Optimizing Patient Adherence
Quality healthcare outcomes are related to patients’ adherence to recommended treatment regimens, according to a study in Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management. Clinicians must be attuned to their patients and understand the subtle hints (verbal and nonverbal) that the patient may express when initially learning about the prescribed therapy. During the episode of care, virtual interactions will help clinicians continue to assess if the patients are staying the course with their treatment.
Role of Telehealth
With the Synzi platform, post-acute care organizations reinforce the need for adherence with HIPAA-compliant video, text messaging, and secure messaging. For example, home health providers use Synzi’s communication platform to schedule and automatically send messaging to drive patient engagement including medication adherence and lifestyle adjustments. Throughout the episode of care, a patient receives a series of messages on their smartphone, tablet or computer that reminds them of:
- The role medication plays in one’s treatment plan
- Motivation for ongoing medication compliance
- Recommendations to overcome potential barriers to adherence
- The need to refill prescriptions on a timely basis
- Self-care suggestions including nutrition and exercise modifications
In-between the in-person and virtual visits, agency administrators also use various features to continually assess the patient’s adherence and progress:
- Synzi’s assessments tool to gain insight into the patient’s adherence and overall progress.
- Synzi’s remote patient monitoring feature provides valuable datapoints which help referring physician determine if the medication regimen needs to be changed prior to the next visit.
- Synzi’s Enterprise Admin functionality identifies if a patient is non-compliant and not engaging in the communication stream of messages, assessments, and monitoring.
With critical insight gain from the above features, clinicians and providers can determine if a more immediate intervention is needed.
A cascade of communications can help patients remain engaged and compliant. Virtual care and in-person care both strengthen patients’ knowledge of their condition, patients’ adherence to the prescribed medication regimen, and patients’ self-confidence in managing their health. Synzi helps post-acute care organizations better predict and identify non-adherence and optimize patient interventions – reducing the risk of rehospitalizations while improving overall outcomes.