How to Enhance Patient Engagement for Preventive Care Services

Accessing preventive care services can be essential in catching chronic diseases early, improving patient outcomes, and lowering costs.

With the coronavirus pandemic restricting access to in-person care in 2020 and 2021 and providers stretched thin due to staffing shortages, patients have been less likely to receive preventive care services in recent years.

Organizations are finding that omnichannel engagement and multi-lingual, culturally competent patient education materials are crucial to improving trends in preventive care services, Heath emphasized.

Ensuring culturally competent communication in preventive care services may overlap with organizations’ health equity efforts, Heath added.

“A lot of the strategies that we saw with the COVID vaccine roll-out are very applicable for creating care access for other types of services,” Heath shared. “Making sure that you're really leaning into a community that has trust among traditionally marginalized groups is a really important step for all types of care, including preventive care.”