With the concept of family physician diminishing rapidly, patient engagement has assumed gigantic importance as never before becoming an integral part of health care. A satisfying patient experience can lead to the development of trust.
It's important to understand that while dealing with health, patients are expected to hand over their lives into the hands of a doctor/healthcare provider, this can come with a lot of anxiety or intimidation. The patient is already under enough discomfort, a satisfying experience can help them ease into the treatment. Three things contribute to efficient and satisfactory health care – patient engagement, patient experience and patient satisfaction. To ensure a positive patient experience robust patient engagement is required. Health care service providers are striving hard to incorporate these while providing their services.
As these terminologies have become the buzzword in the Healthcare industry. It is important to understand their significance and impact on healthcare. The patient plays a pivotal role in his/her health care, their proper involvement can lead to better clinical results. Patients too want to be engaged in the decision-making process of their own health care, but many a time patients are not aware, if we intend to involve them it's also important to educate them. Given the ratio of patients per doctor, it is unrealistic to expect a doctor to spend time educating each patient. This is where a well planned patient engagement strategy can help. It makes sure the patient is aware and connected to the doctor/healthcare provider before, during and after the treatment.
Patient Engagement:
As the name implies, patient engagement, is engaging patient in his/her health care. Patient engagement activities may include:
Digital and inclining communications with the patient
Online patient portals
Filling forms
Surveys
Interviews
Online or offline feedback forms
On the other hand, for health care professionals, engaging patients in his/her health care increases patient satisfaction, confidence and consequently patient retention. It is also observed that a well engaged patient takes better health decisions, saving vital time during crisis helping healthcare professionals treat better and faster. Thus, it is a win-win situation for both the patient and the health care professionals. Besides, patient engagement makes the patient comfortable with the medical or health care providers in the face of uncertainties or fear.
We at Nth Sense empower doctors/clinics and other healthcare providers with numerous online and offline resources that help them engage the patient on a positive note and keep them involved throughout their healthcare journey.
Post Discharge patient Engagement:
One of the important aspects of patient engagement is the post discharge patient engagement.This facilitates empowering patients in making decisions about their healthcare, during and after treatment, fostering trust between patients, their families and medical and health care professionals. This also builds up long-lasting bond between the patient and the health care service providers.
Patient engagement not only ensures that patient has been taken under confidence for his/her health care but also assures that they are in safe hands & that everything would go on swiftly.
Understanding Role of Patient Engagement in Patient Experience
Patient experience simply means, the journey of the patient from the time he/she has started treatment till the time of discharge. This experience may vary from patient to patient depending upon the type of treatment, the criticality of the disease, the time taken for healing/recuperation and related factors.
Given the increasing number of health issues, people’s scepticism about the medical fraternity and the cut-throat competition between various health care providers, hospitals are banking on patient engagement and patient experience to enhance their services and hence establish a life-long connect with the patients.
Patient experience is equally important for the health care provider to improve their services or get a boost for their morale.
Following are the 3 vital factors that influence a patient’s experience:
The patient’s interaction
Behaviour of people involved in the treatment
Patient’s level of involvement and willingness for the treatment
Just like patient engagement, mapping patient experience is also important for hospitals in order to improve the quality of health care services and analyse situations that could be avoided.
The Critical Element of Patient Satisfaction
Another critical part of healthcare is patient satisfaction, which is an offshoot of patient experience. It is important that the patient was well taken care off and in most cases cured, but it is equally important that the patient was aware that the healthcare professional/institution did the best they could. This can happen only when the patient was connected and engaged throughout the process, which means that they had a good experience and are satisfied. A satisfied patient is a healthier patient.
We at the Nth Sense associate and work with doctors and other healthcare providers in order to enhance the patient's journey and help healthcare providers achieve better clinical results through positive patient engagement.
Know more about How Nth Sense Works and How Nth Sense Contributes towards patient Engagement to make healthcare in India more patient centric.