Efficiency is key in the healthcare industry, influencing several factors related to the health system’s goals, such as access to cost and quality of care delivered. As recent innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) grow in popularity to support these goals, providers are increasingly using data to inform their decisions and streamline their processes.
However, the push for efficiency can sometimes sideline empathy in healthcare, which is a critical component for improving patient engagement, outcomes, and satisfaction. While data analytics is a powerful tool for enhancing operational efficiency, it also supports a patient-centric care model in which providers prioritize patient’s needs and preferences. Let’s explore empathy in care delivery and how data analytics supports their intersection.
Why is empathy important in care delivery?
According to an article from the World Health Organization (WHO), empathy in healthcare is a fundamental value of “a patient-centered, relational model of healthcare.” It’s essential to put the patient first, which not only offers a compassionate approach but also:
- Builds trust between patients and providers: Patients who feel their providers are empathetic toward their concerns are more likely to trust the provider. In turn, they’re more willing to adhere to the provider’s treatment recommendations.
- Increases patient satisfaction: Empathetic care shows patients that providers hear their concerns and preferences. Since patient satisfaction hinges on their experience and perception of the care received, patients who feel listened to and valued will likely be more satisfied.
- Addresses health disparities: Inclusion and empathy go hand-in-hand. Providers must take an empathetic approach to ensure all patients receive equitable and respectful treatment, which can help reduce health disparities.
Empathy in healthcare is integral to offering personalized, meaningful, and equitable patient interactions. However, providers must use data-driven insights to understand and act on patient needs and experiences — which is where analytics comes in.
How data analytics factors into empathetic care delivery
Arcadia defines healthcare analytics as “the systematic use of data and statistical analysis techniques in the healthcare industry,” which involves “collecting, managing, analyzing, and visualizing data to derive valuable insights and make informed decisions.” When applied to empathetic care delivery, this process helps:
- Personalize patient interactions: Data analytics enables providers to create personalized care plans by leveraging vast amounts of patient data to inform tailored treatment strategies. When patients are individually and uniquely cared for, their trust in their provider and satisfaction with their care experience will increase.
- Enhance patient engagement: With insights from data analytics, providers get a comprehensive explanation of patients’ health needs. This gives patients a better understanding of their diagnoses and treatment options, empowering them to become more involved in their own care. When patients act as co-managers of their health alongside their providers, they’ll be more likely to prioritize self-care and adhere to treatment plans.
- Reduce healthcare costs: By leveraging data analytics, providers can predict potential health issues and organize early interventions to prevent the problem from escalating and requiring costly treatment. Prioritizing patients’ outcomes in this way enables value-based care and all the benefits that come along with it, including improved patient outcomes and care coordination.
Overall, data analytics is the key to personalized and preventive care. Insights from data analytics power tailored treatments and interventions, naturally leading to better health outcomes. In this way, empathetic care delivery directly impacts the results patients may see.
How to support empathetic care delivery with data analytics
Build holistic patient profiles with comprehensive data insights.
Data analytics tools aggregate vast amounts of healthcare data into one repository, providing a comprehensive view of patient data. This includes health data and information contextualizing a patient’s medical status, such as socio-economic factors influencing their health.
With comprehensive data, providers can develop detailed patient profiles that include:
- Medical records
- Clinical notes
- Social determinants of health (SDoH)
With a holistic understanding of their patients, providers can tailor treatments to a patient’s unique circumstances, offering more empathetic and personalized care. This includes data from a patient’s visit at the point of care and information about factors outside of a provider’s office that influence their health.
Instead of spending time investigating external factors, providers can deliver high-value care with urgency when they track this data in a dedicated dashboard. The right software identifies SDoH challenges and uncovers population health patterns so that providers can gather necessary insights and act upon them.
Enhance communication with insights from patient data.
Using comprehensive patient data, providers gain a better understanding of patients’ needs and preferences. This includes leveraging predictive analytics in healthcare to foresee patients’ potential needs and health issues.
As a result, providers can develop communication and outreach strategies that target each patient’s specific needs and priorities. This might include:
- Sending proactive reminders: Reminding patients of upcoming appointments, follow-up visits, and medication refills to increase treatment adherence
- Developing engaging educational content: Organizations educate patient populations facing common health conditions or concerns through targeted content
- Improving care coordination: When all necessary healthcare professionals have access to patient data, they collaborate to identify gaps and address health issues
Providers can use data analytics to get patients on board with their own treatment plans. With a better understanding of patients’ needs and an empathetic approach to serving them, we will improve health outcomes.
Data analytics enhances providers’ efforts to deliver empathetic care. Healthcare data platforms are instrumental in putting this analysis to good use. To prioritize empathetic care delivery, providers must explore the tools at their disposal to facilitate data analytics and begin integrating their data immediately.
Vim and Arcadia have partnered to inject Arcadia’s AI-powered experiences and actionable AI-driven insights into EHRs. This is possible through Vim’s middleware platform, which offers access to provider EHR workflows at scale and an engaging and consistent experience to providers across a network. Arcadia AI leverages the high-quality aggregated dataset Arcadia is known for to generate patient summaries, develop care plans, and deliver social service recommendations.
