Why Patient Education Is Important and How to Better Prioritize It

About 90% of American adults struggle with health literacy, resulting in confusion around diagnoses, preventative health, and treatment options. That means the vast majority of Americans aren’t getting the best health outcomes possible or truly understanding what they need, placing undue strain on the healthcare industry. This problem is a long-term challenge, but there is a solution: commitment to providing clear, thorough, accessible patient education can help greatly reduce patients’ frustration.

Many practices offer some patient education, though many aren’t confident in their ability to deliver great patient education. Most best-in-class examples come from larger hospital systems, such as The Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic. Smaller practices don’t have the same resources and personnel to build a similar library of patient education resources But that doesn’t mean their patient education initiatives can’t be successful too. To help, we compiled the best tips so smaller practices can better educate patients with the resources they already have.

What Is Patient Education?

Patient education refers to a process that provides patients with information, resources, and instruction to help them make more informed decisions about improving their health and well-being. It’s often provided during preventative health appointments, at the time of diagnosis, when being discharged from the hospital, or at appointments to help manage chronic illnesses. This education isn’t just for patients; it can also be provided to a patient’s caregiver, friends, or family. 

In an ideal world, patient education materials are adapted to a patient’s language, cultural and religious background, and education level. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen, but striving to be inclusive and personalize patient education makes education more effective.

Why Is Patient Education Important?

Running a healthcare practice often comes with a never-ending to-do list. And patient education often ends up near the bottom of that list. While insurance reimbursement claims or fitting in a patient with an emergency are understandably higher priorities, patient education is a worthwhile investment for your patients, practice, and staff. 

Your practice, staff, and patients benefit from patent education in many ways, including the seven benefits listed below.

1. Improved Health Outcomes
2. Patient Empowerment
3. Better Patient Experience
4. Time Saved for Patients and Providers
5. Higher Value-Based Reimbursements for Clinics
6. Healthcare Cost Reduction for Patients and Practices
7. Prevent Physician Burnout

Benefits of Patient Education

1. Improved Health Outcomes

Patient education improves health outcomes, especially for those with chronic illnesses. A 2022 study from the Journal of Patient Experience reveals a reason why this may be: Engaged patients make informed decisions on treatment options and often feel empowered to reach out to additional practices, providers, or resources.

2. Patient empowerment

Patient engagement and education go hand in hand. Think of the last time you had to make a decision where you had an ample amount of knowledge about the context. Imagine how you’d feel in that situation if you were confused about what was going on. Your patients are experiencing one or the other, depending on how informed they are on preventative care or a specific diagnosis. Informed patients often feel more confident and are able to advocate for their own care needs.

When patients feel empowered and engaged, they often play a more active role in their healthcare. This can lead to better adherence to treatment plans, more informed decision-making, and improved health outcomes. Engagement creates a sense of partnership between patients and providers, creating a collaborative environment where communication is clear and trust is strengthened. For providers, engaged patients often lead to more streamlined care delivery and higher satisfaction rates, making the entire healthcare experience more rewarding and efficient for everyone involved.

In the long run, educated patients will save time as they may have fewer follow-up appointments due to confusion around treatment options or preventative health measures. Thorough patient education efforts will require more of your staff’s time. And at first it may be hard to discern the immediate impact. But fewer follow-ups or calls to clarify treatments, diagnoses, and health recommendations saves time for your team down the line.  

More government healthcare providers and private insurance companies are shifting to a value-based healthcare system. Under this model, patient education leads to higher reimbursement, impacting the bottom line. The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) and Quality Payment Program are two reimbursement programs where patient education increases your practice’s reimbursement rate.

Value-based reimbursement programs such as HRRP and the Quality Payment Program exist because the more activated and engaged a patient is, the lower their healthcare costs. Since patient education increases activation, it indirectly lowers the costs associated with running your practice.

Physicians in a small practice often have fewer staff to help with patient questions, meaning more of the burden for responding to patients falls on the physicians. Since patients with access to high-quality education resources are more self-reliant, they’ll call your practice with fewer questions and need less guidance before routine procedures and appointments, leading to better work/life balance for physicians.

Patient Education Guidelines 

When auditing and improving your patient education, balance innovative strategies with tried-and-true methods. Some trusted guidelines include:

• Focus patient education on patient activation: While there’s a tendency to educate on health conditions alone, information on what patients can do is also helpful. In a 2021 study by Health Literacy Research and Practice, researchers found that participants with breast cancer only had a higher quality of life when education materials focused on what patients could do to help treat their breast cancer, not education on this cancer type alone. 
• Don’t shy away from the financials: In a 2020 study by the American Journal of Nursing, surveyed patients reported they were most confused over healthcare costs. The authors recommended more patient education resources around how to navigate the financials. 
• Keep it simple: Avoid complex medical terminology whenever possible. If using a complicated medical term, break it down for the patient.
• Invest in the right education materials: Culturally competent patient education and translated materials can impact the success of education initiatives, especially if you have a diverse patient population or many patients who speak a language other than English.
• Utilize technology: Offer a healthcare chatbot to answer questions when staff aren’t working. It’s a great way to keep patients engaged in their care even when they have questions after hours.

7 Innovative Patient Education Strategies to Prioritize in 2025

The guidelines above are a great starting point, but what does effective patient education look like in action? Below are seven innovative strategies, all customized to suit the needs of small practices, not larger healthcare systems. 

1. Implement The Patient Teach-back Method
2. Mix Digital and Physical Resources to Cater to Multiple Generations
3. Lean on the Patient Portal
4. Incorporate Patient Education from the Start
5. Share Patient Education Resources
6. Avoid Information Overload
7. Improve Administrative Workflow

1. The Patient Teach-back Method

To ensure everyone is on the same page, use the patient teach-back method. After telling a patient something important, ask them to repeat the main points back to you in their own words. A 2020 study from PLoS One found it to be effective across healthcare settings and appointments for various health concerns.

2. Mix Digital and Physical Resources to Cater to Multiple Generations

Most practices today are multi-generational, meaning they serve a wide age range of patients, from the late teen-age years into the 90s. How these generations communicate varies. And factors other than age, such as education level, literacy, and how busy a patient is, also impact how patients want to receive educational materials. 

To suit patients' diverse needs (and make sure each patient hears important educational material more than once), map out ways to provide patient education digitally, physically, and verbally.

A plastic surgery practice, for example, may educate a patient who is deciding whether to go through with a liposuction verbally during an appointment and with a physical handout. Later that day, the staff could upload that handout and a helpful video on liposuction to the patient’s patient portal for digital reference. 

3. Lean on the Patient Portal

With a patient portal, patients can access important health records and schedule appointments digitally. Your team can also use the portal to upload helpful resources (developed in-house or by external health organizations). 

Patients can also ask questions to a chatbot in a patient portal, freeing up your phone lines. Plus, the portal can prompt patients on how to take any follow-up actions, such as scheduling an appointment or getting a prescription filled. 

4. Incorporate Patient Education from the Start

A 2022 study from Cureus suggests patient education is most effective when uniform and implemented from the beginning of a patient’s journey with your practice. While this looks different for every practice, it often starts during the patient intake process. 

An ophthalmology practice, for example, could give new patients a handout on how their patient portal works and the best ways to schedule appointments. A dermatology practice could store handouts for common conditions and provide a patient with the appropriate one after a diagnosis. 

5. Share Patient Education Resources 

While you can create your own patient education materials, it takes time and resources most small practices can’t afford. Instead, share links to free ones developed by other well-known and reputable organizations.

To start, here are some resources to explore and consider sharing with patients:

• CDC’s educational library
• Resources from university-affiliated organizations, like John Hopkins Medicine
• Educational materials from nonprofits associated with a specific cause, such as the National Eczema Association

6. Avoid Information Overload

As the world becomes digitized and moves faster each year, many patients suffer from information overload. Your practice can be part of the solution by only providing resources about a patient’s specific health concerns. For example, it may be easier to upload all patient education resources to a patient portal, but that can overwhelm patients. Instead, only upload files specific to patients in their individual portals. 

7. Improve Administrative Workflow

Patient education resources from external sources, like the CDC or university-affiliated hospitals, are great but they can’t beat your own staff. Your team understands a patient’s individual situation. What they need is more time to answer patient questions and provide more meaningful interactions. 

By optimizing your practice’s administrative workflow, you provide staff with the necessary time and headspace to answer patient questions. Pima Eye Institute switched EHR/practice management providers to improve their administrative workflow. As a result, their team spent less time on administrative tasks, leaving more space to educate and engage with patients. 

Measuring the Impact of Patient Education

One effective way to assess patient education is to look at patient engagement metrics. To help, the CDC lists four easy ones to track:

• Ease in filling out medical forms
• Patient understanding of medical conditions and treatments
• Patients’ proactivity in creating appointments
• Levels of anxiety or depression regarding medical care

You could also track metrics specific to education, such as how many clarification calls you get from patients,  how often resources in the patient portal are utilized, patient survey feedback, and views, clicks, and downloads from digital communication channels such as your mobile app, email campaigns, and social media account. 

The Future of Patient Education

Two technologies that are likely to change patient education in the near future are artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics. AI may further the ability to educate patients 24/7 with detailed, personalized responses. As patient analytics become more robust, your team can become more adept at identifying common knowledge gaps and developing resources around them.

The best way to stay up to date with these improvements and others is to partner with a comprehensive, specialty-specific technology provider who monitors trends and automatically makes updates to keep your practice at the forefront of what’s possible. 

Simplify Patient Education with the Right Technology

Nextech’s technology platform empowers specialty healthcare providers to deliver thorough, easily accessible patient education resources that enhance engagement and drive better health outcomes. 

By integrating tools such as patient portals, digital communication, and data analytics, Nextech ensures patients receive tailored, timely information about their conditions, treatments, and care plans. This accessibility fosters a deeper understanding of their healthcare journey and encourages active participation and adherence to treatment protocols. 

With Nextech’s platform, providers can seamlessly share educational content, track patient interactions, and adapt resources to meet individual needs, ultimately strengthening the provider-patient relationship and improving the health and well-being of our communities. See how it works — get a free demo.