Are your patients active participants in managing their health and healthcare? The healthcare services your medical practice provides will work more effectively when you achieve better levels of patient activation. Activated patients are more likely to engage with healthcare tools and providers.

What Is Patient Activation?

The concept of “patient activation” refers to the knowledge, skills, confidence, and willingness a patient has to manage their health. A highly activated patient understands their condition, follows treatment plans, and takes proactive steps to maintain or improve their health.

You’ll begin by categorizing patients according to their level of activation and then give them tools and coaching to improve their engagement and comprehension.

Why Is Patient Activation Important?

You can consider patient activation a major component of patient engagement, which all practices should be motivated to improve. When patients are more involved in their care, they are more likely to adhere to their health journey’s.

From a healthcare provider’s perspective, improving patient activation can lead to fewer missed appointments, better medication adherence, and reduced visits to your clinic. It also enhances the overall patient experience by fostering a collaborative approach between providers and patients. Practices that prioritize patient activation can see improvements in both clinical outcomes and operational efficiency, making it a valuable strategy for those looking to enhance care quality while optimizing resources.

Strategies for Driving Patient Activation

You can encourage and foster greater levels of patient activation with patient engagement strategies, such as by offering digital tools, reminders, and educational resources.

1. Categorize patients in terms of self-management

Some patients will be more engaged and, therefore, more likely to be activated than others among the population you serve. It’s a good idea to segment your patients according to their capabilities for healthcare self-management rather than viewing them all in the same category.

Then, you can offer the most time-sensitive and valuable interventions to low-activation patients with higher clinical risk.

2. Apply the Patient Activation Measure

Developed by Judith Hibbard and her team at the University of Oregon, the Patient Activation Measure (PAM) is a tool designed to assess the activation levels of patients and then help healthcare providers use this information so they can improve outcomes in their patient population.

The PAM surveys patients and categorizes them into four levels of activation:

Level 1:

Patients feel disengaged and overwhelmed, considering that the doctor is in charge of their health.

Level 2:

Patients are starting to become aware of their condition but still struggle with the details, and they judge that they could be doing more for their health.

Level 3:

Patients are in a position to take action and feel like they are gaining more control over their health situation. At this point, they regard themselves at part of their healthcare team.

Level 4:

Patients have successfully adopted new behaviors and feel like they are their own health advocate.

If patients indicate that they feel like they can handle health condition symptoms by themselves at home, per their PAM ranking, you can have more confidence that they’ll follow a new exercise or dietary program, or manage a chronic or acute condition.

3. Provide digital tools and open communication to patients

You want to encourage open communication between your staff and patients to help activate them. Adding omnichannel communication capabilities allows patients to access digital information about their conditions and treatment options. They should be able to review health education materials 24/7 and navigate the financial aspects of care. 

By implementing a patient portal, patients can connect to the information in your electronic health record software. Patients should use the portal to schedule appointments online, request lab test reports, and manage medication, such as by requesting refills.

Keep in mind that your patients might prefer to access information about their conditions and treatment options using a mobile app. Or, they may want to review the details in a standard web browser on their computer. 

Automated reminders about upcoming appointments, vaccinations, or allergy season updates are all examples of how these digital tools can be used to help activate patients.

4. Involve patients in the healthcare decision-making process

Inform patients with as much detailed information as they can absorb (after you assess their current knowledge and willingness to learn via the PAM) or have an idea of it yourself. 

You can give them printed pamphlets or information through digital channels, such as authoritative articles, infographics, and quizzes, to encourage interactive learning.

Armed with knowledge about their condition and the options for treating or managing  their health, patients should become more activated.

5. Encourage patients to show up for appointments

It’s critical to avoid patient no-shows, to improve their condition as well as minimizing missed income. You want to avoid your staff expending time and effort reaching out to patients to reschedule an appointment, when it’s easier to encourage them to show up on time for their visit.

6. Optimize patient satisfaction to increase their activation

If you’re not gathering data about their satisfaction, you’re operating in the dark. It makes sense to give patients surveys after they’ve come in for an appointment (or participated in a virtual meeting through telehealth services) to gauge their satisfaction with your staff and services provided. 

Take their feedback into consideration so you can address whatever obstacles are preventing them from feeling satisfied. This can include anything from improving the bedside manner of physicians to providing better explanations about their current condition and the treatment plan you propose.

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