By Pam Holt, RN, BSN, MOL
Pam Holt, RN, BSN, MOL, is operational consultant for patient engagement with Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer, Health.
Patient engagement affects every patient interaction across the care continuum. Accordingly, the outcomes that you can expect will come from every area of the organization.
When refining targeted outcomes, let metrics be your guide. Measurement shows us what’s working and what’s not. Patient engagement requires constant monitoring to enable continuous fine-tuning. An effective system can provide data on the clinicians, clinics, and hospitals that are getting the best results.
Here are some of the outcomes that you can realize:
1. Boosting patient engagement
An effective patient engagement solution delivers information that is developed with an understanding of human behavior, including what motivates action, how people process information, and what builds trust. Without trust, patients will not engage.
- Offering faster test results
- Streamlining prescription renewals
- Access to 24/7 appointment scheduling
2. Increasing portal usage
Patient engagement programs can track which techniques are more effective, such as higher technology adoption rates.
3. Managing care transitions and reducing readmissions
Engaging patients beyond a health crisis and throughout their recovery is critical to reducing complications, avoiding readmissions, and monitoring the recovery process. A patient engagement system can support an array of transitions, including hospital-to-home transitions after a procedure or chronic condition episode, or rehabilitation-to-home transitions after a period of therapy.
