Patients are increasingly savvy using technology in all facets of their lives, and they expect healthcare providers to embrace health information technology to help them heal and lead healthier lifestyles. The industry is signaling a growing recognition in the value of empowering patients in their own care, which improves outcomes and lowers costs.

TeleHealth Services, a provider of interactive patient engagement solutions, is sharing research and perspectives based on almost two decades of experience in the interactive patient engagement marketplace with a new white paper, “Impacting Successful Outcomes: Optimizing Patient Interactive Education and Engagement.”

Despite widespread discussion about patient engagement, the industry lags behind the curve for automating patient education, the most critical aspect of patient engagement. Approximately 20 percent of the nation’s hospitals use an interactive engagement system for patient education. The other 80 percent still use paper handouts that may or may not be read or easily understood due to factors including language barriers and literacy rates.

Meeting patient expectations

Industry analyst firm Gartner published a report earlier this year that called interactive patient care an adolescent but rapidly evolving market. The report stated that the key to improving the patient experience is to engage patients and treat them like customers who have service and quality expectations that must be met to attract and retain their business. The TeleHealth Services white paper documents the reasons this is being done today by leading hospitals. It showcases the value of using interactive video as a more effective medium to teach patients and families, enhance comprehension and retention up to 50 percent, and improve patient satisfaction.

“Technology is enabling better quality patient education and patient experience in hospitals with measureable success,” said the white paper author Susie Sonnier, MS, RN. “Interactive video-based education has resulted in better information retention and engagement of patients with the care team. Outcomes and patient satisfaction are improved. Readmissions are reduced,” Sonnier added. She is the manager of clinical solutions for TeleHealth Services and has served as a registered nurse for more than three decades with experience in hospital, outpatient and community settings as a nurse educator. She is also a college professor who teaches epidemiology.

Patient and facility benefits

The white paper thoroughly outlines considerations and benefits for patients and facilities. For example, a patient can be prescribed condition-specific education, browse through hospital services and perhaps order their next meal. Entertaining movies and Internet access can be enjoyed, or relaxation content can be played to reduce hospital-induced anxiety or reduce pain levels.

Through workflow improvements, facilities can enable efficient condition-based curriculum prescribed by clinicians for patients and families. Education can be accessed during optimal teachable moments, freeing up nurses for other patient-centric tasks. Streamlining many manual processes can optimize time at the bedside for caregivers. 

“Adoption of technology for patient engagement is an evolution, not a revolution. We are fortunate to have Susie Sonnier combine her research and experience with the collective knowledge of our team and more than 450 client hospitals already using interactive patient education and engagement technology,” said Matt Barker, vice president of marketing for TeleHealth Services. “Having provided patient education-on-demand systems to hospitals since the late 1990s, TeleHealth Services has always been at the forefront of helping hospitals improve the patient experience of care, a primary component of the ‘Triple Aim’ strategy to improve health care in the United States through the patient experience, the health of populations and reduced per-capita costs.”

To read more about how hospitals and healthcare facilities are meeting the needs of multi-faceted populations, regulatory requirements, and cost considerations, download the white paper at www.telehealth.com/whitepapers.