Effective patient engagement is essential as patients have become informed consumers who expect more value and better outcomes.

1. 7 Proven Strategies to
Build Patient Engagement
& Satisfaction
Effective patient
engagement is essential
as patients have
become informed
consumers who expect
more value and better
outcomes.
Medical Transcription Services
United States
918-221-7809

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Building patient satisfaction depends on providing patients with the best experience
possible. Medical transcription services help providers deal with the challenges of
EHR use as focus on their patients. Effective patient engagement improves patient
outcomes and retention rates. This is crucial in today’s competitive healthcare
environment where patients have become informed consumers who expect more value
and better outcomes. Here are seven proven strategies to build patient engagement and
satisfaction:
• Develop a shared care plan: A care plan is an agreement between the
healthcare provider and the patient, in the form of an entry in the patient record
to help the patient manage his/her health. A shared care plan aims at promoting
communication among members of the care team. Engaging patients in the
process will help providers better understand patients’ preferences and values in
relation to their health and health care. This ensures that patients get the care
they need. Giving patients the opportunity to get involved in setting their goals
improves patient engagement and facilitates shared decision-making between
patients and providers. With concrete, personal goals, patients will be more likely
to follow their care plan. If the patient requires, the shared decision making
process should also facilitate involvement family members/friends. The care plan
should be updated on a regular basis.
• Utilize effective decision aids: Clinicians should ensure that patients have the
knowledge and tools necessary to make the best health decisions with their
support and decision-making tools. Decision aids include brochures, videos, and
web programs, which incorporate various goals and teaching strategies. These
decision aids help patients make informed choices about healthcare based on
their personal values and preferences. Decision aids play a crucial role in clinical
areas such as diabetes, statins, osteoporosis, depression, etc.
• Ensure effective communication techniques: There are many ways patients
and clinicians can communicate for decision making such as phone conversations,
virtual visits, secure email, and web portals. While face-to-face conversations are
important, using these methods can inform and involve patients without directly
taking away the clinician in real time.
• Keep materials and information simple: Clinicians should be as specific as
possible when communicating with patients. But keeping instructions and
materials as simple as possible is an important factor in improving patient
engagement. Using complex terms and acronyms may be acceptable when
communicating with other healthcare professionals, but not when communicating
with patients. Becker’s Hospital Review advises, “To ensure universal

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understanding, clinicians, care managers, and others should begin explanations at
the sixth-grade level, and then determine if the patient comprehends the
material”. This includes written material and videos. In short, the information in
the care plan should be simple enough for the patient to understand and follow.
• Familiarize EHR patients with the:
According to www.patientengagementhit.com, clinicians should show and tell
patients about EHR usage. This will help physicians manage the challenges with
EHR use and improve patient engagement rates and patient-provider
communication. Tedious medical documentation can affect doctor patient
interactions. According to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Family
Practice, “patients found it disturbing not knowing what their doctor was doing
when he or she worked on the computer, and preferred being able to see the
computer screen”. The researchers said that their findings suggest that it is
advisable for clinicians to explain what they are doing when they use the
computer, so that patients better understand how this time spent entering data
actually benefits them. In fact, medical transcription companies are focused
on helping clinicians deal with this concern and build a strong relationship with
their patients.
• Optimize patient portals: Patient portals are an ideal platform to provide
patients with information on goals, action items, reminders, etc. By allow patients
to access their electronic medical records (EMRs) and facilitating secure patient-
provider communication, patient portals can improve patient engagement. To be
effective, the portal should be user-friendly and allow patients to interact in a
meaningful manner. It must be incorporated into clinical encounters so that
providers can use it to communicate with patients, convey information, and
promote self-care and decision-making. A study published in the Journal of
Medical Internet Research in April 2019 reported that patient portals have
demonstrated benefit by enabling the discovery of medical errors and improving
adherence to medications.
• Encourage patient accountability: It’s not enough to provide patients with
information -- they need to be encouraged to take advantage of the information
and take better care of themselves. Becker’s Hospital Review says that Weight
Watchers is an example of a program that has a deadline and measurable
accountability to encourage active participation in a plan of care. Groups are
divided into small teams that teams that compete to achieve weight loss goals.
To drive engagement, patients can be provided with reminders to promote
adherence and helped to track their progress to their goal.

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In addition to improving health and patient satisfaction, building patient engagement can
enhance patient retentions and referrals. As physicians work towards creating a healthier
patient experience, outsourced medical transcription services can help them ensure
good medical record documentation, an essential element for patient engagement.