Patient Engagement Issues

Many healthcare leaders are advocates for, and believe that patient engagement and experience has gained true importance and value in improving healthcare quality, it has easily become the ‘heart’ of the core definition of ‘quality care’. It is clear that patients are able to provide expertise beyond generic feedback on ways of improving the patient experience.

In today’s society, the accuracy of health information, the availability of health records, and the professional resources in which one live are vital in decision making for health conditions. Meaningful Use (MU) is a program developed by CMS Medicare and Medicaid that awards, incentives in the health care industry in which the certified electronic health records (EHRs) are used to improve patient care (Practice Fusion, 2016). These incentives are for professionals that care for about 30% of their adult patient volume or 20% of their children’s volume for Medicare and Medicaid patients (CMS, 2016). In addition, adjusting from paper charts to electronic charts of patient’s information is beneficial for MU. Furthermore, the American

In some areas of population health, technology in enhanced patient information is utilized to perform risk stratification to identify the high risk patients. These patient’s often have uncontrolled BP, diabetes with an HgbA1c over 9, COPD, etc. Once identified as high risk or potential high risk, these patients receive additional care or patient outreach to help manage their condition. Some organizations employee RN Health Coaches and Care Coordination teams to help these patients and identify gaps in care. The primary care physician assumes care of the patient along with striving for the patient to become active in their overall health thereby keeping them out of the hospital (Sanford, 2013). One enhanced area of population management is the PCMH model. PCMH practices increase patient’s engagement in shared decision making while providing compensation for care coordination, care management and medical consultation outside of traditional face-to-face visits (Berryman, Palmer, Kohl &Parham, 2013). A patient centered approach pushes for changes not only in the delivery of medicine but in traditional encounters. In addition, PCMH encourages increased access to the patient’s primary care physicians and improved patient satisfaction scores. PCMH and population health encourages providers to increase after hours care to decrease emergency department visits and/or hospitalizations. Thereby reducing cost and improving the patient’s

The article empowering patients to become better healthcare partner references this thought process. The article says with the increase of newly insured patients into the healthcare system hospitals need to find ways to save money. Some hospitals are looking at partnering with patients on their care outside of their appointment. HG Clinic used patient’s suggestions to implement the e-statement options empowering patients to be involved in their decisions. Patients could continue to be used to assist with their care and services. (2015,

In 2010, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services crafted the nation’s 10 year health agenda. Healthy People 2020 outlines key objectives aimed at improving the standard of care health consumers receive by improving both the quality and format of health information offered to consumers as well as improving the consumers’ ability to obtain and process that information. These objectives included supporting shared decision-making between patients and providers, increasing health literacy skills, and delivering accurate, accessible, and usable health information that is targeted or tailored to the individual. (“Healthy People.gov” 2015)

Healthcare reform has created incentives to increase patient engagement to increase accountability, healthcare outcome and lower healthcare cost. In the early days of this movement, web portals were created with basic functions of requesting appointments, prescription refills, and paying medical bills (Butterfield, 2013). Today, patient portals allow users to access dictated visit reports, labs, approve access controls combined with the function of the web portals. As more health information is pushed to the portals, the users (patients and family) are more involved with healthcare decisions and more knowledgeable on available options that meet individual need.

Nowadays, the number of people who have access to the internet has increased tremendously. This is one of the main reasons why many consumers/patients want to communicate to their physicians through online messaging. Online Patient-Clinician Messaging has the potential to improve the quality of medical care as it helps improve the relationship between the physician and the patient and it promotes greater involvement by patients in their own care (National Ethics Committee of the Veterans Health Administration, 2004, p. 2). Because of its benefits, there are many health care organizations that use online patient-clinician messaging. Veterans Health Administration makes patient-clinician messaging available through its My HealtheVet initiative. In addition, Kaiser Permanente also makes patient-clinician messaging available through “My Health Manager. My Health Manager is Kaiser Permanente 's personal health record, linked to its comprehensive electronic health record system, Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect(R). My Health Manager users can access their health records, view lab test results, email their physicians, request prescription refills, make, change and cancel appointments for themselves and, if authorized, also for family members ( Telemedicine Business Week, 2012).However, despite of the benefits of using online messaging, there are many physicians who are hesitant to adopt the practice. One of the main reasons is the ethical implications of patient-clinician

A wide range of studies have demonstrated that one of the benefits of patient engagement is better health outcomes (Weingarten, 2002; Deakin, 2005; Epstein & Street, 2008; Ng et al, 2012; Hibbard and Green, 2013). There is also evidence that patient engagement can lead to improvements in quality and patient safety but on the whole this is more limited (Coulter and Ellins,

Often times patients are waiting until conditions have escalated rather than contact their provider for proper management of their condition. Educating patients is vital to initiating a change in this area. With increased education and awareness on the patients and providers part, this will begin to significantly reduce cost. When patients are informed and are able to be active participants in their healthcare patients have a better overall health experience and are more satisfied with their health care. The overall goal is to increase patient satisfaction and reduce escalating healthcare cost. The triple aim aligns with this proposed population. By educating and having patient take an active role in their health care it will hopefully improve the patient’s experience. Ultimately patients need to be satisfied and feel they are receiving quality care which is the goal of the triple aim (“The IHI Triple Aim”,

It is important to note that physicians help in recognizing the costs of resources associated with patients being treated for chronic illness, acute care, and palliative care services. More important, they provide prospects to decrease complications, and deliberate the contribution of numerous physicians in the care of the patient (Shi, 2012, p. SR4). Therefore, offering services such as that of primary care providers and clinicians that use a methodical knowledge base and have the expertise necessary to direct the delivery of personal health services to patients across the continuum of care will be beneficial to overall patient outcomes (Shi, 2012, p. 3). In order to facilitate success in creating alliances with other health care providers in managing the continuum of care for patients and coordinate care effectively, physician engagement is needed. According to the special report, key benefit found in a data analytics survey for the state and local government officials was centered on informed decision-making reflected 66%. Thus providing the agencies better decisions affecting finances, payroll, and human resource

Moreover, increasing costs of healthcare delivery and emerging trends toward patient empowerment and patient-centered care in order to achieve higher quality healthcare, needs patients to play a more active role in their

Patient centered healthcare and self-management are founding principles of ”The patient participation in productive teams” project. The type of structural change, which the chronic care model suggests, calls for a close collaboration with the patients and their organizations. The development and establishing of new types of health services presumes patient involvement, and we hope through “Patient participation in Productive Teams” to provide essential information to the practice field at the same time as we deliver detailed information about the chronic care model to the patients’ organizations.

Shared decision-making improves patient care in a variety of ways. According to Ernst (2013), the more involved patients are in their health care, the more satisfied

The rapid changes in technology and access to knowledge are transforming how Healthcare is delivered. This expansion of knowledge and technology at ones fingertips does not only affect healthcare providers but also has impact on the patient and their behavior. How can those in healthcare capitalize on these changes to transform patient behavior to improve their adherence to therapies and apply the expanded knowledge to achieve greater health literacy to ultimately achieve better health outcomes? In spite of what we know and how technology can enhance our access to obtaining relevant data on the task at hand we are ultimately still faced with how engaged the patient is in their prescribed therapies and how well will they adhere to those therapies. Optimization of outcomes and care for patients is contingent on finding the sweet spot of balancing technology, knowledge, patient provider interactions with the capability and willingness of the patient. I believe Consumer Health Informatics can lend a hand in elevating the level of patient’s knowledge and engagement in their health. This paper will look at how technology through consumer applications can increase patient literacy and engagement to better adhere to therapies prescribed as well as obtain better outcomes.

The ability to provide our patients with a remarkable patient experience is the number-one responsibility of our staff. Each generation has their own communication style, these styles allows them to provide a remarkable patient experience for all our patients. Without communication tools, each generation is unable to communicate to the patient.