One of the big problems for healthcare providers is that many patients are not active in managing their health. Studies show that two-thirds of patients find every step in their healthcare journey hard or annoying. Only 8% of patients get the preventive care they should, which leads to worse health and higher costs over time. Missed appointments alone cause more than $150 billion in lost income each year in the U.S. Also, providers lose a lot of money because of leaked referrals \u2014 as much as $875,000 per provider every year.<\/p>\n
This low patient involvement also causes the healthcare experience to feel disconnected. Patients may hear different or mixed messages from parts of the healthcare system. This can upset patients and make it harder to coordinate care. Providers often use different software systems that don\u2019t work well together, which wastes time and blocks useful data.<\/p>\n
These problems affect not only how satisfied patients are but also the financial health of hospitals and practices. More than half of U.S. hospitals lose money, which pressures administrators and owners to find cheaper solutions.<\/p>\n
To improve patient activation, healthcare providers need to understand the patient\u2019s healthcare journey, likes, and habits. Data tools and patient experience platforms help by collecting and studying large amounts of patient data. This includes electronic health records (EHRs), patient feedback, appointment histories, and social factors that affect health.<\/p>\n
A key step is finding holes in communication and care quality by using patient feedback. For example, Optical Express used patient surveys through a platform called InsiderCX to find that patients didn\u2019t fully understand aftercare instructions after eye surgery. By changing these instructions, they made patients happier and helped them recover faster. Feedback like this is important for healthcare leaders who want to improve care.<\/p>\n
Patient Activation Measures (PAM) let providers tailor communication and support based on how ready patients feel to manage their health. Patients with low PAM scores may need more help and coaching. Those who are more activated can get digital tools and reminders to stay on track.<\/p>\n
Healthcare providers use four kinds of analytics to personalize care: <\/p>\n
These analytics help healthcare workers step in early and avoid expensive emergency visits or readmissions.<\/p>\n
For example, PSW, a care organization working with over 400,000 patients, used analytics to lower emergency visits for urinary tract infections by 12%. They did this by combining real-time patient admission, discharge, and transfer data in one platform. Also, use of skilled nursing facilities dropped nearly 17%, and patient hospital stays became shorter thanks to better care coordination.<\/p>\n
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