4. Have your hospital start online patient support groups.
There are relative benefits to both in-person support groups and online patient support groups. My mother was a patient at a major cancer center, and I tweeted asking whether they had an online support group, as my mother enjoyed the in-person meetings, which she could no longer attend. The hospital account, having realized the importance of such outreach, responded with the establishment of an online group the following week. This type of patient service creates a sense of health care community, which is invaluable to both patient satisfaction and provider-patient relationships.
5. Utilize mobile technologies to facilitate patient engagement via self-monitoring.
The mere suggestion of recommending an app to have a patient log their blood pressure or follow their glucose is a signal of the importance of shared management and decision making. Apps that allow a person to track their activity or food consumption are simple yet meaningful. Patients are longing for tools they can use themselves or utilize as caregivers.
Empathy can be conveyed directly as emotional support or indirectly with actions described above. It is ironic that technology, cold and inhumane in a solitary context, can be transformed and seen as empathetic if it is offered in a humanistic way.
Dr. Scher is an electrophysiologist with the Heart Group of Lancaster (Pa.) General Health. He is also director of DLS Healthcare Consulting, Harrisburg, Pa., and clinical associate professor of medicine at the Pennsylvania State University, Hershey.