agreement between the healthcare provider and the patient, in the form of an entry in the patient record to help the patient manage his/her health. A shared care plan aims at promoting communication among members of the care team. Engaging patients in the process will help providers better understand patients’ preferences and values in relation to their health and health care. This ensures that patients get the care they need. Giving patients the opportunity to get involved in setting their goals improves patient engagement and facilitates shared decision-making between patients and providers. With concrete, personal goals, patients will be more likely to follow their care plan. If the patient requires, the shared decision making process should also facilitate involvement family members/friends. The care plan should be updated on a regular basis.

•

Utilize effective decision aids: Clinicians should ensure that patients have the knowledge and tools necessary to make the best health decisions with their support and decision-making tools. Decision aids include brochures, videos, and web programs, which incorporate various goals and teaching strategies. These decision aids help patients make informed choices about healthcare based on their personal values and preferences. Decision aids play a crucial role in clinical areas such as diabetes, statins, osteoporosis, depression, etc.

•

Ensure effective communication techniques: There are many ways patients and clinicians can communicate for decision making such as phone conversations, virtual visits, secure email, and web portals. While face-to-face conversations are important, using these methods can inform and involve patients without directly taking away the clinician in real time.

•

Keep materials and information simple: Clinicians should be as specific as possible when communicating with patients. But keeping instructions and materials as simple as possible is an important factor in improving patient engagement. Using complex terms and acronyms may be acceptable when communicating with other healthcare professionals, but not when communicating with

patients.

Becker’s

Hospital

www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com

Review

advises,

“To

ensure

universal

918-221-7809

understanding, clinicians, care managers, and others should begin explanations at the sixth-grade level, and then determine if the patient comprehends the material”. This includes written material and videos. In short, the information in the care plan should be simple enough for the patient to understand and follow.

•

Familiarize EHR patients with the: According to www.patientengagementhit.com, clinicians should show and tell patients about EHR usage. This will help physicians manage the challenges with EHR

use

and

communication.

improve Tedious

patient medical

engagement

rates

and

documentation

can

affect

patient-provider doctor

patient

interactions. According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Family Practice, “patients found it disturbing not knowing what their doctor was doing when he or she worked on the computer, and preferred being able to see the computer screen”. The researchers said that their findings suggest that it is advisable for clinicians to explain what they are doing when they use the computer, so that patients better understand how this time spent entering data actually benefits them. In fact, medical transcription companies are focused on helping clinicians deal with this concern and build a strong relationship with their patients.

•

Optimize patient portals: Patient portals are an ideal platform to provide patients with information on goals, action items, reminders, etc. By allow patients to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patientprovider communication, patient portals can improve patient engagement. To be effective, the portal should be user-friendly and allow patients to interact in a meaningful manner. It must be incorporated into clinical encounters so that providers can use it to communicate with patients, convey information, and promote self-care and decision-making. A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research in April 2019 reported that patient portals have demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors and improving adherence to medications.

•

Encourage patient accountability: It’s not enough to provide patients with information -- they need to be encouraged to take advantage of the information and take better care of themselves. Becker’s Hospital Review says that Weight Watchers is an example of a program that has a deadline and measurable accountability to encourage active participation in a plan of care. Groups are divided into small teams that teams that compete to achieve weight loss goals.

To drive engagement, patients can be provided with reminders to promote adherence and helped to track their progress to their goal.

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In addition to improving health and patient satisfaction, building patient engagement can enhance patient retentions and referrals. As physicians work towards creating a healthier patient experience, outsourced medical transcription services can help them ensure good medical record documentation, an essential element for patient engagement.

www.medicaltranscriptionservicecompany.com

918-221-7809