By Dave Bennett

The benchmark for maximizing healthcare performance continues to shift in response to the ever-changing needs of the healthcare industry and patient expectations. Over the last two decades, the industry standard has evolved beyond the traditional Triple Aim (enhancing the patient experience, improving population health, and lowering costs) to factor in the clinician’s well-being, which was shortly followed by the importance of health equity. Additionally, another approach is beginning to play a larger role throughout the industry: collaboration between patients and healthcare providers. The key concepts behind patient- and family-centered collaborative care can be applied in any healthcare setting to enhance patient safety, reduce the risk of medical error, improve processes, and create a stronger healthcare culture of communication.

Patients want personalized care that addresses their needs, factors in their unique circumstances, and provides better outcomes. To achieve this, healthcare decision-makers are increasingly pursuing emerging technologies and facility designs that better enable staff to focus their time on patient care, quality communication, and understanding each patient’s specific health goals. Digital transformation is making it easier for patients and caregivers to engage with each other and work together to achieve higher-quality outcomes.

Among the most common focuses in modern healthcare is the desire to improve health outcomes via patient engagement. Modern patient engagement systems pair clinician and patient knowledge and provide various opportunities for education, engagement, and connection for better outcomes. Purposefully designed patient engagement systems ensure that the patient and clinician can collaborate each step of the way. This means that the caregiver and patient have connected enough for the clinician to understand where the patient is coming from. Enhancing patient centricity, clinicians are then able to clearly and compassionately offer options and recommendations to support the person – providing high-quality care by collaborating with the patient, as opposed to just providing care to the patient.

Providing a 'care with' approach to benefit outcomes
Impactful patient engagement is a 2-way street. Research has shown that the patient’s relationship with the clinician is a key ingredient in shared decision-making. Collaborative care where preferences are honored and understood by caregivers who are still encouraged to openly express their opinions, without pushing, is a crucial aspect of the “care with” approach. The integration of patient engagement technology in healthcare provides the ability to communicate with ease and places an emphasis on patient-centered care, empowerment, and shared decision-making.

Patients who are actively engaged in their health and informed of their care journey see more improvement than passive participants. Patient engagement systems aim to boost patient participation by leveraging the healing potential of collaboration, communication, and empowerment. For example, an Interactive Patient Care System (IPS) can integrate with in-room Smart television technology and existing HIT applications to connect patients and providers throughout the recovery process.

Comprehensive communication is achieved through cost-effective integrations that create a communication hub between an IPS and existing HIT applications, which offers the ability to easily share educational materials with patients and improve collaborative feedback tools. Providing credible and professionally created patient education materials in a variety of formats during the health journey addresses care information along with health literacy. The educational details can inform, offer insights to enhance outcomes and reduce avoidable readmission or help with the ongoing self-management of a chronic condition, and help guide patients through shared decision-making. This all contributes to building a patient’s self-efficacy and confidence while enhancing their trust, health literacy, and engagement.

Patients must be active participants who connect & collaborate
When done right, digital transformation makes care delivery more collaborative for all patients and reduces non-clinical tasks for clinicians. At its core, an IPS leverages the patient’s television infrastructure to create a data-driven communication hub for customized education, entertainment, and empowerment. It takes a familiar interface – the TV remote control in the form of a pillow speaker that is connected to the nurse call system – and empowers patients to engage in their care, review educational lessons, take control of non-clinical tasks such as making a service request, and connect with their caregivers. Allowing patients to manage non-clinical aspects of their care not only increases operational efficiency of the facility but further boosts an internal locus of control with the patient. Creating a sense of control in what was an unfamiliar environment builds patient confidence in managing their health by collaborating with the care team.

Leveraging data-driven solutions to provide patients with an engagement roadmap during their initial admissions process increases the patient’s active involvement and ability to work with their caregivers to lower the length of their stay and improve safety. Digital transformations shaped by data-driven technology ensure patients are prepared with clear expectations and guided through a smoother journey. To make the care journey more efficient and patient-focused, advanced digital patient engagement systems integrate with other devices and tools such as EHRs to offer universal access and further connect facility-wide. From infusion centers to emergency departments and even beyond the walls of the facility, the technology works to keep patients and providers seamlessly connected.

Following the initial admissions process, in-room digital whiteboards offer patients updated and personalized insights on their discharge status, care journey, and daily schedules. The whiteboard proactively shares information and encouragement on the ways they can work toward returning home. Upon gaining access to their health information and reviewing the details, patients are empowered to make more informed decisions about the kind of care they would like to receive during and after hospital admission. There are also opportunities for patients to provide input about their hospital stay, from providing real-time feedback about their clinicians to selecting the language interface on their television to inputting content for display on a whiteboard or digital door sign. This provides a sense of being heard and participating in their care, fostering collaboration between patients and staff.

Find the right connection to enhance outcomes
Evidence suggests that modern patient engagement solutions best assist in tailoring care to the unique needs and preferences of each patient. These data-driven solutions open the door to an enhanced patient experience with customizable educational materials, easy communication methods, collaboration tools, and patient independence through meal ordering and environmental controls.

Transforming healthcare ecosystems requires a trusted end-to-end service provider to be equipped in delivering value to patients. A partner with a secure and universal patient engagement system will help healthcare teams seamlessly collaborate with patients and families. With a focus on the patient, digital transformation is accelerating care and ensuring it becomes a 2-way street that leads to better outcomes and experiences.

About the author: Dave Bennett is the CEO of pCare. His visionary approach to patient engagement, digital and mobile technologies, and IT integration ensure continuous innovation of the #1-KLAS ranked pCare platform and a company culture dedicated to delighting customers. Prior to joining pCare, Dave served in a variety of executive roles at ViiMed, GetWellNetwork and StayWell. Dave holds a CISM certificate from ISACA and is an active member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).