Patient engagement is the process of healthcare providers and patients working together to improve health outcomes. The more a patient engages in their treatment process, the healthier that patient becomes. Simply put, better educated patients make better decisions and choices, which in turn lead to healthier outcomes and reduced overall healthcare costs.
Why Is Healthcare Making Patient Engagement a Priority in 2016?
Government incentives are helping contribute to the prioritization of new patient engagement initiatives. In 2011, the U.S. government started incentive programs to promote the wide-scale adoption of electronic health records (EHR).
The EHR Incentive Programs were developed to encourage eligible professionals and hospitals to adopt, implement, upgrade and demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology. This program has been both a “carrot and a stick” for providers and professionals, meaning that reimbursements are paid for proving meaningful use of the technology and fines are levied by not using the technology. Engaging the patient by providing them electronic access to their health information and patient-specific education is included in stage 2 of this government incentive program.
“72% indicated patient engagement, satisfaction and quality of care would most impact their organization over the next two years,” according to the 26th Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey (infographic below).
What Is Technology’s Role in Patient Engagement?
While the patient is in the hospital, they are a captive audience. Providing the patient a mobile device to access their health information online and pushing content to that device will educate the patient on their condition and treatment plan. This in turn will help hospitals meet the requirement for patient engagement. Mobile devices not only help hospitals satisfy program requirements but also improve overall patient experiences and satisfaction.
However, sharing hospital-owned devices with patients means each device needs to be quickly wiped of all patient data and re-provisioned for the next patient. Healthcare organizations cannot rely on caregivers to perform this function. They are in business of treating patients—not managing devices.
VMware Healthcare Solutions
To make this process low-touch and fast for care providers, healthcare organizations just need the right technology. The new VMware Patient Engagement Design Guide for Healthcare outlines how healthcare IT can streamline the deployment process for shared devices at hospitals.
[Get the VMware Patient Engagement Design Guide for Healthcare.]
VMware continues to transform the cost, quality and delivery of patient care with new and innovative solutions for healthcare. Learn more about VMware Healthcare Solutions, including the Digital Clinical Workspace and how to enable it with VMware Workspace ONE.
