Clinic Awareness – Medical Practice Management, Health Information Technology

The Online and Engaged Clinic

October 22, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

“It’s where the patients are.” This phrase is often used to describe why more physicians should be participating in social media platforms. The argument being that the patients are engaging in these social media communities, so physicians must also be there for this reason. If we think about the purpose being to sustain some aspect of the marketing for the clinic, then we might start with the value of creating awareness of the clinic and physician in the geographic community surrounding the clinic. However, when it comes to positioning the clinic as one that is different within this competitive geographic community there is also value in being where others are not. In this case, referring to the differentiation of the clinic’s services and culture of care in both the online and physical community. The next part of the conversation is to convert that awareness from the marketing efforts to the sale or in this case, the patient relationship in the clinic.

The question of what makes us different from our competitors is one that can give pause to many people in the clinic, even beyond just the physicians. I’ve been involved in these conversations where the first response to this question is: “we care about people”. From the patient’s point of view, caring is important but it’s also a fundamental assumption of what every experience should be in the clinic regardless of specialty or size. So again, the question of what makes us different. If this were a sales meeting, the conversation would include the question: “Where is the next sale coming from?” There is an important connection between the marketing message of any clinic and the current national dialogue on accountability of patient care. From ‘big data’ to population health to clinical outcomes for an individual patient, there is an important starting point in the clinic about how to be different in terms of being accountable and social with every patient relationship.

While there certainly are patients in online communities, there are even more patients in the community surrounding the clinic who might be willing bring their trust into the clinic and to pay for services. Whether its online or offline with a marketing effort for the clinic, a cornerstone of this effort is a willingness for a fully engaged staff to be social and engage patients as well as each other in an accountable process of care. It is a big transition for some in the clinic to accept this idea that being social actually matters in the delivery of care regardless of whether it’s in online or offline interactions. The value of the marketing effort for the clinic has as much to do with the patient experience in the course of one’s life as it does in the course of a scheduled clinical encounter. It’s also a cornerstone in measuring outcomes and changing behaviors in a process of accountable care. Therein lies the reason for physicians to participate in social media platforms, because its an extension of being social with patients to build on the trust they bring to the clinical encounter. So the question is: How accountable is everyone willing to be in the clinic both for care and being social with every patient over time?

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Patient Engagement

Patient Engagement: The Event and the Process

August 23, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

The term ‘patient engagement’ is without question a hot topic throughout the healthcare industry right now. Its common to see this term used in the context of Health Information Technology (HIT) as a means to connect with patients, from gathering real-time data related to their health to encouraging certain behaviors. From applications for your smartphone to access to your electronic Personal Health Information (ePHI), it can be an intimidating proposition for patients and physicians as this patient experience transcends the boundaries of the clinic environment. The challenge of accessibility and responsiveness represent a new level of commitment and coordination.

There is an opportunity in this dialogue between physicians and patients that lies in a connotation of the words patient engagement. Consider this analogy where ‘engagement’ represents an event or encounter, like a dinner gathering or visit to the clinic. You might think about things such as a roster of attendees (i.e. appointments) and arranging the venue (clinic), organizing the menu (medical records), and then as the date draws closer confirming attendees. The event date arrives, and the organizers and attendees to their best to make the most of the event in their respective ways. Now consider an alternative analogy where the focus is on a process beyond the event with the subtle change to the word ‘engaging’. To be clear, I do not intend to dismiss the importance of the aforementioned event in the care of patients. However, the patient experience always has been and always will be a personal one that is much more than an event. So here is the opportunity: How does every person employed in the clinic know what their job means to the patient experience in terms of listening, observing, and communicating on behalf of the physicians they support with the patients they serve? If you’re someone who has ever tuned into reality television – you may be aware of a few shows where people are struggling with excessive weight seek help. These stories are not just personal for the people who are enduring this hardship, but they are also complicated ones that require a community of support over time to turn the page with new and better outcomes for health. The community of support for the patient may include family members, friends, or even introductions to peers who share a common experience, in addition to the physicians. What you will also see is the combination of physical and psychological needs within that support over time in the process.

Clearly physicians should be the ones giving medical advice to patients, but the non-clinical people on staff must understand how they can be receptive on behalf of the physicians and with genuine respect for patients needs. Too often this is a fragmented experience for the patient, whether its a phone call to the clinic or a post to the clinic’s social media profile. This is a matter of defining what it means among everyone on staff in the clinic to be ‘social’ between people whether it involves HIT or not. The demands on physicians for their accessibility, guidance and communication are immense, and without their own engaged support in the clinic it’s most likely to represent a losing battle. Encouraging patient behaviors with applications on their smartphone may have some value going forward, but engaging an entire staff with a clear definition of their role in the culture of care for patients has value right now. It is the foundation for both a community of support for patients and the reputation of the clinic in the community.

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Patient Engagement, Patient Experience, Staff Development

Patient Engagement and the Communication Process

August 10, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

There are so many advocates within the clinic that they may just outnumber all of those medical claim reimbursements at the close of business on any given day. The challenge involves recognizing those advocates and making the most of their interactions. The opportunity is that this not only represents the importance of sustaining a culture of care for each patient, but for those potential future reimbursements as well. Advocates are people who represent the ‘listeners’ in the process, making an impact, each for there own reasons and purpose. Let’s be clear, these advocates range from patients to caregivers to clinic staff (not just physicians). What people often tell me about their daily interactions in the clinic setting is that there is an awkward nature to communication. The ironic part is that this is not only peculiar between patients and physicians, but between clinic staff as well. While the term ‘advocate’ for some connotes some type of confrontational interaction as in a court of law, what it represents for many people in this role is an important and unfulfilled need.

Two sustaining themes that have emerged from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are: Accountability and Accessibility of care. Regardless of the outcome of this legislation, these two words will continue to mean a lot for patient interaction and the reputation of the clinic. The expectations of patients are higher and are supported by new standards such as the accessibility of their electronic personal health information (ePHI). For those people who have taken on the role of advocate for their own health or on behalf of someone else, they will tell you about how their expectations have already been high not only for information but for clarity and guidance as well. It would be convenient to say that all physicians should just participate in social media platforms to foster patient engagement, but that’s not going to be the panacea for accessibility and accountability for care. The fact is that true engagement with a patient will take the form that is appropriate for the patient interaction and the purpose served in this process. With all of the platforms to connect and share with people ‘online’, the importance of personal and private interactions in the ‘offline’ setting remains a critical aspect of care. There is value for the physician and the clinic to manage their online presence, but its important to consider the impact of accessibility of the clinic as it translates from the online presence or ‘virtual world’ into to the clinic or ‘real world’. While the clinic encounter represents an interaction that is an epitome of personal trust from patient to physician, it is also one that is further epitomized by a transactional experience that often precludes continuity in the communication process and culture of care for the patient and clinic staff. The personal nature of medical care makes it one that requires the dedicated efforts of special people who are not only caring but continuously learning. This is a great time to overcome those sighs in the clinic from either side of the reception desk with a brief pause to recognize that advocates in the clinic have more in common than they may suspect.

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Human Resource Management, Patient Engagement

Victory Gardens and Patient Engagement

July 29, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

“During World War I (1917-1918), the Food Administration encouraged the American people to grow their own food in war gardens. The gardens became known as victory gardens. During the conflict, the United States government wanted to guarantee that ample food existed for men serving in the armed forces and for America’s allies overseas. By growing victory gardens, the American people could provide for themselves, instead of needing to purchase food grown by farmers. The federal government would then be able to send the farmers’ produce overseas.

Americans across the United States heeded the government’s call and planted victory gardens. Many urban families dug up their yards to provide for themselves and, thus, the soldiers. Apartment dwellers or other people without their own yards routinely received permission from local authorities to convert public parks into victory gardens. Like many other Americans, numerous Ohioans also rallied to support the war effort by planting gardens.

Upon the World War I’s conclusion, victory gardens quickly declined in number. City parks, once again, became places to play, not places to grow fruits and vegetables. With World War II’s outbreak in 1941, American citizens revived their victory gardens, contributing to the war effort to the best of their ability. Victory gardens became a way of supplementing families’ diets during a time when many foods were scarce because of rationing.”

“Victory Gardens”, Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1582

If you would, follow me into an analogy of the physicians as the farmers who must divide and share their attention (food from the garden) to the urgent concerns of people in the clinic every day. Further in the analogy, where the patient is motivated to nurture their own care on a daily basis for the purposes of connecting with people in their community and the need to elevate the interaction beyond the empathy of the physician in the clinic to something more visceral between people who are seeking some support based on a shared experience or condition. The connection between the traditional victory garden is that there is an opportunity and reason for the physicians to nurture the patient’s ‘healthcare victory garden’ in their community for the reason of limited resources in the clinic and an expansive need from patients for support, encouragement and care. Although the context of warfare in terms of fighting a particular condition of health may not apply to everyone, there is a common ground among people wanting to sustain a community of care in their own back yards. Whether its in the virtual context of an online community or one where people physically meet in one of those backyards, people are taking the initiative for a cause that is larger than a single person. What I suggest with this analogy is that the patients have defined the patient experience beyond a transactional experience in the clinic, whether or not anyone on staff in the clinic defines it that way.

The clinic represents a community of care that is more than just a physician in the clinic as much as the patient who leads in the organizing their own community of support. So what this means is that the opportunity to engage patients is already underway in spite of the lack of or differing views on patient engagement by healthcare organizations. What this does represent is the shared value of the personal interaction everyday and communicating with people in a way that matters beyond the clinic walls. There is a real opportunity to differentiate for those in the clinic who recognize the value of this interaction as more than just the transactional insurance reimbursement but the subsequent interactions between the clinic and patient beyond the crisis response event in the clinic when initiated by the patient. This interaction translates to the convergence of two communities: the “real life” community of patients (and potentially new ones) and the community of physicians and support staff in the clinic. Since we all know how important word of mouth referrals are to the physician, clinic reputation and ongoing profitability, there is no question about the value of building a bridge between these two communities. People are reaching out to others based upon their own experiences for their own reasons and with their own expectations for communicating and supporting each other in daily life. While it is unreasonable to expect a physician to be available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week for interaction within the community, there are a myriad of opportunities within the touch points throughout the process of care every day in the clinic that involve the entire staff to engage patients (and people) in meaningful ways for ongoing communication.

What would your ‘healthcare victory garden’ look like?

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Health Activism, Patient Engagement, Patient Experience, Staff Development

Physicians and Patients are Health Activists – Join Us!

July 27, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

There is a compelling opportunity to engage patients that continues to grow in communities of all sizes. Physicians understand well the the daily pressure to balance care for patients with their own productivity and continuous learning every day in the clinic. Patients who are activists for their own health understand those same concerns although their frame of reference is beyond the clinic experience. If we define the culture of care where the clinic is the origin or center of influence in the community, the idea of engaging patients takes on a new meaning for the entire staff in the clinic and the people who at any point have sought care there. Although access to one’s personal health information (PHI) and patient education materials are truly valuable, they also too often represent the patient experience as only a transaction. The time between these transactions represent both opportunities for clinic staff to further engage the patient – to support the patient in his or her life experiences as they relate to the original purpose for care in the clinic and to simultaneously build the clinic reputation within the community. Join us for a dialogue that represents a step in this journey to engage patients more as people within your community – from the many touch points between clinic staff and patients and in daily life for the patient as well!

Join us for this Tweetchat on Tuesday, July 31 at 3pmEST: More details here: http://blog.wegohealth.com/2012/07/26/getting-to-know-healthcarenovel-robert-green/

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Health Activism, Patient Engagement, Staff Development

With Great Responsibility, Comes More Responsibility

July 17, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

Physicians have already accepted and achieved the great responsibility of helping people in the clinic setting or simply stated: “taking care of patients”. Although there is a buzz about accessibility with regard to physicians engaging in social media for the benefit of patient customer service, there is a more concrete conversation within the clinic about what “more responsibility” means. In addition to being an oversimplification of accessibility of the clinic by simply implying that better service will result from the use of social media platforms, there is a complex set of expectations that patients have regarding their willingness to use these same tools in this very personal context. One is the expectation of how responsiveness will be defined in this exchange. Not only are social media tools ‘free’ to use, but they are always ‘on’ day or night. The concrete conversation here involves much more than just the physician, but staff members in the clinic who support the operation as well. Because the reality is that just like there is someone who serves as the ‘gatekeeper’ in the clinic to sustain a climate of structure during business hours, this function is no less important at any other time of day or night. In the personal and private conversation about one’s health there is a real challenge and opportunity to engage those support staff in the clinic to both sustain accessibility and structure in the culture of care. Engaging patients isn’t easy, it reminds me of some advice my first mentor gave me following a promotion to an exciting new position, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it!” The starting point is recognizing that engaging patients is not a responsibility that falls solely on the shoulders of the physicians. Moreover, many of the opportunities to engage patients do not involve giving clinical advice. Being ‘receptive’ to patients may involve some social media tools based upon individual preferences for ongoing communication. However, truly receptive and engaging behaviors between the clinic and patient will be sustained by those people who jobs have always been to support the physician and structured clinic operations.

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Healthcare Social Media, Human Resource Management, Patient Engagement, Staff Development

How Accepting Gratitude Engages Patients

July 12, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

The importance of the word of mouth referrals for the clinic has long been a cornerstone of the informal efforts to market the services of the physicians and engage new patients in the community. There is an unfortunate tendency too often though to look past this opportunity to accept gratitude from the patient. With pressures to sustain productivity measures everyday within the clinical experience and external concerns regarding the myriad of new and pending requirements and competition, there is an all to quick to close aspect to the patient experience. For the physicians, this time to pause for a closing thought from the patient represents a truly valuable component to the level of trust that has been established over some period of time. For the patients, it may be about getting more involved in their health or a simple act of gratitude to a physician for a the entire experience of their care up to that point in time.

As a young adult I had one of these experiences where the physician did make a sincere effort to create this experience in the process of care and be receptive to a well-deserved expression of gratitude. Several years later I contacted his clinic based on a new need in my health and because of his sincere approach. I was shocked to learn that he had passed away just about a year earlier. However, the staff member who took my call was well aware of this physician’s reputation for caring for people and made a warm introduction on my behalf to another physician who had been with the clinic for several years. When I arrived for the appointment, this physician who I was meeting for the first time, demonstrated a similar amount of patience in accepting my gratitude from that original experience with his former colleague several years ago. It did not extend the duration of the patient experience for me, as it was during the course of treatment. More importantly, the respect and trust that I had developed from that original experience was reinforced for me.

These moments in time represent a platform to build a culture of care that encourages patient interaction with the clinic going forward. While social media may be a channel for some to express thoughts of gratitude or some type of testimonial, for many this experience remains a personal one that is not intended for public consumption in the virtual world of the internet for a variety of reasons. This culture of care also creates a climate for the patient to ask more questions (and perhaps even more insightful questions) with a higher level of confidence in the patient experience as something that is not bounded by the time frame of the clinic appointment. It is also a starting point for engaging patients with a combination of awareness and education that they can share with others without necessarily compromising their concerns for privacy. There has always been something special about the word of mouth referral for the physician and clinic and this comprehensive approach to engaging patients will make it more valuable than ever before.

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Patient Engagement, Patient Satisfaction

Going Viral in the Clinic

May 30, 2012 By Robert Green Leave a Comment

It may seem ironic to talk about the reputation of the clinic and the physicians therein as a “viral brand”. Not only is it possible, but increasingly necessary to encourage people to share the goodwill that the physicians and staff are building with each patient experience. The popularity of social media tools have only served to increase the “word of mouth” reputation that has always been important for the clinic.

The “viral” nature of the clinic reputation is facilitated by the ease of sharing this same “word of mouth” like or dislike, testimonial or complaint in forums that allow instantaneous and large-scale distribution beyond any control of the clinic. So while a clinician may find that participating in these social media communities serves a particular purpose in reaching an audience, the more important purpose is recognizing that these communities represent people who have or have tried to use the services of the clinic. The point being that its important to recognize the value of every interaction between clinic employees and patients. These are the interactions that also drive the content in social media communities for complaints about some aspect of the patient experience from within the clinic. If these experiences are inconsistent or negative in some way, the negative content for social media has been established and once posted online will have a life of its own – perhaps a “viral” life. Physicians are aware of how important it is to be personable during the clinic encounter and not just stare at the device screen while entering data into the EMR software. It’s important to do the same when considering the participation in social media. That personable interaction is equally important and the impression that you make is beyond your control once someone shares their opinion of this experience.

The concept of surrounding the patient with highly qualified and experienced medical professionals is a cornerstone of the advertising for many large medical care organizations. While that certainly is important in the patient experience, it is far from the only part. Outpatient services is just one example of the patient experience that extends well beyond the attention of those same medical professionals since the patient is not staying in the care facility to be ‘surrounded’ for care. In fact, regardless of the size of the clinic, recognizing that the patient experience is more than a transactional service that ends with a medical claim is the convergence of social aspects of “surrounding” the patient in the clinic and the use of social media platforms anywhere. There are two very important personal perspectives in the patient experience to keep in mind: 1) physicians are not just doing a job as a physician, they are living a life as one; 2) the patient experience is every day in the patient’s life.

What does this mean for the awareness and accessibility of your clinic?

Filed Under: Clinic Awareness, Healthcare Social Media, Patient Experience