The Importance of Patient Engagement: From Noncompliance to Activation

The Importance of Patient Engagement

There are many reasons that patients don’t follow treatment protocols. Among other factors, they may be forgetful, distracted, or face barriers to reaching their health goals related to income, transportation, literacy, or racial bias. Regardless of the underlying reasons, the result is often a suboptimal outcome.

This report explores the reasons behind patient noncompliance and offers solutions that can be used to increase patient activation and engagement, including:

• How patient satisfaction, engagement, and activation are linked.
• Why outcomes are affected by patient activation levels.
• Top allegations, injury severity, and other key data from events in which a lack of patient engagement was a significant factor in the alleged medical error and related outcomes.
• The complexities involved with managing patient engagement.
• Proactive strategies to increase patient engagement before, during, and after treatment encounters.