Engaging patients within the hospital has proven to improve outcomes post-discharge and enhance patient’s perceptions of care. Addressing patient concerns, questions, or issues prior to discharge provides opportunities to educate patients at times that are more conducive to retaining and comprehending the information.
A proven patient engagement solution is digital or electronic rounding. When digital rounding is utilized as a patient engagement solution, it means proactively resolving patient concerns and closing the loop on patient issues. With CipherRounds, CipherHealth’s electronic rounding solution, providers across the country are implementing successful rounding programs that create a culture of excellence and have lasting improvements on the patient experience.
While paper-based rounding can also be seen as a method of patient engagement, oftentimes, the data collected on the rounds go unrecorded and patient issues unresolved. With traditional pen and paper rounding, most leaders focus on surveying patients and may or may not be able to address concerns on the spot. With electronic rounding solutions such as CipherRounds, leaders can ask the same survey questions but immediately alert the proper staff members to any concerns. Once this alert occurs, issues are tracked and resolved, further engaged patients in their care.
By proactively resolving patient issues, providers can find opportunities to keep patients informed, educated, and involved. In some cases, this means educating the patient on medications, in others, it means helping patients understand their dietary options. The critical part is that patients are engaged when they want and need to be. This is based on the idea of purposeful rounding, which is an extremely effective patient engagement solution.
In purposeful rounding, you are rounding with the purpose of engaging patients in their care and proactively resolving their issues. It is not enough to simply have a process or a technology solution to aid that process. This can be seen in anything from an EVS staff connecting with patients on a personal level to consistently addressing concerns in under 20 minutes. The key to these interactions is that they keep patient engaged by actively listening to what they say and making a positive impact on their overall experience.
Engaging patients in their care is such a critical component to achieving positive outcomes, finding the right solutions that help address your patient populations should be paramount. As providers continue to seek effective patient engagement solutions, explore how technologies like CipherRounds can prove successful.
