New health reform, including the recent ruling of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), has healthcare organizations navigating new reform requirements and needing assistance to tackle one of healthcare's biggest challenges: engaging patients and driving healthy behaviors.
But whose role is most critical in this effort? The patient. Yet, too often patients are left alone to connect the dots. Together, we must help patients transition from the most underutilized resource in healthcare to become an organization's biggest asset.
In my conversations with healthcare leaders across the country, I've reaffirmed this shift starts with meeting patients where they are and understanding the barriers inhibiting engagement. In fact, the crux of the issue is that patients aren't given access to the right tools that encourage them to become involved and are designed to support their ability to be active partners in their health.
Improving patient engagement can enhance the patient experience, support quality goals, promote shared decision making (SDM) and generate better outcomes, but effective programs must address two components at their core:
• Health literacy: Studies show health literacy gaps create a disconnect between patients understanding their condition, becoming activated in their care and taking action for improved outcomes. Without basic health education, patients are unable to comprehend what's at stake and the impact of not engaging.
• Power Dynamics: The patient-clinician relationship is changing as the industry evolves. Patients often feel intimidated by clinicians, yet they rely on them to determine their care plan – or worse, rely on an Internet self-diagnosis. Unspoken patient concerns coupled with poor communication can lead to a lack of engagement.
These challenges are not new. And today, more than ever, they present a greater challenge as providers struggle with limited resources to accomplish the objectives of value-based care. Yet, technology is emerging as a powerful tool to enable providers and fill gaps for hospitals and health systems. However, only when technology-based patient engagement programs are designed with empathy and a patient-centric approach can they be effective. Here are six ways hospitals and health systems are using technology and multimedia interactions to improve communication, better patient-physician relationships and engage patients as partners in their care:
1. Facilitate informed consent: Programs can give patients more realistic expectations and provide knowledge needed to make an informed decision about their care plan.
2. Improve understanding: Clinicians often struggle translating the complex for individuals with low health literacy. The combination of animation and narration in multimedia programs helps close the gap and improves understanding in order to make a decision.
3. Create cognitive ease: Reading any kind of health education or information elicits high levels of physical and emotional stress. The combination of animation and narration in multimedia programs helps minimize the cognitive load required to process and understand information.
4. Reduce anxiety: When content is developed with feedback from both patients and clinicians, programs can anticipate common patient questions and concerns. Studies show this helps reduce anxiety and improves outcomes.
5. Normalize the patient experience: The key to engagement is helping patients feel more comfortable disclosing personal information. Patients can be hesitant to ask questions related to risk, and multimedia programs that address their concerns and proactively answer embarrassing questions help mitigate the fear creating a sense of privacy to honestly share information.
6. Encourage SDM: In SDM, physicians are responsible for helping patients understand the decision and its consequences but also elicit patient goals and preferences. This helps patients arrive at a values-based decision that is best for them. Multimedia decision aids can simplify complex information and provide the necessary context in a safe environment. This gives patients confidence and autonomy to engage in shared treatment decisions.
As hospitals and health systems continue to navigate patient engagement's role in value-based care, technology must not be overlooked. Systems must uncover ways to break down and address patient-clinician communication barriers, while closing the health literacy gap. Equipping patients with the right tools, such as interactive technology programs, creates more productive, empowered patients. And, this level of engagement is essential for meaningful healthcare experiences that improve outcomes and result in greater reimbursement.
Geri Lynn Baumblatt is a patient engagement expert and author who sits on the board of the Journal of Patient Experience, contributes to the Association for Patient Experience, and regularly participates in health literacy, patient experience, and shared decision making conferences and panels for organizations like AHRQ, the Institute for Healthcare Advancement, the Society for Medical Decision Making, Health Literacy Missouri, Stanford Medicine X, the Brookings Institute, the Health Sector Advisory Council at Duke, and the Center for Plain Language. She is the Executive Director of Patient Engagement at Emmi.
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