Improving Patient Engagement for Proactive Chronic Disease Management

Amol Shete
April 30, 2024
1:47 pm
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What would be your best bet to manage chronic patients?

In this digital world driven by distraction, the rise of chronic conditions in the aging population is demanding the healthcare industry find a way for proactive chronic disease management.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every six in ten Americans are living with at least one chronic condition such as diabetes, arthritis, hypertension, or heart disease. These conditions limit an individual from performing day-to-day activities, and they are also leading the charts in driving healthcare costs.

You can see why it is important to manage chronic diseases, and to do that, what will be your best bet?

Well, the new trend of holistic care with digital solutions like chronic care management software gave the healthcare industry a new tool in the form of patient engagement. The best way to manage chronic conditions lies in the nature of care; rather than opting for reactive strategies, a proactive patient-centric approach in healthcare can significantly improve the health conditions of chronically ill patients.

So, if you are looking for a way to increase patient engagement and proactively manage chronic disease in your patient population, then this is just for you! Read along.

The Role of Patient Engagement in Proactive Management

Chronic diseases are called chronic conditions for a reason! As most chronic diseases do not fix themselves and are generally not cured completely, the way out of this for patients is to engage themselves with their care and encourage them to participate in their care activities proactively.

When you actively engage patients in their care management activities, it has a psychological effect that instills a sense of trust in the care team, and the provider gets a complete picture of patient health. Their active participation also empowers providers to proactively take part in their care activities, which facilitates better communication and curation of personalized care plans.

Improved patient engagement has a direct impact on patient health as it increases treatment adherence and contributes to improved health outcomes.

The Cost of Disengagement

While everyone knows the importance of high patient engagement, it slightly shadows the consequences it can have with lower patient engagement.

If you ask a healthcare professional, they would probably emphasize the consequences of poor patient engagement, leading to poor medication adherence and increased hospital readmissions, ultimately leading to poor patient health outcomes. Monetarily, lower patient engagement leads to lower medication adherence in almost 40-50% of the patient population. This alone costs the healthcare industry around $100 billion in unnecessary medical costs.

Poor patient engagement has also disrupted the preventive care practice. A study reveals that 80% of Americans delay or skip preventive care, further increasing healthcare costs.

However, the introduction of chronic care management programs does help in reducing healthcare costs by 30% with the use of robust chronic care management software. Since patient engagement has a psychological effect on the patient, higher patient engagement can have lucrative benefits, and poor patient engagement can have adverse effects on patient health.

Despite the fact that we need robust chronic care management software for higher patient engagement, it would mean nothing if the right strategies were not implemented.

Continue reading to know the right strategies for higher patient engagement.

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Strategies for Improving Patient Engagement

Despite being such a rewarding initiative for improving patient outcomes, increasing patient engagement is a challenge. However, with a specially curated approach, you can improve patient engagement effectively in your digital healthcare landscape. To help you improve patient engagement, here are some of the best tried and tested strategies that you can utilize:

1. Utilizing Technology

Technology has brought healthcare services to our fingertips, and providers have been utilizing it to provide effective and instant care services for quite a while now. This same technology can be used to engage patients effectively with their care. Mobile apps that give patients more control of their health can easily schedule, reschedule, or cancel appointments. Along with that, patients can also use educational resources available in the software to make them more aware and awake about their health.

Furthermore, with telehealth integration with the CCM software, patients can constantly stay in touch with their care providers. This way, both patients and providers can use proactive approaches to keep the patients engaged with their care delivery.

2. Enhancing Communication Channels

Virtual care highly depends on continuous and effective communication. This way, providers can proactively communicate and ensure a smooth flow of chronic care management. Communication features like ‘secure messaging’ enable providers and patients to connect instantly with each other in case of emergencies and any doubts.

As much as communication plays a vital role in patient engagement, accessibility of information also contributes to driving more engagement. This is achieved through patient portals that the patient can access through the chronic care management software. This instills transparency and gives patients more control of their healthcare, which has been considered crucial for higher patient engagement by many providers.

3. Personalized Care Plans

One of the best ways to achieve higher patient engagement for patients suffering from chronic conditions is personalized care management. Since every patient is different and reacts to a defined care plan in a different way, providers need to tailor treatment plans specific to individual needs.

For curating personalized care plans, various factors like lifestyle, preferences, and others are considered. This encourages providers and patients to actively participate in the process of tailoring care plans, which have a high chance of deriving better patient outcomes quicker.

4. Continuous Monitoring

Earlier, the convenience factor for continuous monitoring was highly dependent on the physical availability of the patient in a healthcare facility. However, curatively finding a way around it, with remote patient monitoring, patients can take a reading of their health vitals and transmit them to the provider.

With the use of RPM devices, patients can be easily involved in their care practice and be updated about their health. Such initiatives not only bring convenience in consultation but also engage the patient in their care delivery, increasing their adherence to treatment plans. Moreover, continuous monitoring also helps in the early detection of deteriorating health conditions, and timely intervention in the care plan is made possible.

5. Shared Decision Making

One of the best strategies used by doctors all around the world to increase patient engagement is keeping patient preferences and choices in check. For patients with chronic conditions, when you consider their preferences and choices, the chances of patients adhering more to the dedicated care plans increase, directly increasing patient engagement.

Moreover, through shared decision making by considering the choices of patients, they can be effectively engaged in their care activities and work on improving their health condition.

Cultivating a Supporting Healthcare Ecosystem

People suffering from chronic conditions struggle with performing normal day-to-day activities. That is why it is important for you to cultivate a supportive ecosystem and care delivery that keeps them engaged with their care.

To cultivate such an inclusive ecosystem, coordinate with healthcare providers and ensure that all of them are on the same page, working together towards a common goal. Along with that, involve the patient’s family members in the care process as they can help providers in shared decision making about their health.

Overcoming Barriers to Patient Engagement

Some of the most common barriers to patient engagement in chronic disease management are as follows:

Communication Gaps: Ineffective communication between the care team members and patients can lead to poor patient engagement. Providers should overcome some common challenges like language barriers and cultural differences and explain everything to the patients to keep them engaged with their health.

Digital Divide: Understand that not everyone is comfortable using technology. Mobile apps and telehealth platforms are effective for managing chronic conditions, but patients not comfortable using technology can lead to poor medication adherence and, ultimately, less engagement. The best way to overcome this barrier is to train and educate patients about technology by explaining its benefits.

Health Literacy: Another barrier to CCM patient engagement is the poor rate of health literacy in the patient population. Most of the time, it is observed that patients are unaware of their conditions and the consequences they can have. Even for proactive chronic disease management, educating patients about their conditions and a way to overcome them can lead to better patient engagement and improved health outcomes.

Measuring and Assessing Patient Engagement

The leverage you have while using chronic care management software is that you can easily measure and assess the level of patient engagement in your care practice. Factors like provider response time, analyzing appointment attendance, and medication adherence of the patient can give you a clear idea of how well you are able to engage your patient in their healthcare.

Another quantitative method that can help you assess your patient engagement levels is taking patient feedback and satisfaction surveys. This way, it gives you a deeper understanding of how different patients engage with their health and what you can do to improve patient engagement.

Conclusion

Proactive chronic disease management and CCM patient engagement have a psychological impact on the patient, which is one of the most significant factors that lead to better patient outcomes. However, driving better patient engagement is a collaborative effort and is a continuous learning process.

Understand your patients and their chronic condition in a better way. This will help you instill a patient-centric approach in your care practice, which will solve most of the problems related to increasing CCM patient engagement.

However, with new technologies and advancements in the healthcare industry, chronic disease management is continuously evolving. Also, every patient engages with their healthcare in different ways, so sticking to a one-size-fits-all approach to keep the patient engaged will not always work. As said earlier, driving higher patient engagement is a collaborative effort, especially when dealing with chronically ill patients. Use all the necessary tools that you have and add that human touch to the patient-centric approach to make healthcare easy and affordable for everyone.

Frequently Asked Question’s

1. Why is patient engagement crucial for proactive chronic disease management?

Patient engagement is crucial for proactive chronic disease management because the more the patient is engaged with their healthcare activities, the more likely they are to adhere to the treatment, participate in shared decision making, and achieve expected healthcare outcomes. That is why 70% of the providers prioritize patient engagement in care delivery.

2. What strategies can healthcare providers use to enhance patient engagement in chronic disease management?

Here are some of the strategies to improve CCM Patient Engagement that you can follow:

Interactive and Comprehensive Patient Portal
Build Trust Relationship
Engaging Education Material
Mobile Health App
Remote Monitoring

3. How does a patient-centric approach contribute to better outcomes in healthcare?

Patient-centric is a crucial part of chronic disease management, which helps in creating personalized care plans and medication. Considering patients’ needs and preferences to help them improve their lifestyle contributes directly to improved health outcomes.

4. How can technology-enabled tools enhance patient involvement in chronic disease management?

Technology-enabled tools like patient portals, remote monitoring, and mobile applications enhance chronic disease management by allowing patients to take control of their health and encouraging them to be proactive and involved in shared decision making.

5. What metrics are used to evaluate the success of patient engagement in chronic disease management?

Patient engagement success is measured by Patient Activation Measure (PAM). Some of the key metrics in this are:

Clinical Outcomes
Hospital Readmission and Emergency Visits
Medication Adherence
Preventive Care
Patient Satisfaction

6. How can personalized care plans promote patient involvement in healthcare decisions?

Personalized care plans encourage patients to actively take part in creating their care plan and shared decision making.

7. How can I address social determinants of health to improve patient engagement?

Social determinants of health to improve patient engagement can be addressed by patient education, building trusting patient-provider relationships, patient social security, and urban development.