Improving patient outcomes with purposefully designed patient engagement systems
By Dave Bennett
Today’s healthcare landscape and patient expectations continue to change, and at the same time, the standard of optimizing healthcare performance has developed beyond the Triple Aim (enhancing the patient experience, improving population health, and lowering costs). The industry standard has evolved to factor in the clinician’s overall well-being, as well as health equity. As these developments take greater shape throughout the industry, healthcare decision-makers are increasingly pursuing emerging technologies and facility designs—promising to reengineer processes that don’t add value, to improve safety and outcomes, and to automate tasks that are increasingly time-consuming and difficult.
Digital transformations use emerging technologies that allow staff to focus their time on care and on better understanding and addressing the circumstances of each patient. This improves the job experience and satisfies the Quintuple Aim. Patients want personalized experiences that address their needs, evaluate their circumstances, and provide better outcomes. As experiences become more customizable in other industries, patients want the same customizability throughout healthcare. Digital transformation is making it possible to support both the patient and clinician experience with an equitable approach.
It’s fair to say that all healthcare shares a focus on improved outcomes. Healthcare providers are looking for the best ways to create the most favorable environment for each patient and their care. Patient engagement platforms can offer an improved experience for patients while providing opportunities for clinicians to educate, engage, and continuously connect with patients for better outcomes. Purposefully designed patient engagement systems ensure that the patient and clinician are collaborating each step of the way to take the most appropriate path forward.
Why patients and clinicians must connect and collaborate
When done right, digital transformation makes care delivery more accessible and approachable for all patients and reduces nonclinical tasks for clinicians. At its core, an interactive patient care system leverages the patient’s television infrastructure as a communication hub for customized education, entertainment, and empowerment. It takes a familiar interface—the TV remote control in the form of a pillow speaker that is connected to the nurse call system—and empowers patients to engage in their care, review educational lessons, and connect with caregivers.
To allow patients to further collaborate, digital whiteboards in patient rooms and digital door signs convey critical information to staff, patients, and families, such as daily schedules, precautions, and the current care team. Automatic updates from integrated hospital systems, without the need for manual input, streamline care delivery by reducing nonclinical, repetitive tasks while increasing transparency with patients and families. Advanced systems also offer a provider dashboard that integrates with the electronic health record (EHR) and allows the care team to view progress in real time from various devices.
Beyond the walls of the hospital, cross-continuum patient engagement systems facilitate longitudinal care collaboration via open APIs to an ever-growing array of digital health technologies. Physician-prescribed digital journeys guide patients through their specific care episode, such as elective surgery, or provide tailored details for the at-home management of a chronic condition. This process makes the information more approachable to the patient, especially once they’ve returned home and are providing their own care.
As systems become more integrated and allow patient information to become less siloed, healthcare teams can offer more precise, targeted patient care for a more equitable approach. With the ability to model and train millions of records, healthcare teams can now find similar patient demographics and health histories, so the care recommendation is much closer to 1:1 and considers the full picture for a patient. This goes beyond sharing general care details ahead of a procedure. For example, the data may show that a patient with certain demographics—medical, socioeconomic, genomic, etc.—responds best to specific care protocols. Those protocols then become the recommended course of care management, both in the hospital and at home. The insights inform the education shared and lead to better outcomes for that patient.
Patients who are actively engaged in their health journeys see more improvement than passive participants. Advanced patient engagement systems help clinicians boost patient involvement by leveraging the healing potential of collaboration, communication, and empowerment. Personalized education and actions, along with more opportunities for feedback on care needs, allow patients and providers to work together throughout the care continuum.
Health facilities need to consider better time savings for patients and staff
As staffing shortages continue, healthcare facilities are aiming to pursue new solutions that save time and provide greater value. As one size does not fit all in patient care, time optimization is dependent on unique facility needs. Some facilities view optimizing time as reducing manual tasks, such as by automatically documenting an educational transaction in the EHR. In other instances, facilities have found success with systems that alert the nurse to check in with specific patient types, follow up on a missed learning verification question, or respond to survey feedback indicating a service concern. Healthcare leadership must listen and consider the solutions that best optimize time for their teams. This will help to boost staff satisfaction and retention, strengthen patient outcomes, and improve the well-being of each party.
Time can also be optimized away from the bedside for both patients and staff members. Using a secure digital engagement platform, patients can review their health records, check prescriptions, schedule appointments, ask doctors questions, view lab results, and share health data with their providers. And because most of these tools are built mobile-first, individuals can safely navigate their health journey from the comfort of their phone or tablet, or even from an in-room patient television. With greater flexibility and broader access to their care plan and physicians, patients are more likely to either remain actively engaged in their care or have an easier time beginning their care journey.
Let’s move quality care forward for everyone
As healthcare continues to advance, well-rounded care for both patients and healthcare staff needs to progress with it. Throughout hospitals and healthcare facilities, teams must deliver excellent care that is accessible, ensure the latest technology to meet patient expectations, and provide high-quality experiences. Along with improving outcomes and accessibility for all patients, the well-being of clinicians and staff must be a top priority. Purposefully designed patient engagement systems seek to lessen the daily challenges faced by patients and healthcare professionals and support the efforts to ensure better outcomes for all.
Dave Bennett is the CEO of pCare. His visionary approach to patient engagement, digital and mobile technologies, and IT integration ensures continuous innovation of the #1 KLAS-ranked pCare platform and a company culture dedicated to delighting customers. Prior to joining pCare, he served in a variety of executive roles at ViiMed, GetWellNetwork, and StayWell. Bennett holds a CISM certificate from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and is an active member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the American Health Information Management Association, ISACA, and the American College of Healthcare Executives.