As the healthcare industry moves towards a more patient-centered model, they cannot forget about the fastest growing segment of our population, the older adults. According to the US Census Bureau, 72 million Americans will be 65 or older by 2030. With this growing and aging population, how can offices, hospitals, and healthcare professionals engage seniors? It’s no secret that engaging people in their own health care, especially through shared medical decision making, results in improved health outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and cost savings. Below are several examples for how senior engagement can be achieved.

Clarify medical communication

With age comes the natural decline of hearing and seeing, so keeping educational tools more visual and basic is crucial. That coupled with avoiding medical jargon will help older patients become more engaged. According to Solution Reach, keeping it simple is best:

“Although the senior community desires to be more technologically savvy, they are often still learning; they require guidance to catch up to the knowledge and experience of the younger generation. It may seem obvious, but sticking to the basics will ensure that landing pages, advertisements, emails, and other promotional materials are easy to read and understand.”

Engage beyond the office

Going beyond the doctor’s office and utilizing digital technology has been proven to improve the patient experience, such as follow-up prescriptions/appointments, treatment discussions, access to EHRs, and medical reminders. Capstrat highlights adherence problems (i.e. taking medications, exercising, following a specific diet, attending therapy, etc) as a main problem that gets worse with age. Reminders, tips, or motivation via email, snail mail, or social media can help to combat these issues. Understanding and honoring their preferred means of communication is one of the first steps. However, healthcare professionals should still realize they have the same ethical responsibility with these methods as they do in the office.

Don’t forget the caregiver

The need to include the patient’s caregiver is essential for older adults. The caregivers are often times the children of the patient and are the ones handling the finances, medications, transportation to appointments, etc. The caregivers spend a substantial time with the patient, while the doctors and other HCPs time is limited, demonstrating this need to include them. Capstrat suggests incorporating them by adding caregiver contact information onto new-patient forms online and offline, and sending treatment information directly to the caregiver.

Utilize technology

According to Welltok’s Senior Health and Technology Survey, more than 50% of seniors use tech to improve health. This survey also pointed out that most seniors do not use wearable, but would be willing to use a health program accessible on a computer or mobile if recommended by a doctor. What does this mean? Older patients are relatively tech-savvy and are looking for resources that are both useful and useable.

Organize resources

Keeping track, organized, and up to date on all your medical records is a big undertaking. According to MedCity News:

“… there are a lot of resources available from AARP, Medicare, retail pharmacy programs, but it is a lot to manage and navigate. Seniors need help organizing everything they need to accomplish their goals in one place. This population requires a consumer-designed platform offering a single channel for presenting benefit, health-related and other resources to support them.”

The senior population is an expanding group with their own specific needs for engaging in their healthcare. Healthcare entities would be wise to understand, honor, and cater to those needs.

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For those older adults that don’t quite have it all figured out yet, Patient Empowerment Network is excited to launch its first digital sherpa™ Workshop this fall in Florida with the hopes of expansion in the future. This workshop is designed to parter the tech-savvy, college students with the not so tech-savvy, older patients with each other for tips and tricks on how to navigate the internet and social media to better their healthcare.

References:

www.healthwise.org/insights/healthwiseblog/mmettler/september-2014/2264.aspx

www.solutionreach.com/COMPANY/blog_viewer/are-senior-citizens-engaging-in-healthcare-technology

http://medcitynews.com