Fostering Patient Engagement: A Clutter-Free Inbox Approach

August 1, 2023

Less is More: Why A Clutter-Free Inbox Improves Patient Engagement

Statistics reveal that adults under 45 send and receive over 85 texts every day, highlighting the challenge of patient engagement. Let’s be honest, it can get overwhelming. If you’ve ever felt drained and exhausted from receiving too many messages, you’re not alone. In fact, there’s even a term for it: message fatigue. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve been bombarded with too many similarly-themed messages, impacting patient engagement, and you just can’t take it anymore.

THE COVID-19 IMPACT: Lessons in Information Overload and Disengagement”

One prime example of message fatigue and its impact on individuals was the COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2020. The outbreak led to predominant COVID-19 prevention information on all media channels. Because of the amount of COVID-related information, it became tough to keep up. In fact, studies show that such information overabundance holds back individuals’ motivation to process and act on the information. Over communicating becomes counterproductive. It became a challenge to get individuals to act on important health communication.

When patients become overwhelmed with health care information, it can lead to disengagement and even resistance to important health information. This can make it tough for healthcare providers to effectively communicate with their patients. Because of this, message fatigue significantly impacts healthcare providers like you. So if you find that your patient communication efforts are ignored, blame it on message fatigue. When your patients ignore your messages, important health information such as preventative care, treatment adherence, or even clinic appointments goes to waste.

As a result, you may need to put in extra effort to ensure that your messages are not getting ignored by your patients. You may need to put in extra effort to make sure your messages are clear, concise, and engaging, on top of being timely. You also need to provide your patients with opportunities to act on your messages. Additionally, you may need to consider alternative methods of contacting your patients, such as face-to-face conversations, to effectively reach patients who may be experiencing message fatigue.

But in this busy, fast-paced world of healthcare, face-to-face conversations can only do so much. You want to be able to reach your patients whether they are in your clinic, or when they are in the comforts of their homes, or outside running their errands.
Patient Engagement

Because of this, your EHR’s messaging system must be efficient enough to combat information overload.

Reach your patients sans the message fatigue

Here are the following ways your EHR’s messaging system can help:

Grouped Messages

Less is more. Fewer messages do not necessarily mean less engagement. In fact, with fewer announcements, your patients can engage more because message fatigue is eliminated.

Your EHR’s patient messaging system must be designed to make healthcare communication clearer, more consistent, and more effective than ever before by sending messages that are grouped together into categories.

With a centralized point for sending out emails and text messages, your messages must be grouped in distinct categories, ensuring that patients receive only the information that is most relevant to their needs.

To cut message fatigue, the number of messages must be limited, while quality must be improved. By combining separate multiple text messages into a single communication event, patients can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.
Clearer Call-to-Actions

Have you ever received a message and found yourself unsure of what to do with it? It can be super frustrating trying to figure out what the sender wants to tell you.

A clear call to action is vital that is why your EHR must be designed to have personalized call-to-action options for announcements and reminders. So whether your patients need to access their patient portal or confirm an appointment, your messages provide clear and specific options for them to take action.
Higher engagement for you, a clutter-free inbox for your patients

That sounds like a paradox, right? You might think that the more information and communication you give out, the higher engagement you will have. But an efficient messaging system should not flood your patients’ inboxes with countless announcements and reminders only for your patients to ignore them.

THE GOAL: no message goes to waste.

With a streamlined messaging system, each message is timely, relevant, and actionable. With fewer messages, patients will also appreciate the clutter-free inbox. Your patients can now focus on what matters most: their health. While your practice will now enjoy higher patient engagement and better health outcomes.

Year after year, healthcare providers like you face the challenge of finding solid solutions to provide your patients with the best healthcare services. Your EHR must constantly stay on top of the latest advancements in the healthcare industry. A more efficient patient messaging system is just one of the solutions that help you grow your practice.

We know that as a healthcare provider, your top priority is your patients’ well-being. We take care of your healthcare solutions, so you can spend more time doing what you do best: providing excellent care.

Your team of experts takes care of your healthcare solutions so that you can focus on your patients. Contact our team of experts now to stay in the loop of WRS Health’s latest innovations.