Patient Engagement Software

Buyers Guide

Last updated: December 09, 2023

Providing healthcare has broadened way more than simply medical care. Providing effective patient engagement had become a need for healthcare providers. This includes services like providing a patient portal, that enables patients to engage with their physicians easily, to instant messaging between physicians and patients to help simplify the communication.

The objective of a patient engagement software is to provide services that help engage patients throughout the medical care cycle. It also streamlines administrative work to help physicians focus more on patient care. With more and more hospitals and practices adopting a patient-centric approach, patient engagement software is also becoming popular in the healthcare industry.

This buyer's guide is designed to help you understand the unique characteristic of a patient engagement software, its features, and benefits.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing in this buyer’s guide:

What is a Patient Engagement Software?

Patient Engagement Software Features

Choosing a Patient Engagement Vendor

Patient Engagement Software Benefits

Market Trends

What is a Patient Engagement Software?

A patient engagement software allows physicians to engage and communicate with their patients through a patient portal and messaging services and provide various healthcare resources. Although in most cases, a patient engagement software is misunderstood as a patient portal. While a patient portal is a part of patient engagement tactics, a patient engagement software is more than just that.

In essence, a patient engagement software is a combination of various medical software like practice management, CRM, medical billing, and marketing software.

Here, I’ll be going over the various features of a Patient Engagement software along with the requirements of selecting your software vendor for your practice.

Before jumping to the software itself, you must assess the needs, requirements, and capabilities of your practice. After all, a Patient Engagement software comes in all shapes and sizes. Some practices might require a Patient Engagement software for large practices based on their size; while others might need small-scale ones.

Here’s all you need to know to make the most of your Patient Engagement software.

Patient Engagement Software Features

Here are some features of Patient Engagement software that help improve patient care, streamline your clinical workflows, and simplify administrative tasks.

Secure messaging – enables practitioners and patients to communicate with each other through a secure and encrypted portal.

Online Scheduling – You can set a schedule a allows patients to book appointments that fit your schedule. Any changes in appointments like staff changes, rescheduled/canceled appointments, etc. are updated automatically in your system.

Appointment Reminders – Nobody likes to be stood up. Especially practitioners that could’ve looked after other patients. You can reduce the number of no-shows in your practice by sending them automated reminders through text and email.

Patient Intake and Registration – You can also have patients upload all of their personal information, medical history, and billing information prior to their appointment to reduce patient waiting time and increase patient satisfaction.

Patient Education – Your Patient Engagement software should also include educational and healthcare resources for patients about any specific topic.

Medical Billing – In order to accommodate your patients, your patient engagement software should reduce your revenue cycle and offer faster payment options.

HIPAA Compliance - A Patient Engagement software also needs to ensure patient information confidentiality and privacy through compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines.

Choosing a Patient Engagement Vendor

Now that we’ve discussed the necessary features of a Patient Engagement, let’s talk about some of the requirements you’d need from your software vendor. These may differ for each individual medical practice.

Vendor Size – What type of practices does your software vendor typically cater to? Some vendors only provide services to small-scale practices, while others cater to large-scale practices. Therefore, if you have a small practice, paying for services that help large practices, won’t do much good. Similarly, large practices won’t be able to function with services designed for small practices.

Design – The design of a Patient Engagement software’ infrastructure depends on your choice. Whether you would prefer a cloud-based, web-based, or even standalone.

Web-based: These companies focus on a web-based approach and practitioners can access their patient information through their web browser.

App-based: App-based software provide all the service you need from a Patient Engagement software through an installable app on your smartphone or tablet.

Cloud-based: Companies that provide native cloud software offer you access to patient information through a cloud-storage.

Certification – Vendor certification ensures patient information confidentiality and security and is perhaps one of the most important things to look for in a Patient Engagement software vendor. So make sure your vendor has ONC-authorized testing and certification body (ONC-ATCB) certification.

According to the top reviews, most Patient Engagement software vendors focus on providing cloud-based healthcare IT services to enhance security and provide seamless services.

Patient Engagement Software Benefits

An effective EHR software helps streamline your clinical workflows, simplify administrative tasks, and help reduce cost. Here are some of the most advantageous benefits of Patient Engagement software.

• Enhanced patient satisfaction
• Improve the quality of medical care
• Reduce readmissions
• Improved decision making

Market Trends

The era of mobile phones is upon us. Your patient engagement software should offer a mobile-friendly interface for physicians and medical staff to manage patient information on the go. In addition, physicians also have access to a secure messaging service with their patients at any time and anywhere.

Similarly, practitioners also require a cloud-based patient engagement software that requires only the minimal IT infrastructure. Cloud-based patient engagement software also reduces cost and improves accessibility in the long-run.