How many distractions will you be faced with today?

Our lives are filled with interruptions, which make getting and keeping someone’s attention harder than ever. It’s commonly said that U.S. adults are barraged with an average of 5,000+ advertisements and brand exposures every day. Only 12 of these actually make an impression.

So how do we slow the rapid-fire beat of distraction in patients’ everyday lives to truly engage them in their health?

Patients often face several health conditions at the same time. When speaking with their healthcare providers however, they may only mention the reason for that particular appointment and fail to bring up other health concerns that they consider to be unrelated.

This leaves you, as the healthcare provider, without the full picture of your patient’s overall health. Even with access to a patient’s electronic health record, there may be significant gaps. 

Understanding and being able to track your patients’ health-related concerns and questions is an important step toward providing better quality care. Thankfully, technology makes it easier to discover what’s happening in patients’ lives beyond the doctor’s office and hospital walls.

There are many solutions out there that engage patients at different times in the care journey. At UbiCare, we have always maintained that setting patient expectations earlier in the care episode is better to improve patient outcomes.

Research supports this, as well. In a Gallup study of pre-surgery patients who received education to set expectations, researchers found that going into surgery with a good idea of what’s coming afterwards had the biggest impact on patient satisfaction.