Important Tools That Can Help You Improve Patient Engagement
Why is patient engagement important in healthcare?
The goal of boosting patient engagement is to improve the effectiveness of the healthcare services you offer. Patient engagement allows you to stay up-to-date on your patient’s changing needs and therefore serve them better.
By encouraging patient engagement, you also make patients owners of their healthcare and therefore work better with them. Click the link to continue learning about why patient engagement is important in healthcare.
How Do You Improve Patient Engagement?
The best way to improve patient engagement is to increase the number of options a patient has to connect with you. These opportunities for your patients to connect with your practice are created by patient engagement tools.
With covid-19, the most effective patient engagement tools are now digital and allow the practice to connect with the patient without ever being in the same room.
Leaping into the digital may seem intimidating but the truth is that you can contract a patient engagement company to work out the logistics and even assist with ROI tracking.
What Are the Top 5 Patient Engagement Tools Your Practice Should Have?
1. Social Media
Social media is consists of several interactive platforms your patients are already using. One of the advantages of social media is that the platforms are already developed and ready to use.
The other advantage is that most people already know how to use them and are highly engaged. Social media can be used to receive feedback from patients, post announcements, and even educate your patients.
2. Virtual Medicine
Virtual medicine or telemedicine allows the medical professional to connect directly with the patient without the need to be at the same location. This type of patient engagement tool is great for connecting with patients who experience mobility issues, are out of town, or have a highly contagious condition such as Covid-19.
3. Appointment Management Software
This type of software allows your practice to keep better track of daily appointments, patient records, sends friendly alerts to remind patients of appointments, and helps track missed appointment trends. These actions will improve patient engagement by lowering the number of patients who miss their appointments.
4. Electronic Prescription Management
This tool allows patients to have easier access to prescription refills or reauthorization by allowing them to request either action through an electronic portal.
The doctor can issue the approval virtually and dispatch the electronic prescription directly to the pharmacy. This tool allows the patient to receive a quick answer from their provider and allows the provider to free up time.
5. Patient Website
A patient website allows your patients to book appointments online, fill out patient information and history records online, and even pay their fees.
This system allows the patient to stay engaged without having to interact with the practice in the office. It also cuts down on the duties of the receptionist and bookkeeper.
For assistance with patient engagement, contact Sequence Health.