Guiding the Industry Toward a Patient Engagement Platform

Improve patient experience, improve clinician experience (related to burnout), reduce costs, and achieve better outcomes—it’s easy to see why the Quadruple Aim of healthcare has made patient engagement such a hot topic in healthcare and why we at KLAS have made a concerted effort to understand the space and establish a framework for it. Our latest installment in this research process, the 2019 Patient Engagement Summit white paper, establishes key components of an effective patient engagement platform.

Points of Light

Points of light are different organizations’ projects and initiatives that have garnered success in their individual patient engagement strategies. The points of light listed in the white paper are all very interesting and valuable, but they are all different. Interestingly, no two projects were the same. Everyone thinks of patient engagement a little differently. Patient engagement is not like other areas of healthcare in which a starting point is relatively clear. Organizations are trying to get to the same goal, which is to improve patient experience, but they can start in ways that are unique to their situations.

One interesting point of light is social determinants of health (SDOH), which KLAS will study later this year. There is a lot of potential there to decrease cost and increase experience if the data is used well. With SDOH data, the patient is no longer a name on a sheet; he or she becomes the provider organization’s responsibility. If provider organizations can leverage services like food banks and ridesharing, they can ultimately reduce costs in the long run. But it is tricky to get your arms around those processes.

The Patient Engagement Platform

One of our intents for the 2019 Patient Engagement Summit was to define what a patient engagement platform should comprise (with input from providers, vendors, and patients). One discovery among many is that, unsurprisingly, providers want a one-stop shop. They don't want 10 vendors for 10 capabilities. But more importantly, with the input we received, KLAS was able to identify 12 key elements and a framework for the patient engagement platform. If any organization is wondering where to start (beyond trying to utilize a portal), those 12 elements are a good place.

The Patient Engagement Ecosystem 2019 report helped us see how much alignment exists among vendors in the industry, but now we have consolidated ideas to create a framework and a picture of what the platform should be. The 12 key elements and the framework will be our measuring stick moving forward and will give us a lens to understand what is and isn’t within the realm of patient engagement. Essential oils can be great, but they don't fit within patient engagement. 

Looking Ahead

We are close to releasing a short study which will represent how patients are looking at patient engagement technology. As part of the work for the summit, we surveyed around 300 patients about the types of technologies that are most beneficial for them. We asked them about what is impactful today and what they want to see from their healthcare providers in the future. So watch out for that as well as the upcoming 2020 Patient Engagement Platforms report, which will lend guidance around the most appropriate vendors to consider for your patient engagement strategy if you’re looking for a one-stop-shop to meet multiple core needs.

We hope that providers can think of patient engagement in a more holistic way, and we encourage vendors to focus on the patient. And if you are a provider and have insights that you want to share with KLAS, we are interested! Please reach out to Dan Czech (dan.czech@klasresearch.com) or Adam Cherrington (adam.cherrington@klasresearch.com).




      Photo credit: Adobe Stock, contrastwerkstatt