Many healthcare practices struggle to engage their customers and convince them to participate in their care plans. It doesn’t matter how good your expertise, experience, and medical procedures are if your patients struggle to understand them and fail to follow a treatment plan.

That’s why many medical offices and hospitals work with third-party consultants to improve their patient engagement. Here are a few tips on how to do it.

→ Keep Patient Education Simple

After you’ve provided medical services to your patients, it’s up to them to follow the treatment plan. The reality is that poor compliance leads to worse outcomes, and it appears that many patients struggle to follow the plan.

The reasons behind this are numerous. However, educating your patients about their diagnosis, explaining why their treatment plan is the way it is, and confirming they understand those aspects can help improve their engagement. Keeping this information simple is essential, as it increases their motivation to put in the effort.

→ Be Specific

Giving vague recommendations about a patient’s health usually doesn’t lead to desired results. For instance, suggesting that they can benefit from losing weight won’t be as good as referring them to a specific nutritionist who can craft a personalized nutrition plan that will allow them to lose weight every week.

That’s why you need to be specific and establish clear communication with your patients from the beginning of treatment.

→ Include Your Patients in Setting Goals and Making Decisions

An effective way to engage your patients is to create their treatment plans and goals with them. This process is called shared decision-making, and clinicians report great success with this practice. It can reduce readmission rates and improve health outcomes.

Patients are interested in their health, and including them in the decision can improve their engagement. You are still an expert, but you may propose several treatment options, talk about what you would choose and why that may be the best option, and ask for their input. This approach is much better than the “all-knowing, do what I say without questioning” attitude.

The more specific and personal the goals are, the more likely the patient will follow their recovery plan to achieve them.

→ Supporting Patients Outside the Office

You need to provide communication channels to support your patients outside the office. That can include text messages, phone calls, video calls, messages on a digital platform, medication adherence apps, and other tools.
Keeping the communication channels open allows you to closely follow your patients’ progress and adjust therapy if needed. You can use these tools to ensure they take their medications, receive primary care, and follow other parts of their treatment program.

I Need Help to Engage Patients

If you are looking for a third-party specialist to help you engage your patients, Peregrine Healthcare is the perfect option. We offer a range of services that can help you ensure your patients are following their treatment plan and reaching their goals. Go to this page to see the services we offer.