Substantial evidence supports the benefits of patient engagement in healthcare. Studies have shown that engaged patients experience better health outcomes, including reduced hospital readmissions and improved chronic disease management.
Patients who actively participate in their care are more likely to adhere to treatment plans, understand their conditions, and take preventive measures such as regular screenings and vaccinations.
Additionally, engagement reduces medical errors because informed patients are more likely to ask questions about their medications, report adverse reactions, and understand potential risks.
Patient engagement also has economic and systemic benefits. Research indicates that engaged patients require fewer emergency visits and hospitalizations, leading to cost savings for both patients and healthcare providers.
But what professional skills and knowledge are needed to engage patients effectively?
ThoroughCare, a leader in care management best practices, supports clinical workflow development with expert advice and a software platform that simplifies compliance. Our Clinical Advisory Team has worked with providers to identify key areas where care team development is crucial.
In this article, we’ll review steps providers should take to improve engagement.
Engagement builds competencies for better outcomes
Managing chronic conditions ultimately depends on healthcare professionals' abilities to effectively engage patients. They need to foster motivation to recognize and implement changes that enhance health.
The elective nature of these programs necessitates strategies and skills that tap into patient-specific motivators and experiences. Figure 1 highlights examples of (1) patient engagement aspects of care management that (2) build specific competencies and collaboration toward yielding (3) improved outcomes.
Figure 1: The effect of patient engagement on building competencies and collaboration toward improved outcomes.
Training to empower the patient engagement cycle
Research has defined patient engagement with three components:
- Understanding the importance of taking an active role in one’s health
- Having knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage health or chronic conditions
- Performing health-promoting behaviors
Achieving all three via a care management or disease management program, such as Chronic Care Management (CCM), tends to progress through a patient engagement cycle, as shown in Figure 2.
The patient engagement cycle represents the activities and steps in establishing, building, and leveraging patient activation and participation toward patient-centered health goals.
Figure 2: ThoroughCare’s Patient Engagement Cycle
Patient engagement cycle
The patient engagement cycle lays out the following nine steps. However, steps may be revisited as part of building skills and capacity and moving forward. We define the objective of each step below.
Step 1: Purpose and function
During enrollment and during regular contact, patients should understand why the service is offered and what value it can bring to them. There should be clear communication about the function of the care manager-patient relationship. Patients should see potential for ways they hope their health and life could improve with this type of support.
Step 2: Trust and dependability
Establishing rapport is foundational to helping patients feel safe and comfortable. This helps them share their challenges and personal stories. From there, a care manager has the initial responsibility to build trust by being open and nonjudgmental and demonstrating that they are listening and caring.
Beyond relationship building, the care manager must show they are dependable by how they communicate in the first step.
Step 3: Current reality and possibilities
Before a care manager and patient work together, it’s essential to establish the current state and potential possibilities. Confirming an understanding of diagnoses, symptoms, and desired outcomes sets the baseline along with future states.
Step 4: Partnership, collaboration, and motivation
The partnership between a care manager and patient should be oriented toward collaboration. It should support mutual respect while identifying and tapping into the patient’s reasons for participating.
This is a point at which Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a valuable strategy to guide positive change through patient-specific motivators and experiences.
MI covers four phases that align with steps in the patient engagement cycle, including:
- Engaging
- Focusing
- Evoking
- Planning
Step 5: Goal setting and care planning
Once the patient has worked with the care manager to prioritize areas for change, specific SMART goals can be set.
The care manager and care team can then plan for how they’ll best support the patient.
Step 6: Coaching, self-management, and problem-solving
Armed with specific goals and a vision for change, care managers can leverage skills, strategies, and tools to help patients navigate change.
Through health coaching, evidence-based assessments, self-management education, and collaborative problem-solving, the patient can break through barriers and build confidence.
Step 7: Resourcing
Care managers may identify specific resources, community support, and other programs. These can fill gaps in care and meet patient needs related to social determinants of health. By providing resources and referrals, barriers like transportation or food can be addressed.
Step 8: Engaging family caregivers
Many times, patients need additional support outside the care manager-patient relationship.
Engaging family, neighbors, and friends to offer help in the home builds a community of care.
Step 9: Celebrating and building on successes
Throughout the relationship and patient engagement cycle, it’s critical to celebrate small and big wins. As patients build knowledge, confidence, and take positive action, celebrating successes reinforces their growth and further motivates commitment.
Skills needed to support care management
Engaging patients requires a number of skills, which we’ve organized into three areas:
- Clinical and care coordination
- Patient-centered
- Technical
These skill areas help professionals understand how to uncover and encourage patient motivation toward change. They help collaboratively create care goals and plans, navigate challenges, and solve problems.
Competencies across these three areas ensure care managers can meet program and billing requirements, work within internal standards and policies, and work interpersonally with patients.
Clinical and care coordination
These skills encompass knowledge of medical conditions patients have, as well as an understanding of healthcare systems, resources, and clinical standards used in care management.
Patient-centered
Patient-centered competencies include:
- Building interpersonal relationships with patients to tap into their personal motivations for change
- Providing health coaching and education
- Supporting collaborative problem-solving
Technical
Technical capabilities span understanding requirements that must be met for billing, documentation, and program compliance. These skills also cover operational policies, standards, and workflows.
How ThoroughCare enables patient engagement
ThoroughCare helps providers build competency, maintain compliance, and streamline operations to achieve care management goals. We support program development through clinical expertise and advisory services, as well as a comprehensive software platform.
ThoroughCare helps create policies and operational standards, and supports performance management with customized assessments, dashboards, and reports.
Key questions answered
What is patient engagement and how does it help health outcomes?
Patient engagement is defined as having three components:
- Understanding the importance of taking an active role in one’s health
- Having knowledge, skills, and confidence to manage health or chronic conditions
- Performing health-promoting behaviors
Studies have shown that engaged patients experience better health outcomes, including reduced hospital readmissions and improved chronic disease management. Actively engaged patients are more likely to adhere to treatment plans, understand their conditions, receive preventive care, and require fewer emergency visits and hospitalizations.
What skills are required to perform patient engagement effectively?
Care managers and teams that work with patients through programs, such as Chronic Care Management or Transitional Care Management, need to be competent in a number of skills in three areas, including:
- Clinical and care coordination
- Patient-centered
- Technical
These skills help professionals understand how to uncover and encourage patient motivation toward change, collaboratively create care goals and plans, and navigate challenges and solve problems. Competencies across these three areas ensure that care managers can meet program and billing requirements, work within internal standards and policies, and work interpersonally with patients.