Four Game-Changing
Strategies for Transforming
the Patient Experience
Reaching and engaging your
population is one of the most
challenging components of
patient-centered care. Despite
the challenges, there are
compelling reasons to strive
for engagement.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
2
A growing body of evidence
shows that actively engaged
patients experience higher
quality care and incur lower
costs.1
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
Patient engagement has been defined
in a variety of ways. Most now agree
on this definition: The understanding
of one’s role in the care process and
having the knowledge, skill, and
confidence to manage one’s health
and health care and engaging in
resulting behaviors such as obtaining
preventive care or participating in
regular physical exercise.2
3
To transform the patient experience into one that will lead to better outcomes, higher quality, and
lower costs, providers need to put the patient at the center of care. By educating and inspiring patients
to act, providers can make a positive difference in patient behavior that occurs outside the clinic.
Educated patients get multiple benefits from being engaged with their health and health care.
++ Increased
patient
satisfaction
By putting emphasis
on a patient’s care
experience, hospitals see
improvements in their
patient satisfaction survey
data.3
++ Fewer
care gaps
Engaged patients are
more likely to participate
in their care plans and get
help navigating health
and insurance settings.
++ Reduced
readmissions
Highly activated patients
reduce their hospital
readmissions, overnight
hospital stays, and
use of the emergency
department.4 Conversely,
patients who are less
activated are twice as
likely to have a 30-day
readmission.5
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
++ Improved
outcomes
Patients who are engaged
with their providers and
who understand and
adhere to their care plans
are proven to have better
health outcomes.
++ Enhanced
discharge
programs
81% of patients in a CMS
study said they were
most satisfied at the time
of hospital discharge
because they received
instructions.6
4
Achieving the goals of improved quality, better outcomes, and lower
costs means engaging patients with trusted, consistent, evidence-based
communication at every touchpoint on the care continuum:
++ Standardized
yet
personalized care
Evidence shows positive
associations between
patient experience and
clinical effectiveness that
appear consistent across a
range of disease areas and
populations.7
Educational outreach
opportunities include
wellness visits, chronic
care management, and
urgent care.
++ Care
coordination
It’s carried out by a
dedicated team that
shifts work away from
physicians and can bridge
care gaps by helping
patients navigate their
care, including education,
providers, and settings.
++ Online
++ Automated
communication
Provide educational
resources (self-care videos,
symptom checkers, drug
interaction checkers, afterhours contact information),
self-assessment
questionnaires, and
decision aids through
patient and marketing
portals, texts, and social
media.
messaging
Deliver real-time education
to your patients wherever
they are, whenever it’s
convenient for them to
interact with your practice,
in a cost-effective way.
Creating experiences that matter leads to engaged patients, which leads to outcomes that matter.
In addition, improved patient engagement and the resulting positive outcomes drive higher job satisfaction in
physicians. More satisfied doctors offer better and more thoughtful care, resulting in more satisfied patients and better
outcomes8, which keeps the care continuum flowing.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
5
Read about the
four game-changing
elements of a patient
engagement strategy
that will transform your
patients’ experiences. >
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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1
72% of survey
respondents said
patient and caregiver
education was the top
strategy deployed to
engage patients.9
Create standard care plans that
improve the patient experience.
Patient education is the foundation for building a successful patient engagement
strategy and has a major impact on patient experience and satisfaction. Don’t
leave this up to the whims of each clinician. Patients, their families, and clinicians
all benefit when each provider has a consistent body of educational material
to deliver at each visit. Patient education is even more powerful when it is
consistent throughout your enterprise, so that wherever and however your
patients interact with your practice, they’ll receive the same health information
every time.
Standard care plans in practice
A large health system, looking for ways to expand patient education through
existing platforms, came to Healthwise to explore their options. We mapped our
education to the organization’s care plans to be delivered through their MyChart
Bedside application.
Combined with existing Healthwise videos and patient instructions, patient
education now reaches across the organization’s populations to fill care gaps,
reduce readmissions, improve outcomes, and increase patient satisfaction.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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Building a personalized and standardized experience for every patient, using proven care
plans and education, ensures that all patients are reached and have valuable experiences at
every visit. You can train your staff to make the most of their interactions with patients, offering
personal support, education, and information relating to:
++ Treatment options.
++ Provider choices and locations and appropriate care levels.
++ Prescription drug information.
Standardized care plans offer:
When standardized
care is used, quality
increases, variation in
care plans decreases,
and costs decrease.10
++ Reduced errors.
++ Increased use of common language.
++ Improved communication.
++ Simplified work processes.
++ A user-friendly format.
++ Improved outcomes.
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And as the process of delivering standard care becomes more sophisticated, the care team can
look for data coming back from the patient. Patient response data or patient-generated data
can tell the care team if education and instructions have been opened and read. And more
importantly, patients become contributors to their care, including treatment options, medical
records, and short- and long-term care plans. This allows the care team to tailor care to the
unique needs of individual patients and create personalized care plans that lead to quality
outcomes, improved communication, and better and more user-friendly work processes.
Standardization of any process
of care through the use of
protocols and checklists can be
expected to achieve a reduction
in harmful events.10
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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Think of standardized care plans as a two-sided
coin—standard care plans aren’t effective without a
standard of education in the care plans. Engage your
patients with consistent, evidence-based education,
delivered in plain language. And receive response
data from your patients that makes them contributors
who inform your medical practice.
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2
Care coordination is defined as
a team “dedicated to working
with your patients to ensure
that their health needs are being
met and that the right person is
delivering the right care at the
right time.” 11
Create a care coordination team based on
a care team model.
Care coordination allows the organization of patient activities and the sharing of
information to all of the care team involved with a patient’s care. The care manager can
send patient education that answers questions the patient may be reluctant to ask, gives
greater understanding of symptoms, and explains options for treatment. The entire care
team has visibility into what was sent and opened by the patient.
Shifting to a care team model that includes more non-medical staff interacting with
patients means being able to reach patients in between visits with education and care.
It also means being able to identify and reach specific populations (e.g., high-spending,
low-utilization, high-risk, and chronic care) with education, treatment planning, benefit
management support, healthy behavior reminders, and utilization reporting.
To shift coordination tasks away from medical providers, your team needs to be
composed of medical and non-medical staff. Your entire multi-disciplinary team
can then share expertise, knowledge, and skill to solve the complex problems of
coordinating patient-centered care.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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Specialists on the care team can use their expertise to shift coordination tasks away
from physicians and engage patients by addressing behavioral changes and providing
administrative support.
Behavior Changes
More than one-quarter of health
care organizations said their case
manager had top responsibility
for patient engagement efforts.12
Nearly two-thirds said care
management is a top strategy
for engaging patients.12
Administrative Support
Providing evidence-based, engaging
educational resources
Helping patients to navigate providers
Helping to develop plain-language care/
treatment plans
Providing benefit management support
Motivating patients to follow care plans
Identifying specific populations and focusing
on those that are high-risk or that suffer from
chronic conditions
Identifying and helping to overcome
psychological, social, financial, and
environmental barriers to treatment and
engagement
Ensuring that electronic health records are
up-to-date
Following up with patients in between care
episodes
Facilitating communication between team
members
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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Think of a care coordination team as creating a path within
your organization’s workflow that moves some coordination
work away from physicians and still delivers coordinated
care at the right touchpoints to engage your patients. As a
result of the team’s efforts, information is exchanged, care
gaps are closed, and good health outcomes are delivered
to your patients.
68% of hospitals say they have
a care transition function.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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3
Web-based intervention
demonstrated a positive
and significant effect on
patient activation levels
of participants in an
intervention group.13
Go beyond traditional ways of reaching your
patients by embracing new media and online
resources.
Whether your patients are using texts, mobile apps, social media, or your portal, reaching
them where they are and when it’s convenient for them is key to getting and keeping them
engaged. Your education reaches them across all touchpoints and pushes them back to your
website so your patients trust and value the information you provide. They have no reason to
visit “Dr. Google.”
In order for people to come to you for the patient education you provide, it has to meet a
certain bar. Is it:
++ Evidence-based? The health information you provide must be accurate, up-to-date,
and from a trusted source.
About 50% of U.S.
hospitals and 40% of U.S.
physicians in ambulatory
practice own some
type of patient portal
technology.14
++ Unbiased? Your patient education needs to be impartial and free from corporate
affiliation and influence.
++ Easy to understand? Ensure that you don’t miss opportunities to provide the
education your patients seek. Use resources that are written in plain language so
your patients will understand the first time they read it.
++ Consistent? If the education you provide is consistent, it reinforces your patients’
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
total experience, no matter who they talk to, what follow-up instructions they
receive, or what information they get from your website.
14
Portals
The important elements of a successful portal are the ability of patients to request a service,
obtain information, and submit information requested by their provider. And it’s essential that
the portal be promoted and routinely used by the practice so patients know it’s there and see
it being used.
Portal usage is expected to grow significantly over the next few years, and it’s expected to
remain a primary stage for patient engagement.
Among patients who
don’t use online portals,
43%
56%
35%
of millennials access
health care portals via
a mobile device.15
of people ages
55 to 65 want to
access online health
information.15
didn’t even know their
provider offered one.15
Other important factors of portal adoption are provider
acceptance and promotion, and ease of use.16
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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64%
35%
2011
Texting and social media channels
2015
Nearly two-thirds
of Americans (64%)
own a smartphone,
up from 35% in
2011.17
62% of all smartphone
users have used their
phone in the past year
to look up information
about a health-related
condition.17
61% of consumer
respondents are
likely to trust
information posted
by providers via
social media, and
41% are likely
to share with
providers.18
90% of 18- to 24-yearolds would engage
in health activities
and trust health
information found via
social media, and 56%
of 45- to 64-yearolds would engage in
health activities.18
As smartphone growth is increasing in the U.S., so too is the
growth in texting and social media as channels to promote
health education, share information, and deliver automated
reminders.
Many social media tools are available for providers and health
systems. Tools such as social media platforms and blogs can be
used for organizational promotion, patient education, professional
networking, and public health programs. Having an active social media
presence allows practices to share information quickly in real time on everything from news,
medical tips, clinic capacity, local outbreaks, and technology. It lets the practice engage with
the public and get patient reactions by following feedback on sites. The practice can then use
the information to improve quality and foster relationships.
Think of online communication as a way to educate and connect with your patients 24 hours
a day with trusted, unbiased, consistent information that will bring them back to your practice
time and again to create a loyal patient base.
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4
Enhance your reach with automated and
consistent health content and messaging.
Automated content and messaging support the need to provide more patients with education
and care between office visits. It means keeping in contact with and reaching more of your
patients with basics like appointment reminders and medicine schedules, and with more
sophisticated education like patient instructions, education about their conditions, event
information, and remote monitoring. Its name may sound impersonal, but automated
messaging is personal and relevant. It provides timely contact delivered to the device of each
patient’s choosing. It enhances the patient experience away from the clinical setting.
In a randomized study, subscribers who received a reminder were twice as likely to report that
they were vaccinated against influenza. And 99% of them said they would recommend the
service to a friend.19
In addition, subscribers reported that:
++ The service gave them useful health information.
++ It helped initiate conversations with their health care provider.
++ It reminded them of important appointments and milestones.
++ It helped provide access to services and resources.
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The primary benefit of an automated messaging program is to increase patient engagement
by providing more patients with the support they need to manage their health. The basics of
a successful structure are:
++ Messaging programs that fit with your care needs and are easy to administer.
++ Tools to support patients’ pre- and post-appointment needs, providing patients with
education ahead of their appointment that helps them be better prepared and then
following up with prescription reminders so these tools can easily become part of
your patient’s routine.
++ Online documentation of interactions with patients, so both you and your patient
have well-documented health records.
The benefits are:
++ You reach more of your patients outside the clinical setting at critical times—
immediately before and after visits—enhancing their experience with information
and education.
A successful automated service texts
pregnant women 3 times a week through
their baby’s first year with messages aimed
at nutrition, prenatal care, immunizations,
milestones, and more. The messages are
tailored to each woman based on her due
date or her baby’s date of birth. Launched
in early 2010, the service had enrolled
more than 930,000 women by 2014.19
++ You make relevant contact using patient education that fills information gaps with
trusted, evidence-based information.
++ Your patients will get consistent education no matter where they touch your
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
organization.
18
Numerous studies show positive
effects of text messaging on selfmanagement and behavior changes
for several conditions as well as on
treatment compliance, medication
adherence, and appointment
attendance.20
Think of automated messaging as personal interactions with your staff that can be opened at
any time that’s convenient for your patient and that arrive via whatever portal, smartphone,
or tablet that the patient wants. Because your patients can open the information when and
where it’s convenient for them, they’re more likely to be engaged.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
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Summary
For a patient engagement strategy that reaches your population at every touchpoint,
improves outcomes, closes care gaps, and increases satisfaction, leverage these four elements
to attract and retain an engaged patient base:
A standardized,
yet personalized,
care plan that
ensures that all your
patients have a
valuable experience
with your practice
every time they
visit.
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
A dedicated care
team that addresses
specific populations
with education
tailored for those
patients.
The ability to reach
more people in
different ways by
embracing new
media and online
resources.
Consistent
health content
and automated
messaging that
inspires patients
to act on the
information that
they receive.
20
Resources
1.http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/
reports/issue_b riefs/2013/rwjf404446
2.http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/
32/2/207.abstract
3.http://www.ihi.org/education/InPersonTraining/
thepatientexperience/Pages/default.aspx
4.http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/
32/2/207.full.pdf+html
5.http://healthleadersmedia.com/page-1/
QUA-320048/Meeting-the-Challengeof-Patient-Engagement
6.http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/
hospital-discharge-instructions-boostpatient-satisfaction/2011-06-06
7.http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/3/1/
e001570.full
8.http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/
accountable-care-organizations/the-futureof-healthcare-patient-engagement-as-asuccess-strategy-for-acos.html
9.www.hin.com/library/
registerPatientEngagement2015.html
Healthwise | Four Game-Changing Strategies for Transforming the Patient Experience
10.http://www.acog.org/Resources-And-Publications/
Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-PatientSafety-and-Quality-Improvement/ClinicalGuidelines-and-Standardization-of-Practiceto-Improve-Outcomes
11.http://familiesusa.org/sites/default/files/
product_documents/Care-Coordination.pdf
12.http://www.hin.com/library/
registerPatientEngagement2015.html
13.http://www.jmir.org/2012/1/e32/
14.http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/patientportal-biz-big-money
15.http://www.nextech.com/blog/how-to-achievepatient-engagement-with-a-patient-portal
16.http://www.jmir.org/2015/6/e148/
17.http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/01/ussmartphone-use-in-2015/
18.http://pwchealth.com/cgi-local/hregister.cgi/reg/
health-care-social-media-report.pdf
19.https://partners.text4baby.org/index.php/news
20.http://www.hrsa.gov/healthit/txt4tots/
environmentalscan.pdf
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