As patient engagement tools such as online portals continue to evolve and bring patients into the fold, hospitals and health systems are relying more on physicians to oversee those initiatives.
A survey of 369 members of the NEJM Catalyst Insights Council found that 38 percent of respondents work at hospitals that rely on chief medical officers (CMOs) as a key agent of patient engagement. Thirty-five percent say staff physicians and 23 percent say staff nurses are the point persons for patient engagement in their organizations. Chief nursing officers (CNOs), chief marketing officers and chief experience officers were also named in the survey as leaders of patient engagement activities.
At Avera McKennan Hospital and University Health Center, a 450-bed facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the CMO and CNO split the leadership of patient engagement programs, according to a blog post about the survey. The hospital uses a multidisciplinary team that also includes staff physicians when making decisions on patient engagement.
Allison Suttle, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer at Sanford Health, told NEJM Catalyst that it is important that a diverse group of stakeholders participate in patient engagement activities. “I don’t know that there is one person who is fully in charge of patient engagement--it has to be everyone’s priority,” Suttle said.
Getting physicians involved is key, according to Suttle, as they must buy into technologies such as online portals and mobile apps to get patients to use them. NEJM Catalyst’s survey found that 38 percent of respondents believe web portals to be the most effective tool for patient engagement.
Eric Fleeger, M.D., a physician in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, told the publication that providers have to develop a strong sense of their patient engagement needs and what exactly the idea means to their unique environments. He echoed Suttle, emphasizing collaborating in the process regardless of who is leading the charge.
The survey respondents had mixed feelings on whether improved patient engagement would decrease healthcare costs. Eighteen percent felt that better engagement with patients would have a moderate impact on costs, compared with 34 percent who said patient engagement would have a moderate impact on care quality. Fleeger said that lower costs are possible if patients continue to participate in their care and care quality improves.