Because Of COVID-19, Continuous Ongoing Patient Engagement Is The New Reality

Hospitals and health systems, as a direct result of the pandemic, needed to engage patients, employees, and the community continuously. Messages were varied for each audience, but the current situation provided the opportunity as never before for the continuous engagement of the patient on a meaningful level. There is no reason why those engagement efforts should stop.

What should be apparent in the new reality of healthcare, as an unintended consequence of the ongoing pandemic is that patient engagement is not a part-time or some of the time activity. What it should be viewed as is the opportunity to continue to create, engage, foster, and nourish an enduring relationship with those individuals and families.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

How healthcare is delivered changed exponentially, and now looks more like a distributive computer network, where the diagnosis and treatment were “distributed” out of the hospital or system. Patients had a taste of the new healthcare reality, for example, with telemedicine that was easily accessible, convenient, effective, and affordable. As a result, most hospitals and physicians are struggling with getting patients to return for care. Some of the disappearing patients are attributed to fear, others out of having experienced alternative methods for care that better met their needs.

The old ways of engagement don’t work anymore.

Image by Alexas Fotos from Pixabay

That is a scary proposition for some healthcare organizations. I have already seen the old pre-pandemic engagement messaging come back in the urban market of my residence.  It’s almost as if nothing ever happened, and we can all go back now to the way it was.

The Coronavirus pandemic is still a public health crisis. The patient hears that intense messaging across all sources of news and social media day in and day out.  With fear, anxiety, and uncertainty in their mind, why would you change your COVID-19 engagement and messaging strategies? 

You can’t abandon the recent efforts and success at engagement and return to the past.

The continuous ongoing engagement of the hospital and health system with patients should now be the number one job of the hospital.

Michael is a healthcare business, marketing, communications strategist, and thought leader. As an internationally followed healthcare strategy blogger, his blog, Healthcare Marketing Matters, is read in 52 countries and is listed on the 100 Top Healthcare Marketing Blogs & Websites ranked at No. 3 on the list by Feedspot.com. Michael is a Life Fellow, American College of Healthcare Executives. An expert in healthcare marketing strategy, digital marketing, and social media, Michael is in the top 10 percent of social media experts nationwide and is considered an established influencer. For inquiries regarding strategic consulting engagements, you can email me at michael@themichaeljgroup.com. Connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Opinions expressed are my own.

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