Consumer Engagement In The Era Of Zoom

By Monica E. Oss, Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS

When you’re participating in a web meeting, do you ever think that the other people are not really listening? Not really thinking about what is being said. You could be right. A user-submitted poll on Blind, an anonymous network for professionals, found that 26% were “doing other stuff and simply listening for their name” during the meeting and 27% are “trying to pay attention, but often zoning out”. And there is also ‘zoom overload’. Researchers at Vanderbilt have identified the five reasons for virtual meeting fatigue—visual overload and short attention span, backchannel/side discussions and multitasking, and many multiple virtual interactions.

Lack of engagement in an online interaction is one thing in a virtual staff meeting. It’s something else when it is during a virtual treatment session. As we’ve covered before, consumer engagement is the key to success with consumer outcomes and with value-based contracts. Engaged consumers have better health outcomes and use fewer resources. Engaged consumers are also less likely to use costly services (e.g. hospitalizations and emergency department visits). And consumers who aren’t engaged in their health care are twice as likely to delay medical care, and three times as likely to have unmet medical needs.

Interestingly, over half (52%) of behavioral health and social services organizations say their greatest challenge is maintaining consumer engagement. To improve engagement, our recent survey of health plans found an impressive growth in mobile apps for promoting consumer engagement (now 39% of health plans using or encouraging use). And the health plan use of recovery, consumer shared decisionmaking, and consumer self-management tools are also on the increase.

To increase consumer engagement in this increasingly virtual treatment world, what are the tricks of the trade? This is the focus of our next OPEN MINDS Circle Elite Executive Roundtable, Selling The Next Normal—How To Improve Consumer Engagement In Telehealth Services. During this one-hour session, Amanda Jernigan, LCSW, corporate director of outpatient services for Gaudenzia, will discuss how her organization has approached consumer engagement to improve outcomes. Join as Thursday, January 13 at 1:00 pm ET to learn how to apply these lessons learned to virtual programs.