A new report from the National Committee for Quality Assurance has found healthcare systems could achieve a higher quality of care, lower costs and greater patient satisfaction by utilizing health IT tools to increase patient and family engagement.
Because healthcare systems were found not to be fully implementing health IT tools for patient engagement, the report recommended health systems take the following actions:
1. Create a comprehensive statement that contains ways to advance the development and implementation of patient engagement health IT tools that benefits the health system and benefits the patient by ensuring patient engagement tools are able to integrate with the organization's IT system.
2. Develop and implement an evaluation framework to use when testing health IT tools used for patient engagement. An evaluation framework will help ensure the patient engagement tools are the best value for the healthcare system and provide the greatest benefits to patients by giving them access to valuable information.
3. Implement an infrastructure that promotes patient access to their health information and also supports real-time integration of health information from all sources, including information created by patients. Incorporating patient-generated information will help engage patients in their care.
More Articles on Patient Engagement:
Why Top Hospitals Have Inadequate Websites: 10 Things to Know
Dignity Health Announces Winner of Patient Education App Challenge
athenahealth Invests in Wellframe's Patient Engagement App