Is Patient Engagement Lacking at Your Rehab Therapy Facility? Watch for These Signs

There was a time when patient engagement within the healthcare community simply meant having a good bedside manner. And, while this certainly played to our strengths as rehab therapists – it still does in many respects – those days are largely over.

In today’s digital world, patient engagement is still key in creating long-term sustainability and growth within a rehab facility, department or practice. However, the way we define and, more importantly, enhance patient engagement is much broader than it’s ever been, and for good reason.

Today, we all operate in an era of direct access and patient empowerment. It’s a time when details about one’s local physical, occupational and speech therapy options are just a click away and engagement begins well before would-be patients ever call or step foot in your door.

What is Patient Engagement?

A fitting definition of patient engagement as it exists today is this: active involvement, positive behaviors, and feelings of commitment and connection by patients throughout their complete patient journeys (i.e., before, during and after episodes of care).

By focusing on optimizing various aspects of patient engagement, rehab therapy leaders can solidify marketing opportunities, improve clinical outcomes, retain good employees, and achieve higher financial and operational performance at their facilities.

A recent webinar hosted by our Net Health Therapy team, titled “Boost Patient Engagement and Generate More Revenue in 2022,” specifically addresses these and other benefits of implementing a patient engagement strategy within your rehab therapy business. View the webinar for tips on, among other things, how to start and maintain a successful patient engagement strategy.

Evaluate Patient Engagement at Your Rehab Therapy Clinic

As you consider engagement among your physical, occupational or speech therapy patients, how do you know if your patient engagement levels are up to snuff? Here are a few indicators (covered more in-depth in our webinar) that patient engagement may be lacking throughout your rehab therapy clinic or department:

• You are not seeing a lot of new, self-referred patients.
• Online information (i.e., Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc.) about your rehab therapy business is incorrect, outdated or incomplete.
• You have few online ratings and/or rank low in reviews.
• Patients have difficulty scheduling visits or accessing treatment information.
• The patient intake process is arduous both with patients and rehab staff.
• Missed appointments and cancellations have become a problem.
• Patients generally do not comply with home exercise programs or complete their plans of care.
• Past patients do not return, make referrals or leave positive reviews.
• You have no process for checking in with current or past patients outside the doors of your clinic.

If some of the above scenarios seem all-to-familiar to you, this could be a sign that it’s time to establish a patient engagement strategy at your rehab therapy facility. If you’re not sure where to start, consider partnering with a patient engagement expert.

Partner with Net Health® Patient Engagement Marketing

If you determine that your rehab therapy business could benefit from focusing more on patient engagement, our team at Net Health can help. The Net Health Patient Engagement Marketing suite offers benefits that address each of the problems list above.

And the best part? It’s designed in a way that seamlessly integrates with existing EMR systems without the need for extensive training, signing into multiple systems at once, or overhauling existing processes.

If you’re interested in seeing what Net Health’s Patient Engagement Marketing solution suite may offer your team, please schedule a free demo today.