Powering the next phase of patient communications

We have evolved from healthcare in a doctor’s office to multi-faceted points of care. Companies like BetterHelp now deliver forms of care exclusively over the phone and the pandemic saw an explosion of virtual care companies. 

This has resultingly meant we need new systems and content to communicate with patients about their health.  

Sanctuary Health and Tellescope wanted to team up to share some ideas and principles on how we think you can do patient communications well. 

1. Keep things simple 

2. Have a clear “Why”

3. Help them understand

Let’s start with number 1.

While we are building technology-first organizations many of our patients might not be technology-first. They don’t want to get 5 texts and three emails saying vaguely similar things with no clear call to action. 

We should keep our communication methods and the contents of our communications simple. Otherwise, we run the risk of overwhelming the people we care for. One way to do this is by asking patients what their preferred channel of communication is, then using that as your go-to patient touch point avoiding duplicating communications across both email and text for example.

Patients today are peppered with communications for all aspects of their lives. We live in a world of information and input overload. So much of what we send to patients has no clear purpose. Is this marketing? Is this about my appointment? Or are these some critical test results? 

Everything we send to patients should have a clear “Why”. What reason is this being sent? Is that communicated clearly? Without doing this, organizations run the risk of patients “tuning out” messages which could lead to critical information being missed or important suggestions being glossed over.

Most people don’t have a medical degree which can make many things in healthcare seem confusing, scary, or difficult to fully grasp The words we use, the conditions we describe, and the medications we prescribe can all seem foreign, and intimidating. So much of communication today is very “clinical” and lacks empathy for the person on the other side.

We see communication as a guide; a way of holding a patient's hand through whatever journey they are going through in their care experience. 

Here is a good example of empathetic communication through Tellescope using Sanctuary Health:

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