The link between patient engagement and patient experience and how it reduces the hospital readmission rate

To determine the link between patient engagement (which is a broad concept of patient activation and interventions designed to increase activation and promote positive patient behavior) and patient experience (which is a concept which encompasses the range of interactions that patients have with the different tiers of the healthcare system such as interactions with doctors, nurses, and staff in hospitals or basically the whole healthcare system) and to find out how it can reduce hospital readmission rates.

Patient Engagement

Patient engagement is a very broad concept which deals with patient activation, which is mostly empowering the patient in such a way that the patient feels like they can take an informed technologyness about their healthcare in order to improve treatment outcome, lower costs and also help provide more efficient patient care.  There is also a framework for patient engagement which is as follows:

1. Shared Decision Making Stage: In this stage the patient is informed about his/her condition and the patient takes part in the technologyness making process along with the caregivers.  This approach is used mostly for patients whose condition is more preference sensitive.
2. Patient Activation: In this stage the patients are more aware and understand their situation with knowledge of their condition. Research among 30,000 patients at Fairview health services in Minnesota suggests that patients with a lower level of understanding about their condition incurred 8% – 21% more costs in healthcare. Thus this step of active involvement of the patient in order to treat their condition is the step called patient activation.
3. Broader Patient Engagement: This step s more about mass awareness creation and social interpretations of patient engagement. We are to influence patient engagement in such a way that it helps the masses and we are to try to educate the masses about their conditions so that they can take informed consensual technologynesss about their health care.

This is a brief view about the concept of patient engagement.

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Patient Experience

Patient experience encompasses the range of interactions that patients have with the health care system, including their care from health plans, and from doctors, nurses, and staff in hospitals, physician practices, and other health care facilities. As an integral component of health care quality, patient experience includes several aspects of health care delivery that patients value highly when they seek and receive care, such as getting timely appointments, easy access to information, and good communication with health care providers. This is the basic concept of patient experience.

Combination/Link  between Patient Engagement and Patient Experience

There are several factors which can interlink patient engagement and patient experience amongst them a few are mentioned below:

1. Better patient engagement and experience lead to better patient satisfaction.
2. Better engagement and experience offers better value for money for the patients.
3. Better Patient engagement leads directly to better patient experience.
4. Better follow up results in a positive patient experience.
5. Patient engagement makes having a better patient experience easier for the patient.
6. The liability of an informed consent is divided between the patient and the caregiver which affects the patient experience.
7. Better patient experience and better engagement go hand in hand in the financial aspects of the healthcare system.

These are a few links between patient engagement and patient experience.

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Effects on the hospital readmission rate

Effects on hospital readmission rates are discussed below:

1. Better engagement and experience relates to better reputation buildup of the hospital which might affect readmission rates.
2. Better engagement leads to more effective treatment which reduces risk- standardized readmissions.
3. Better overall patient experience will result in the patient choosing the hospital over other hospitals in case of another condition of him/her or a family member.
4. Better engagement and experience leads to patient satisfaction which results in reduction of risk based readmissions and increases reputation based readmissions.
5. With better patient engagement patients are acquainted with the treatment plans and procedures properly which results in lowering risk based readmission as well.
6. Involvement of the hospital staff leads to better mental satisfaction in the patient as well which results in better word of mouth reputation and also leads in more effective treatment which reciprocates with the readmission rates as well.

These are a few ways in which patient engagement and patient experience affects hospital readmission rates.

Conclusion

To conclude I would like to state that patient experience and engagement go hand in hand in providing the best treatment possible to the patient in such  a way that it reduces risk-standardized hospital readmission rates rates significantly and also improves the hospitals reputation. Both these practices should be properly implemented and established in healthcare systems all over the globe for the betterment of healthcare systems.