How patient engagement can improve healthcare outcomes

Patient engagement refers to the desire to allow healthcare customers to be involved in the decisions regarding their health conditions, wellness, and care.

The healthcare industry has considerably changed in recent years since ever-evolving technology in healthcare makes it easy for patients to access care. Mobile healthcare technologies such as remote patient monitoring (RPM), wearable devices, electronic healthcare records (EHR), etc have completely transformed the ways of interacting with patients.

Healthcare difficulties have emerged along with technology changes such as mobile, fixed-locations, or workforces. Mobile healthcare technologies indeed offer huge benefits to patients and healthcare providers. In this post, we provide feasible patient engagement solutions for hospitals to improve healthcare outcomes.

What is patient engagement?

Patient engagement allows customers to participate in the decisions including healthcare schedules, wellness, and care. A high level of patient engagement means healthcare is more customized. Besides, patients have more power to ask questions and request information related to their treatment plan. So the high level of participation requires more partnership amongst the patient, families, and healthcare providers. Hospitals can develop custom apps from software outsourcing services that support patients during their hospitalization journey.

There is little difference between the patient experience and patient engagement in healthcare. Patient engagement refers to the willingness of patients and the ability to actively interact with healthcare providers. Meanwhile, the patient experiences refer to how the healthcare providers meet or even fail to meet patients’ expectations during their hospitalization. Better patient engagement creates a better patient experience via communication channels and patient-centered care systems. So the two concepts are not necessarily interchangeable.

As its fundamental concept, patient engagement in healthcare is a dynamic, strategic method that allows healthcare organizations to provide holistic, end-to-end care. So patient engagement is not only collecting information from patients but also providing healthcare solutions to those patients. When developing custom apps for patient journeys, the software development team might follow their hospitalization for details.

How to improve patient engagement in healthcare

The mobile healthcare market is predicted to grow to $316.8 billion by 2027 from $11.5 billion in 2014. There is no surprise since modern healthcare providers have focused on the importance of engaging patients and started investing more in technology. Here is how to improve patient engagement in healthcare to the next level.

Eliminating workflow bottlenecks

A platform makes it easier to define and resolve workflow inefficiencies, which can be the consequence of outdated and manual processes. Custom apps help healthcare providers and patients collect, store, and access data easily. So you can eliminate time-consuming processes supporting healthcare staff to do their jobs and provide healthcare for their patients. That’s why many hospitals use software outsourcing services that develop custom apps for eliminating workflow bottlenecks.

Ensuring the transparency

Nowadays, workforce management tools provide real-time updates, location tracking, and integration into the existing systems. It helps capacity plans keep track of data, and make improvements to the day-to-day operations, supporting increased patient engagement. So many hospitals are applying technology in the healthcare industry to improve their operations through software outsourcing services.

Automating operation processes

You might slow down your administration within hospitals by requiring them to complete repetitive tasks. Solutions can handle the difficulties of a blended healthcare workforce and automatically create an effective workflow. Technology in healthcare through custom apps for hospitals helps reduce no-shows and cancellations.

Enhancing collaboration and communication

Hospital employees don’t have to switch constantly amongst healthcare apps to communicate vital updates, delays, and other daily operational issues. Technology in healthcare empowers them with mobile centralized management tools, engaging patients in a single place that is easy to control. Therefore, many healthcare providers use software outsourcing services to develop a custom app that can enhance their collaboration and communications.

Offering a user-friendly method

The healthcare workforce is likely always on the go. They will move from one site to another to provide healthcare services. Adopting management tools is easy and effective to use on their mobile devices such as smartphones, iPad, etc. Essentially, the tools they use should be special for their unique needs, so it is supported fully in the medical field.

Why is patient engagement important for the health industry?

Medical and healthcare experts have the proper training and experience to advise their patients. However, the patients also play an important role in their healthcare journey to get better healthcare outcomes. Investing time, tools, and resources can boost patient engagement, which results in a variety of benefits. Thus, many hospitals often use software outsourcing services to develop a custom app for improving patient journeys during their time at the hospital. Patient engagement framework will help to

Reducing no-shows and cancellations

When healthcare organizations provide seamless access to information and care, patients are likely to invest their time. Patients can fully access healthcare plans, medical histories, and appointments that serve their individual needs and plans. So there are fewer patients canceling doctor appointments or simply not showing owing to scheduling conflicts.

Furthermore, hospitals improve patient engagement in their healthcare journey, so they are more confident when visiting the doctors. Thus, they are less likely to cancel and miss healthcare appointments. Software development teams from software outsourcing services firms build custom apps to reduce no-shows or doctor visit cancellations.

Requiring fewer visits to solve problems

When patients and healthcare providers have a better understanding of preferences and healthcare options, little details are falling through the cracks. People can update, access, and communicate easily on both ends, so there is no need for superfluous visits. Therefore, patients can be comfortable enough to ask important questions. Since the healthcare providers have understood the importance of patient engagement on care recommendations and requirements.

Ensuring continuous use of patient engagement in healthcare

Better patient engagement leads to satisfied patients. As patients receive support from healthcare staff, they are more likely to continue the patient-provider relationship. Implementing a digital health patient engagement system helps healthcare providers focus on patient engagement. The providers prioritize healthcare service qualities that lead to loyal and exceptional customers.

Proving a competitive advantage

The consumerization of healthcare has changed the way people provide healthcare services. Healthcare organizations treat patients as active recipients, so they will understand the importance of providing a highly customized healthcare experience. A better patient engagement provides easy access to essential information and boosts effective healthcare journeys. Hospitals using software development teams to introduce custom apps for patient engagement can gain a competitive advantage.

Improving back-office efficiencies for patient engagement

Effective patient engagement strategies mean executing tools that enable patients to easily access their health information, self-arrangements, and ask questions. Without a proper tool, back-office administrators need to track and manage these data manually. Digital health patient engagement empowers back-office workers, healthcare providers, and patients to access accurate and updated information. They can save time rather than copy handwritten papers into another system or even ask patients the same questions.&

Patient engagement strategies in a digital environment

Let’s take a look at patient engagement strategies for hospital operators in the ere of digital environment.

Customizing interactions

Nowadays, customers expect business sectors to understand their needs and wants, especially in the healthcare industry. So customization is an essential part of the patient engagement strategy. If hospitals don’t know customized attributes about their patients, their patient engagement strategy will not be effective. Moreover, using software development teams to build the custom apps during developing patient engagement is a must. Technology in healthcare will create specific patient engagement strategies at scale regarding right patients, right messages, and right moments.

Integrating with existing healthcare technologies

Hospitals use electronic health records (EHR) and healthcare customer relationship management (CRM) to collect, analyze, and process patient data. These data include demographics, psychographics, behavioral patterns, clinical history, call center interactions, etc. The existing technologies will work together to create 360-degree aspects from patients, providing the hospital’s insights to execute effective patient engagement strategies.

Another essential technology in healthcare that healthcare providers might consider is a marketing automation tool. It allows automated outreach for a continuous patient engagement strategy. Healthcare providers use the patient engagement framework through different channels such as emails, social media, etc. Integrating with the marketing automation tools is another patient engagement solution for hospitals.

Besides, healthcare organizations can integrate the call center software with CRM. Since it helps to build relevant conservations with patients through digital health patient engagement. With EHR, CRM, and marketing automation, healthcare providers proactively identify, implement, and measure patient engagement initiatives to deliver personalized care for all patients. Thus, combining the call center software with the CRM and EHR is one of the most popular patient engagement solutions for hospitals.

Collaborating with physicians

Not only do healthcare marketers play a vital role in enhancing patient engagement, but physicians also do well. Through various patient engagement frameworks, hospitals use patient engagement to improve healthcare outcomes. Physicians have frequent contact with their patients. So it develops patient networks and provides attention through healthcare services to increase patient engagement. So collaboration with physicians is one of the best common patient engagement solutions for hospitals.

Closing thoughts

Patient engagement is an integral part of the healthcare industry and a critical element of people-centric services. Digital health patient engagement allows patients to participate in their care options. With various patient engagement frameworks, healthcare providers can execute patient engagement strategies to improve healthcare outcomes. Hopefully, we have just provided essential information in terms of benefits, strategies, and various approaches to improve healthcare outcomes.