As we know, much of health and indeed healthcare happens outside the four walls of your physician office or hospital. It happens at home, while you are walking in the park, or in line at the grocery store (6ft apart of course). The space between visits is our time…but how to do we reclaim it? Do we actually make productive use of that time? How have things changed because of COVID-19 – are we now more apt to reach out to connect with our care providers between visits?
Next week on HCLDR we welcome two special guest hosts – Geri Lynn Baumblatt @GeriLynn and Eran Kabakov @doclainc. They will lead us in a discussion about communicating with physicians and how we can reclaim that space between visits.
See their blog below.
During COVID-19 it’s more important than ever to proactively communicate with patients and populations — and to do that safely, often means virtually.
While phone and video visits are essential, there’s also an opportunity to communicate before and between consults. In addition to email and texting, clinicians can also e-prescribe resources.
This “flips the clinic” to orient and inform people before the next conversation. In 2002, Don Kemper and Mollie Mettler called it: information therapy — prescribing the right information, to the right patient at the right time.
And it is a great way to standardize information. It also reinforces what the healthcare team says during appointments — especially since we know people can’t remember most of what is said by time they leave, let alone a day or two later. And when information is e-prescribed through a platform, healthcare teams know if people are accessing and viewing all the information.
But there are many other benefits to this kind of asynchronous communication. For example, when those resources are patient-centered and address their questions and concerns, they’re less likely to turn to Dr. Google.
Read more about this topic here.
Join me, Geri Lynn Baumblatt @GeriLynn and Eran Kabakov @doclainc as we host the next #hcldr weekly tweetchat on Tuesday May 26th at 8:30pm ET (for your local time click here). We will be discussing the following questions:
- T1 Have you ever e-prescribed resources like a patient education video — or had one e-prescribed to you? Did you view it? Why or why not?
- T2 As a clinician or patient, do you communicate between visits? When and how do you reach out? Or why don’t you?
- T3 What problems/challenges do patients, family caregivers and clinicians face with trying to communicate between visits?
- T4 How might we leverage asynchronous communication technology to better support patients, family caregivers, and healthcare providers between visits?
About the Authors
Geri Lynn Baumblatt is a patient and family caregiver advocate and consults on patient engagement and health communication design at Articulations Consulting. She’s the co-founder of the Difference Collaborative @DiffCollab, serves on the board of the Society for Participatory Medicine @S4PM, and is collaborating with Docola to create a patient education content clearinghouse. @GeriLynn
Eran Kabakov is a physical therapist and the co-founder of Docola: a social good organization that offers a free care communication platform for hospitals, healthcare providers, patients and content providers. He invites you to join the community and collaborate to create a more caring ecosystem. @docolainc
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