The latest report on patient engagement by TeleHealth Services, a provider of patient engagement, claims only 20 percent of hospitals have an interactive patient engagement system. The other 80 percent still rely primarily on paper handouts.

A young but growing market, patient engagement has been shown to provide an array of benefits to both patients and hospitals including improved healthcare outcomes, lower hospital costsetter comprehension and better retention of their own care. TeleHealth's new white paper, “Impacting Successful Outcomes: Optimizing Patient Interactive Education and Engagement," shows how the industry can improve by implementing such measures.

“Technology is enabling better quality patient education and patient experience in hospitals with measureable success,” said the white paper author Susie Sonnier, MS, RN. “Interactive video-based education has resulted in better information retention and engagement of patients with the care team. Outcomes and patient satisfaction are improved. Readmissions are reduced,”

Patient comprehension and retention can be improved by 50 percent from viewing a single interactive video. Workflow for clinicians can also be streamlined. Patients have the option to view educational materials on their specific condition, browse hospital services, watch a movie and browse the internet.

“Adoption of technology for patient engagement is an evolution, not a revolution. We are fortunate to have Susie Sonnier combine her research and experience with the collective knowledge of our team and more than 450 client hospitals already using interactive patient education and engagement technology,” said Matt Barker, vice president of marketing for TeleHealth Services.