How do you engage patients to optimize their health outcomes in population health initiatives?
How do you engage patients to optimize their health outcomes in population health initiatives?
Patients are essential partners in our population health initiatives. If our patients are engaged and willing to actively participate in improving their health, we are collectively more likely to achieve our health and quality outcomes. How have you successfully educated and motivated your patients to improve their healthcare behaviors and self-management? How have you influenced patients to change their healthcare utilization habits e.g. to seek care at lower acuity sites e.g. ambulatory centers as opposed to the Emergency Department. How have you motivated patients to complete their appropriate screening tests?
The need to identify the organizational goal or objective is the most important issue. Perhaps the best way to do it is to assure the effectiveness of a well done patient education plan to the community the institution serves. A plan that contemplates: in house conferences, one to one follow up at home, home visits, focus groups, community health conferences. Concepts and themes of education depending of the most common diseases or those with high volume. Out patient educational unit or center, well established cooperative programs with the public health system, cooperation with tv network, web site, chat on line programs, among others.
Currently, most of our patient education happens when the patient comes to the office for a visit. There are opportunities for patients to attend diabetes classes if they’ve been diagnosed as a diabetic. We also have care mangers that provide patient education. In addition there are many community health fairs and we have a team called “BP ambassadors” that attend the health fairs and set up tables at stores, malls, or health fairs to provide checking of BP but also patient education. I believe we have opportunities to improve how we’re providing patient education.
In our publically funded health care system, elective surgery may be delayed until the patient’s health status is optimized. Certainly in this context, patients are very motivated / engaged to actively participate in improving their health.