In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, empowering patients to transition from passive receivers of care and instead become informed, empowered partners in their well-being could improve the care journey for patients and healthcare professionals alike.
The NHS Long Term Plan outlines an ambition for care that is more personalised and tailored around the needs of individuals, enabling people to have greater autonomy over their health and wellbeing.
This shift is important for the delivery of effective care and the optimisation of health services. The goal of patient empowerment stands to redefine not just the patient experience, but the way in which healthcare is delivered each day.
What is patient empowerment?
Patient empowerment is a concept rooted in the belief that individuals have the right to be more heavily involved in their healthcare journey. It calls for the sharing of information, the cultivation of shared decision making, and the adopting of environments where patients feel supported to take an active role in their health management.
Achieving this will mean changing from the traditional patient / healthcare provider approach, allowing for a more connected and transparent relationship. In fact, 82% of GPs surveyed as part of Ipsos’ Digital Doctor study stated that the use of connected devices will enable patients to proactively manage their health while also providing greater ownership of their personal health information.
What struggles can be solved with patient empowerment?
There can be a level of disconnect between patients and their healthcare providers. During busy times patients can struggle to get in touch with over stretched GPs on the phone, and if they do, many are told all appointments are taken for that day and to call back tomorrow, causing frustration for everyone involved.
A 2022 study by the Office for National Statistics found that in winter almost a quarter (23%) of adults who needed to see a GP reported not being able to get an appointment. More recently an article in Practice Index in November 2023 revealed that 2.8 million people a month were unable to make contact and another 1.5 million were told to call the next day.
When patients need to seek urgent or out of hours care they can find them selves waiting for hours, only to be told they are in the wrong department, or this can be handled by the GP the next day.
If a patient needs to see multiple clinical staff members for their condition, such as a specialist or secondary or urgent care providers, they may find themselves repeating information time and time again. This can be caused by a lack of communication between the different care sectors and can cause the patient to feel like they aren’t being listen too.
This isn’t a fault with the incredible healthcare staff working tirelessly to treat patients, but rather a result of a lack of time and resources to assist them.
How can technology enable patient empowerment?
You can put your patients into the driver’s seat of their healthcare journey, by giving them access to tools and information they require to feel seen and heard by their healthcare providers.
Online consultation systems: Empowering patients to bypass the 8am telephone calls to their GPs and instead raise a request online with their doctor can save everybody time and stress.
Patchs online consultation system means no more long telephone waits, a reduction in the need for patients to unnecessarily travel to the GP practice for something that could be dealt with over the phone or online, time savings for doctors who will be able to handle requests in minutes that would otherwise be a full appointment slot, and less stress for reception staff trying to handle the morning rush of calls.
A patient can now go online and be guided through some routine questions and explain in their own words why they are reaching out. Whilst they then go about their day this request is then triaged using smart AI and sent through to the GP in order of urgency. The GP can then look over the request and make an informed decision on what the best next step is, be that a phone call, video chat, prescription or in person appointment.
Self-triaging: Allowing for urgent care patients to self-triage with intuitive technology could save a lot of time and stress. Odyssey is Advanced’s clinical decision support solution. Odyssey provides fast, accurate and safe assessment and guidance for patients across multiple healthcare settings, including GP practices, ambulance services, out-of-hours services, and urgent treatment centres.
By enabling patient self-triage, you can save time for both healthcare providers and their patients. Through a website, patients can gain appropriate levels of care through linkage to the appointments system or follow up consultations.
Document management: When different care sectors can more easily share information with one another, the breakdown in communication stops, a bigger picture of the patient’s overall health can be seen, and the patient begins to feel understood and listen too.
Our GP document workflow solution, Docman GP, can provide any GP practice with access to enhanced reporting and a full audit trail for every patient, to make sure healthcare provider gets a full picture of the healthcare journey, reducing the need for patients to have to repeat information and avoiding frustration.
If you would like to find out more about how Advanced’s portfolio of health software solutions can help in patient empowerment, you can read all about our solutions and reach out to us here.
