Empowering Patients Though Increased Engagement

Patient engagement is a critical piece of healthcare. Today, more than 74 percent of healthcare executives have a desire to automate their patient engagement. As is often the case however, when it comes to automating engagement, these executives are unsure of how, or where, to begin.

One of the easiest places to start when adopting engagement tools is to introduce a HIPAA complaint, secure communications platform. A recent study found that patients often don’t recall treatments and recommendations given to them by their physicians. In fact, patients only recall approximately 20% of what is discussed with them. With engagement tools, among other things, patients are able to receive automated reminders about medication and follow-up visits that include necessary details that help them engage with their care plans. Having access to information about their healthcare in a digestible manner, leaves patients feeling empowered about their care.

Most patients who experience ongoing communication with their medical professionals and their office staff, tend to be more satisfied with their overall quality of care, follow advice from their physicians more, adhere to their prescribed treatment plans and are much more likely to make referrals to their family and friends.

A secure communications platform that is enterprise-grade and HIPAA compliant, are typically user friendly and similar to SMS text messaging. This has become very important in communicating in real-time as text messages have a 99% open rate, and 90% of them are read within three minutes after being received. Having access to a secure messaging tool allows care team members to eliminate the time-consuming phone calls of the past, while relaying information that is highly secure.  

Secure communication platforms allow patients, physicians and their care teams to have two-way dialogues without sacrificing privacy or security. Patients are no longer averse to using technology to help them manage their health, so it is important that healthcare organizations take steps to streamline their care and boost their engagement practices and patient satisfaction.

Read more about how secure communication platforms such as Vaporstream’s can better enable you to have efficient and secure communication between patients and providers in McKnight’s Senior Living’s latest article on, Using Secure Messaging to Improve Resident Engagement and Satisfaction.

Contributor: The Vaporstream Team