Patients who understand their health, effectively make well informed decisions!
Health Organizations are inundated with how important it is to have an engaged patient base. It is crucial for patients to be aware about their illness and have them interact in their own care plans. Patient engagement and patient education go hand-in-hand. In order for a patient to be engaged in their treatment plans, make informed decisions, and ask questions, it is necessary for them to have an understanding of their health. In order to do this, we need to put an emphasis on Patient Education.
Here is why patient education is essential:
Integrated Healthcare
It is necessary for patients to be involved in their healthcare treatment plans. This means that they are more likely to pick up their medications and follow through with advice given by their medical practitioner. If patients understand their illness, treatment, medical procedures, precautions & care, they make more informed decisions and can help medical practitioners to form an effective approach. When patients and medical practitioners are able to work together, the patient’s preferences are taken into account, and the medical practitioners can guide them through a treatment plan that will be successful.
At Home Educational Tools
Let’s face it… medical practitioners can tell patients exactly what to do and exactly how to do it while they’re at the office, but do they remember it when they get home? Some do, maybe even most, but ultimately, they may second guess their own memory. This is why it is crucial for your practice to provide reference material that patients can take home.
When medical practitioners are able to offer reference materials or websites that patients can view at home, they are encouraging active engagement in education of health initiatives. Clinical decision support tools provide educational materials that both providers and patients can utilize. It provides visual tools, treatment plan information, and more. According to one study done by JMIR Human Factors, tools that provide multiple sources, summaries, and informative blog posts aid in helping patients educate themselves outside of the practice setting.
Benefits of Patient Education
Above are the two main reasons why education tools in healthcare are crucial, but now we will dive into the other benefits patient education provides:
- Less prescription abandonment due to understanding why the medication is crucial to recovery.
- More follow through with treatment plans due to understanding of the disease/illness.
- Patient education leads to better patient satisfaction with the medical practitioners and their overall care.
- Educational plans can reduce the medical practitioner’s liability.
- An increase is compliance of treatment plans can lead to an overall reduced cost for patients.
Patient education makes all of the difference. Inevitably, it can mean the difference between a patient participating in their care plan and letting it go by the way side. Introducing patient education tools into your practice can lead to improved health outcomes. What’s stopping your practice from taking the leap, or, how does your practice do this now?