Does Patient Engagement Matter?

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I’ve been talking to a few providers about patient engagement, so I thought I’d share some of what we’ve been talking about with you in case it’s helpful.

Patient engagement doesn’t sound like a business strategy. But I’ll try to show you it is.

It’s a sleeper of a strategy. 💤 

Here’s what patient engagement means:

An engaged patient is an active participant in their care and their care plan.

They are fully involved in healthcare decision-making. They understand any identified impairments, conditions, and treatment plan.

They understand how the healthcare system generally works.

They develop skills to manage and improve their health conditions, they get recommended screenings, they participate actively in communication with healthcare teams, and they have trust in their providers.

They either have or are willing to develop health literacy.

Here’s one of the best definitions I have seen:

What patient engagement doesn’t mean?

“Compliance” 

What it actually means?

“Empowerment” 

More good news 📰 

An engaged patient is more likely to return to a provider and that trusted relationship over their longitudinal healthcare journey.

And this is then better for patients. They experience more continuity of care and more efficient, high value care. They catch diseases early, when they are more likely to be successfully treated. Their long-term outcomes are better.

So I did a little desktop research about patient engagement to see if the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had published anything formal on patient engagement recently, since it’s so important for success in value-based care, too.

I found this: you 👀👇️ 

Which is part of:

So how would you know if you are succeeding in your patient engagement strategies?

Here are some signs:

• Low no-show rates

• Patients complete care plans

• High utilization of preventive care like vaccinations, screenings, and annual check-ups

• Low utilization of urgent and emergency care

• Active participation in shared decision-making

• High completion rates of Patient Recorded Outcomes Measures (PROMs)

• Patients returning to you as a trusted health advisor and for care, recommendations, support, information, and to connect with their other providers

Have I convinced you patient engagement is good for business?

(Oh, and it starts with patient onboarding, btw!)

And for more on that, check out this encore episode of the Relentless Health Value Podcast with my friend Jerry Durham, owner of the Client Experience Company!

And because it wouldn’t be me without a related value-based care resource, below is a link to something the Health Care Transformation Task Force and the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations published a few months ago: