What Do Patients Expect From Patient Engagement Solutions?
By Matt Wilson, Aegis HealthTech
It started years back when a group of people from different social, economic, and racial backgrounds set out to understand the needs of patients and captured these records as “Compassionate Care” that patients expect. In their findings they list down the five most essential requirements of patients across the world; these are highlighted below:
- Open Communication with the patients
- Asking the patients in the decision-making process for their care
- Understanding and listening keenly to what the patient wants
- Valuing the patient as a person with an ailment and not being an ailment themselves
- Being considerate towards the patient and their family
It was after this that the Patient Engagement Solutions stepped in. A complicated yet responsible venture, today it has become a buzzword throughout the healthcare industry.
What exactly are Patient Engagement Solutions?
A program which has emerged as a key piece of mobile health technology, it is an initiative to interpret numerous services that a patient requires apart from those that are provided. The phenomenon is being taken place all over the globe, wherein the patients are enabled to engage with their providers with the simple use of their mobile phones.
According to sources, more than 85 percent of people own a smartphone and are getting adept at its multi-functionality. Another goal which the program is trying to achieve is better health management for the patient population. An example of this could be Text Messaging. Statistics have revealed texting has a major positive impact on people who have asthma and diabetes.
While looking forward to having the most efficient patient engagement results, service providers have broken down the program into different stages. These are, pre-arrival of the patient, during the stay of the patient, and post-visit of the patient.
Before the arrival of the patient, these services will assist the hospital to make arrangements as per the patient's requirements. While the patient is at the facility of the hospital, these services guarantee the understanding of the patient’s preferences, their decisions in the healing process, and provide them with exclusive services.
However, an institute should not just go in for purchasing a patient engagement solution, rather it should first evaluate the patients, establish their understanding, and result in a better outcome for the patients.
Choosing the perfect Patient Engagement Program
According to recent studies, only 18 percent of the patients have access to an efficient patient portal, and some 64 percent are hardly able to work with the functioning of the portal. Thus, it is essential to test a few capabilities of the Patient Engagement Solutions provider, some of which include:
- Provision of both online as well as in-office patient admission forms
- Supporting the doctor with the health history of the patient
- Electronic Bill Payments
- Timely reminding the patient as well as the clinic about the patient’s reminder
- Providing the patient with automated lab results
- Viewing the health record of the patient at any instant
- Timely scheduling the patient’s appointment in the hospital
- Securing the messaging of the client
If a Patient Engagement Service provider checks all these requirements, then it can be qualified as the best Patient Engagement Program for the institute. In this era, the efficient functioning of the patient portals is a great boost to the healthcare industry. These would enable health care centers to become more intuitive and feature-rich for the patients. However, constant improvisation is the key to success and effective running of patient engagement platforms will make them a success in providing compassionate care to the patients.