Numerous clinical researches and case studies have proven that a patient’s recovery rate and the results of clinical outcomes are affected by many psychological factors such as mood, anxiety, fear of surgery and much more. These issues being passive and harder to detect, need to be addressed with more care and empathy.

Thus, it is important that healthcare providers and everyone involved in the patient’s recovery journey are engaged and connected systematically to ensure positive patient experience and a fruitful patient journey.

What is patient engagement?

Before jumping into the depth of the topic and why it is important. Let us understand in brief, what is Patient Engagement and how it affects a patient’s journey.

As the name suggests, patient engagement means to engage the patient in their own health care, the treatment, and possible outcomes to encourage them to be part of the healthcare-related decision-making process. This practice not only establishes trust for the healthcare establishment but also increases the chances of a speedy recovery. Besides, being well-informed about one’s own health, their treatment, and its outcomes, patient engagement also helps in negotiating with the health care expenses.

Digital engagement, in-clinic engagement, feedback surveys, etc. are some of the tools used to engage the patient in his/her own health care.

Why is patient engagement important?

In a patient’s recovery journey, their mental stability and their trust in the healthcare providers play a very influential role. Thus, engaging with the patient constantly and building a constructive and empathetic relationship helps the doctors/hospitals realize the goal of the treatment.

The Essential role of Patient engagement is to:

• Encourage the patient to take care of their health
• To motivate the patient to follow the instructions of the doctors for quick recovery, during treatment and after getting discharged from the hospital.
• Effective patient engagement solutions and systematic feedback loops help in reducing the number of visits to the hospital and subsequently cuts down the costs, clarifies doubts as well as reduces complications.

In other words, patient engagement is important to establish credibility, build trust and retain patients. Furthermore, Patient engagement also subsequently improves health outcomes, patient experience and reduces costs.

What Are the Benefits of Positive Patient Engagement?

Engaging the patient positively in their own health care increases their knowledge and understanding of the ailment, the underlying causes, the treatment, the outcomes and the costs involved.

It facilitates transparency between health care professionals and the patient. It also leads to improved health care support and involvement by the patient and their relatives.  

By actively engaging patients in their health care, the hospital or health care facility can build trusted relationships thereby establishing lifelong loyalty in them and their families. This in turn also helps the health care establishment build a reputation in the market. Besides, if the patient and their relatives are aware of the treatment and have a sense of trust about the healthcare providers, chances of relatives misbehaving or getting violent with the health care professionals are eliminated. Relatives of patients getting violent in case of complications during the treatment have become very common of late. Patient engagement, is thus, a great solution to prevent such incidents.  

Thus, Patient engagement helps health care professionals in a better understanding of the unique medical history and healthcare needs of individual patients. Patients are empowered to make informed decisions. They, thus, feel connected to the hospital or health care centers and are more likely to have positive overall experiences in healthcare.

How Patient Engagement Affects Patient Experience?

Engaging the patient in their own health care ensures a good experience with the health care professionals, better outcomes of the treatment and relaxes the patient as well. When the patient is prepared and well-informed about their health issue and treatment it helps them to have better experience in the process.

Higher patient engagement leads to better outcomes and a consequently better experience. Such patients are more likely to obtain overall wellness by practicing healthy behaviors. Furthermore, this also contributes to the patient’s experience with the medical or health care establishment.

Patient engagement helps patients in self-assessment of their condition, helps in the mental preparation of the treatment and better aftercare by the patient themselves which makes the entire health care experience a comfortable and positive one for the patient.

With patients accepting their responsibility in health care, they experience satisfaction for the value-based care as they get customized treatment for their specific needs.

Effective patient engagement solutions also enable patients to have a positive experience during interactions with the health care system, doctors, nurses, and staff in hospitals, physician practices, and other health care facilities including treatment, health plans.

The health care facility, on the other hand, can provide patient-centric care once they learn about the patient’s needs and experience. It also helps learn if the patient has been provided with quality health care or if there is a need for improvement.

How Nth Sense in Working to Help Doctors Provide Positive Patient Engagement

Nth Sense is focused on helping health care facilities in connecting, engaging and retaining patients. We are working towards making health care more patient-centric through positive patient engagement. To achieve this, we help doctors with various patient engagement solutions such as Digital Engagement, In-Clinic Engagement, Feedback Surveys and Analysed Reports on Patient Feedback. The Nth Sense aims to make healthcare in India more patient-centric and inclusive by empowering doctors, hospitals/clinics and other healthcare providers at the grass-root level with robust patient engagement solutions that help ensure positive patient engagement and patient experience.  

Connect with the Nth Sense and unravel the potential of positive patient engagement today!