Delivering a seamless and personalized experience for patients is a vital aspect of advancing value-based care. This is because it can lead to increased engagement, lower healthcare costs, and improved clinical outcomes.
With more than 70% of patients expressing their desire to receive care that is personalized to their unique health concerns and needs, it’s not always easy for care teams to achieve. In fact, 55% of providers feel time constraints often keep them from delivering a more tailored experience. This is true for both office and virtual care visits. While healthcare providers may not ultimately gain more time with patients within any one visit, we describe a few techniques that can help personalize the patient experience in any setting.
The goal to helping patients better manage their health conditions can often succeed if they feel empowered in their healthcare decisions. Taking a patient-centered approach within care visits can achieve this objective.
In fact, promoting it in communication can often lead to “increased patient satisfaction, improved patient-provider communication, and enhanced patient well-being,” according to Patient-Centered Care in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. This is because this technique can include “building rapport, defining the patient’s agenda, using open-ended questions, and eliciting the patient’s perspective,” according to a recent study.
Some ways to practice this approach according to this study include:
When providers and care teams take the time to learn more about their patients and remember specific details about them, it makes them feel appreciated. Visits that offer this type of communication have patients reporting that they enjoy “feeling heard, having time to ask questions, being included in decision making, and feeling their concerns were addressed,” according to this Personalized Care study.
Building upon that approach, personalizing the patient experience can include consistently communicating with patients in between traditional office visits to ensure their specific care needs are met.
Chronic Care Management and Principal Care Management programs achieve this by effectively engaging with patients through consistent outreach.
Each interaction can include care teams answering their questions, encouraging them in their health journey, and offering accountability about their health goals when needed. Consequently, the care team builds a stronger connection with patients, leading them to actively participate in their health journey and adhere to their care plans.
This type of consistent outreach allows care teams to truly get to know them, which offers them opportunities to suggest further recommendations based on what patients may be facing during that time. These recommendations can ultimately effect positive change in the patient’s health. This is because assisting them in their health journey can also support their social determinants of health.
Wellbox has found that covering the following topics as needed can be helpful when reaching out to patients each month:
If your practice does not currently have the staff to fulfill this type of outreach, partnering with an experienced virtual care provider may be beneficial. This way, they act as a seamless extension of your organization while offering a personalized patient experience on your behalf.
Despite wanting to create a more individual experience for their patients, more than “40% of providers say they have little insight into aftercare or patient adherence to care plans,” according to a report from Beyond Intervention commissioned by Abbott. This can be detrimental since, “providers’ actions are guided by the data they have available to them at any given time and the patient experience is defined by how providers gather, integrate and interpret those data.”
Implementing technology solutions that can help providers better identify patient needs and make recommendations based on those concerns can help.
For example, Remote Patient Monitoring can grant providers access to relevant patient data, which can offer a more comprehensive view of their health progress. This can then lead to better-informed, personalized visits and patients receiving better care because of it.
Additionally, access to this timely and consistent data allows care teams to detect health concerns and trends earlier to intervene sooner on the patients’ behalf. It also empowers patients in their self-management, which could ultimately improve clinical outcomes.
Finally, increased access to this data can allow care teams to personalize their communication with patients outside of the office visit in the form of text reminders, voice mail messages, and patient portals. This tailored communication can encourage patient participation and compliance.
While it may not often feel possible to adapt care delivery to exceed patients’ expectations, the effort can prove to be beneficial. Taking the time to include these techniques in your visits may help elevate the patient experience and close gaps in care.
If you would like to learn more about Wellbox and how we personalize the patient experience for our partners, contact us today!
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