What is patient engagement in healthcare, and why does it matter?

What is patient engagement in healthcare?

Patient engagement is the interaction between patients and healthcare providers that empowers patients to be informed and make decisions about their health. It may be more accurate to think of patient engagement not as a separate phenomenon but as the result of how patients communicate and collaborate with clinical professionals.

That means that patient engagement is not just about what patients do – it’s also about what clinicians do.

High rates of engagement require patients to play an active role in managing their health, but they also require providers to be ready to respond to patient activation with education, support, and actionable changes.

Most discussions about patient engagement in healthcare focus on how to encourage patients to take part in the care journey. However, it’s equally important to find solutions that make it easier for healthcare professionals to communicate often – and, most importantly, commit to maintaining engagement.

Why does patient engagement matter?

Patient engagement in healthcare is far more than beneficial – it’s necessary, at least for healthcare systems operating off limited budgets (hint: that’s all of them). A lack of patient engagement costs healthcare practices billions of dollars in lost revenue and can also take a toll on health workers.

As healthcare organizations worldwide feel the pressure of managing costs while improving the quality of care they provide, it’s easy to feel frustrated or even limited by the need to bolster engagement. But, the truth is that when patients have the tools they need to play a role in making healthcare decisions, they can shoulder some of the burden traditionally placed on healthcare systems.

Let’s explore some factors that can impact patient engagement levels for better or worse.

Health Outcomes

Research has demonstrated time and time again that activated (or engaged) patients are happier, healthier patients. High engagement levels are associated with improved quality of care, reduced symptoms, better health outcomes, and better treatment adherence.

In other words, engaged patients are more likely to do what they need to in order to ensure that the care given to them leads to better health outcomes. They’re more likely to take medications as prescribed, for instance, and perform health-improving behaviors like exercising, getting good sleep, and eating a balanced diet.

Compliance

Highly engaged patients are also more likely to adhere to the treatment process healthcare professionals have laid out for them.

Getting patients to comply with treatment recommendations is a necessary part of discovering how to improve the quality of care you provide. How can you know what works if your patients haven’t given your solutions a fair chance?

Beyond this, though, noncompliance can also pose other risks, including a jump in the cost of care over time. Core components of treatment compliance – motivation, cohesion, commitment, and empowerment – are all tied in with patient engagement.

Burden of Cost

Studies have shown over the years that patients with the lowest activation rates tend to have the highest healthcare costs, and vice versa.

Patients who aren’t engaged are more likely to visit the emergency room or hospital, and their care needs will likely last longer than those who are activated. All of these factors can contribute to an increase in the burden of the cost of care for healthcare systems.

Patient Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy is all about feeling capable of managing one’s health independently. In healthcare, we can think of self-efficacy as having the confidence and abilities required to take steps toward achieving treatment goals.

Since supporting self-management in patients with chronic or long-term conditions is a key part of high-quality care, it’s also essential to build a sense of self-efficacy. Engaging patients throughout the treatment process can help providers achieve this.

Satisfaction Levels for All Stakeholders

More engaged patients are curious, interested, and often more satisfied with their healthcare experiences. That means that they, in turn, can better interact with healthcare professionals in positive and productive ways.

Working with eager and activated patients can be rewarding for health workers, who may also notice an uptick in their satisfaction rates.

Patient Engagement in Behavioral Healthcare

It’s important to improve patient engagement in any healthcare system or practice, but it may be particularly crucial for mental and behavioral health professionals.

In this area of healthcare, building trust with patients is an absolute necessity; navigating some of a patient’s most personal and private challenges or experiences is only possible with an established relationship.

It’s clear that each instance of interaction – especially the first one – between a patient and a mental or behavioral healthcare provider matters.

Being more uncomfortable or vulnerable than usual is already a barrier to engagement in and of itself. Coupled with other obstacles, it can quickly push a patient to disconnect from care entirely. This can happen quite quickly, too; some 70% of people who drop out after seeking mental health care do so after their first or second visit.

Some of the most significant barriers to engagement in mental health services include systemic issues like overcrowded facilities, staffing shortages, and a lack of coordination across care systems.

However, another important reality is that many people who seek mental or behavioral healthcare do so at a time when compassion and understanding are needed more than ever. Far too often, these patients are treated in ways that build distrust and steer them away from seeking professional help.

There’s little to no social stigma associated with treating physical health conditions, but the same cannot be said for mental health disorders. So, providers in these areas face the additional challenge of engaging patients from the moment they begin receiving care.

What factors impact patient engagement in healthcare?

Several factors impact patient engagement in healthcare, influencing how patients interact with healthcare providers and manage their own health. These barriers will vary depending on the care setting and modality of care, e.g. inpatient mental health facility versus a large telehealth behavioral health group. These factors include:

• Access to information
• Communication
• Technology integration
• Patient education and health literacy
• Convenience and accessibility
• Trust and relationship with providers
• Customization and personalization
• Incentives and motivation
• Social and cultural factors
• Mental and emotional health

How to Improve Patient Engagement: Quick Tips

Boosting patient engagement in healthcare is a long-term effort. It’s not something that can be achieved overnight; instead, it requires deliberate systemic changes that place more power into the hands of patients. Below are some tips that can help you improve patient engagement within your healthcare organization.

• Foster a culture of engagement across the organization. Make engagement a top priority at each level of your healthcare system. Ask yourself how you can promote engagement at every level and within your teams of health workers and professionals. How can you ensure everyone on your team always treats people with dignity and respect?
• Make education a regular commitment. It may be wise to require regular training for mental health professionals on how to support best those living with mental illnesses, incorporate culturally sensitive language into care, share decision-making, and more.
• Invest in researching effective engagement. This can be as simple as investing time and effort into reviewing patient surveys to measure engagement levels or combing through data from parameters like patient turnover rates to track the impact of engagement efforts.
• Make treatment a team effort. When possible, create opportunities for individuals in your care to include family, friends, and other supporters in their treatment plans as supporters. Bring care to everyday life to empower patients to understand its role in their daily routines.
• Tailor treatment services to personal goals and interests. Don’t just listen to what patients say – truly, hear them. Then, incorporate what you hear and learn into your treatment plans.
• Give patients tools that support regular engagement. Remember that engagement is a two-way effort. Healthcare professionals must also share information and allow patients to interact with them as needed. Giving patients a simple way to get in touch or access health information is one of the many benefits of a patient engagement platform like Linear Health. Patients can interact with clinicians in real time using conversational messaging, view information from previous visits, and reflect on how they’ve grown over time.

Boost Patient Engagement with Linear Health

There may not be a quick fix for improving patient engagement in healthcare, but a digital patient engagement platform can address many barriers to engagement at once.

Liner Health is a patient engagement platform purpose-built for behavioral healthcare (psychiatry and therapy). It gives you the tools you need and not a list of features you don’t. Connect with patients and centralize information related to their care in one place so everyone involved has what they need to take action.

It’s time to start engaging with patients in a way that fits into their daily lifestyle. With an intuitive and user-friendly platform like Linear Health, achieving that goal is easier than ever. Ready to learn more? Contact us today to book a demo and see our platform in action.