Measuring the impact of a digital education program and the benefits of patient engagement can be challenging. Statistics such as open and click-through rates indicate how patients are interacting with digital messaging and help prove the value of a patient engagement solution. But how do you know whether your patients take actions based on what they’re learning from those messages?
Ongoing patient-reported feedback and data about digital interactions provide a deeper understanding of where your patients are on their care journey—and what they need.
Which patients need more attention?
Not surprisingly, high engagement with digital healthcare communications correlates with lower health risks and better patient outcomes. Identifying people who are not engaging with the messages they’re receiving can help pinpoint those who need increased support and enable early intervention.
Where do patients need more education?
Identifying the links that generate the most clicks will tell you which subjects resonate most with your patients. It can also provide insight about areas in which additional information and reinforcement is needed.
Surveys, quizzes, polls and two-way digital interactions provide further insight into what your patient population understands or where more information is required.
How to make patient engagement happen for your hospital
What is the impact on clinical metrics?
Ultimately, the goal is to use patient engagement outreach to drive behavior change and positively impact clinical metrics. Looking downstream at care and cost metrics allows us to see this effect. For example, one Midwest hospital system recognized that they had an issue with day-of-surgery cancellations. They also determined that 64% of these cancellations had preventable causes. By sending pre-op messaging with timely education—such as required paperwork and infection-control, NPO and medication instructions—the hospital reduced same-day cancellations by 64.7%, saving thousands of dollars with every avoided cancellation.
When are patients reaching out?
Secure, two-way messaging in digital communications provides an easy way for patients to ask questions and for providers to respond to their individual concerns. Data that shows when patients use secure messaging can help identify topics that need more emphasis and when, during the care journey, patients need more education and support.
Using data analysis to understand where there might be gaps in care, what topics interest patients the most and the impact of changing patient behaviors on care metrics can help providers refine their digital messages to best meet their patients’ needs. This information can also be used to make other patient-communication channels—office visits, classes and phone triage—more efficient and effective.
Learn more about how implementing a patient engagement framework can help hospitals impact clinical metrics, work more efficiently and create an inspiring patient experience.
