If you are looking for a way to grow your practice, you need to promote patient engagement. When your patients are more engaged, you will have an easier time getting them to follow your treatment plans, show up for their follow-up appointments, and take responsibility for their medical care. 

While, promoting virtual patient engagement is not always easy, there are several key tips you can follow to make the process easier.

1. Adopt Efficient Patient Communications

Efficient patient communication is critical because that is the only way you will keep patients in the loop. If you want them to be engaged, you need to keep in touch with them and make sure they understand what is happening. There are a few methods of patient communication you may want to include in your practice, including:

Chatbots

You can use chatbots to improve patient communication. They can answer a lot of easy questions your patients have, your patients can spend fewer hours on hold, and you can shorten your wait times. This will help your patients stay engaged.

Secure Messaging

You can also use secure messaging to communicate with your patients. You can chat with your patients prior to their appointment, before admission, and before discharge to ensure they understand what is going on at every step of their care journey. There are multiple methods of secure messaging, including but not limited to one-on-one chat and broadcast messages. 

2. Implement All-in-One Portal Solutions

You should also take advantage of all-in-one patient portals to enhance the quality of care and improve patient engagement. You can use all-in-one portals to provide secure access to health information, including medication lists, immunization records, and allergies. These portals will make it easier for patients to find the information they need, and they will have an easier time getting their questions answered. Find a portal that can deliver clinical results, make it easier for you to communicate with your patients, and is cost-effective. 

3. Ensure Interoperability Between Different Technologies

Tools are only valuable if they offer a comprehensive view of the patient. That is why you need to prioritize tools that offer interoperability between various technologies. This is important because it allows you to cooperate with other medical providers, exchange information, and integrate treatment plans. Using these tools to deliver an efficient, safe, and effective patient-centered care plan improves patient engagement. 

4. Streamline Your Patient Reminders

Today, a barrier to patient engagement is the sheer number of patients you need to see. The medical system is gradually shifting from a volume-based system to a value-based one. Therefore, you need to use a system that prioritizes one-on-one reminders and patient communication. Take advantage of tools that streamline outbound communication, reduce patient leakage, and increase patient responses. This is a sign that you are driving virtual patient engagement.

5. Offer Virtual Visits

If you want to improve patient engagement, take advantage of virtual visits. You can address various patient concerns using web messaging and video chat. This can make it easier for you to keep in touch with your patients, and you can use this tool to answer their questions quickly. Take advantage of virtual visits to improve patient convenience, hold their attention, and keep your patients safe. You will improve patient engagement. 

6. Appreciate the Consumer Aspect

You must appreciate the consumer aspect of medical care. Patients are continuously reassessing whether they want to go somewhere else, and you need to earn their business by using a virtual patient engagement platform. If it is easy to use, fast, and convenient, you will have an easier time providing patients with what they want and what they care about. This will help you drive patient engagement, particularly among members of the younger generations. 

7. Provide Telehealth Training for Staff

Telehealth is only becoming more important, and you need to provide telehealth training to your staff members. Your patients expect to have access to telehealth appointments, and they expect them to run smoothly. Make sure you establish the purpose of the visit at the very beginning, always ask open-ended questions to get an honest response, and pay attention to body language during the visit. If you can pick up on signs of physical or emotional discomfort, you will have an easier time developing a strong relationship with your patients, which will help you keep them engaged.

8. Adopt a Quality Assurance Model

You also need to have a quality assurance model with telehealth that allows you to provide feedback to your providers on their consults. Particularly if telehealth is new to the practice, your providers probably expect to receive feedback. You may even want to establish annual reviews that can help you enhance the quality of your telehealth visits, which will continue to drive patient engagement numbers.

9. Combine Technology With Standardized Processes 

Leverage technology with your standardized processes. If you have advanced technology without improvements in people and processes, you will have difficulty officially integrating technology into your daily practices seamlessly. For example, you may want to integrate laboratory testing and prescription orders with a single system. You also need to have strong privacy protocols to improve patient confidence. Lastly, you should have a communication system that integrates with the rest of your daily operations. Combine technology with standardized processes to improve patient engagement. 

10. Adopt Processes That Support Continuity of Care

Finally, you should have processes that support the continuity of care. This means your providers need to share information with each other. When providers share information, one provider can easily pick up where the other one left off, reducing the amount of information that falls through the cracks. Your patients will feel like you are paying attention to their needs and addressing them appropriately. This continuity of care can also make it easier for you to transfer patients to a specialist when required.

Promote Virtual Patient Engagement To Drive Practice Success

Ultimately, these are just a few of the many tips you should keep in mind if you want to promote virtual patient engagement. If you want your patients to come back for a follow-up appointment, you need to make sure they are appropriately engaged. By putting a comprehensive strategy in place, you can put your practice in the best position possible to be successful.