How to meet the digital needs of each generation of patients

Anyone who guided an elderly parent by creating a social media account or who asked his eight-year-old child to help out a computer problem understands that there can be a great difference in technical know-how among generations.

Digital natives, generally defined as those born after 1980, tend to be more comfortable with technology while some elderly people find it difficult to follow technological tsunami.

This poses a challenge for medical practices that deal with all generations: how to adopt patient engagement technology for the benefit of providers and patients without alienating or frustrating those who are not able or who are hesitant to try new things.

Fortunately, practices do not have to adopt an all or nothing approach. With a certain foresight and planning, they can create for patients a digital interaction that will meet them where they are and will improve their experiences while carrying out the advantages that technology offers. Here are some best practices to deploy patient engagement tools:

Design for easy use

The tools, digital or analog, are judged by their efficiency and their effectiveness. The cardinal principle of digital design is to keep the user in mind. A three -headed hammer can be impressive to look at and fun to design, but that does not make a good tool.

Patient engagement tools should be intuitive, even for those who are uncomfortable with technology. Because they are supposed to be used by all generations, portals are not the place where unknown conceptions or difficult to use interfaces. The tools themselves can be innovative but engaging with them should not require problem solving. And the aesthetics, although important, should take a rear seat in practicality.

This can mean avoiding several signs, being able to complete certain tasks without registering, allowing caregivers to fill the forms, optimization for mobile devices, etc.

Make patient engagement technology welcoming, not compulsory

Technology enthusiasts tend to forget that not everyone is so excited about this. They are impatient to move on to new processes and procedures, confident that they will have a better experience and that any obstacle will be easily overcome. And practices have every reason to be enthusiastic about their patient engagement technology because it is so beneficial.

However, they must remember that not everyone shares their enthusiasm. Some patients have little sense of technology or patience for learning something new. Some are intimidated by technology or do not understand the need.

The practices should continue to offer these patients the engagement tools with whom they are most comfortable, even if this means filling out paper forms in the waiting room and the appointments delivered by telephone call. This will keep these patients and help ensure that they receive the care they need.

At the same time, these patients can be encouraged to try new commitment tools. Portals must provide instructions in their use and staff should be able to guide patients throughout the process. With this approach, even technical patients can carry out the advantages of new tools and adopt them.

Let the patients choose and choose

Patient engagement technology should not be an all or nothing proposal. While some users will benefit from each feature, others will select some.

For example, a patient may be happy to make an appointment online, but trace the line when filling the forms numerically or the visualization of test results on his phone. Portals should allow users to select the features they want without insisting that they are committed with each option. Over time, users, if they have a good experience, are likely to adopt more and more tools.

Staff can check to see which tools patients use and ask them if they need help with others.

Although patients are becoming more and more comfortable with engagement technology, it is important that practices include different levels of generational capacity when deploying their tool suite. Considering the wishes and capacities of different generations concerning technology, practices can reduce the risk of alienating patients while collecting the advantages of digital tools.

Photo: Anastasia Usenko, Getty Images

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