To Differentiate The Mobile Experience, Go Beyond The EHR

Mobile strategy in healthcare has moved front and center as a significant competitive differentiator, especially as it relates to access to care and patient experience which are both drivers of repeat customer revenue.

According to the 2024 Healthtech Perspectives Report, more than half (55%) of U.S. consumers prefer to use a mobile application to manage healthcare appointments, prescriptions and medical records. And a growing body of research points to digital experience as a key factor in patient acquisition and retention, particularly among younger demographics and those managing chronic conditions.

Yet despite the fact that most healthcare leaders recognize the importance of a digital strategy—with seven out of 10 leaders globally planning to invest in digital tools and services—few organizations exhibit mobile maturity. All too often, mobile strategy is equated with provision of an EHR patient portal. Yet when it comes to consumer expectations, the EHR infrastructure falls short.

The average consumer has become accustomed to intuitive, streamlined mobile design that makes life easier thanks to the innovation of industry giants like Amazon, Uber, and Delta. Consequently, the bar is high for healthcare. Anything short of convenient, personalized interactions along with real-time responsiveness leaves patients and families disappointed.

Health systems that understand the urgency of solving the mobile equation also recognize that the EHR patient portal—originally designed for billing, not the patient experience—will not deliver an optimal result. Staying competitive in a digital world means going outside the constraints of EHR to bring together best-in-class offerings that unify the patient journey.

Patient Portals Are Not a Mobile Strategy

EHRs provide a foundation for healthcare data collection and analytics. While the introduction of the electronic record has transformed the way the industry cares for patients, these platforms have their limitations.

Patient portals often house essential functionality such as appointment scheduling, test results and secure messaging. But while offering patients access to these areas via a portal may check a box, there is typically minimal appeal on the patient experience front.

For example, navigating the desktop interface of a patient portal on a mobile device will often result in a disjointed experience characterized by excessive clicks and multiple logins, creating more frustration than convenience. That’s because EHRs were set up as transactional infrastructures and were never meant to support a “handholding” experience within the patient journey.

In actuality, patient portals should be viewed as one component of a unified mobile strategy. Healthcare organizations that get this right start with a single source of truth: a central mobile app that brings together all of a health system’s consumer-facing digital elements, from wayfinding to patient portal access, physician directories, emergency department wait times and more.

A unified framework delivered through the device patients use most—their smartphone—provides convenience and removes friction in the patient journey. Because every health system is different, each must consider its own unique characteristics—such areas as geography, services and specializations offered—and the distinct needs of its patient populations.

Foundationally, a mobile app should reinforce a health system’s cohesive brand, with every aspect of functionality contributing to patient satisfaction. At the very least, a brand should convey best-in-class offerings that can be easily integrated within a mobile platform. For example, self-service scheduling that mirrors what a consumer might experience through “Open Table” will go much further toward creating loyalty than one that is disjointed and dated.

The Power of Personalization

True personalization means that a mobile experience is 100% relevant to the patient. It’s safe to say that most health systems have not reached this holy grail of mobile experience, but it should be a guiding force in strategy—one that considers how to intuitively tailor a health system’s specific service lines and care pathways to a patient’s journey.

Offering a level of personalization akin to the retail and transportation industries isn’t just about building patient loyalty through competitive differentiation. There is also tremendous potential to impact outcomes when this is done well. For example, a 2024 Journal of Medicine Internet Research review that found mobile engagement tools produce meaningful improvements in chronic disease outcomes. And common sense suggests that personalized mobile communication will drive better care plan adherence across a wide variety of patient populations.

Consider a female patient whose mammogram results suggest an anomaly. When the health system’s mobile app hasn’t been optimized for the patient experience, this woman might open the app to find more information only to be greeted with a cluttered screen celebrating Prostate Cancer Awareness Day. Instead of the app automatically directing her to the lab results, she must click through multiple screens and log in a second time to access her information. Finding an appropriate cancer specialist also means she will be burdened with multiple clicks. Instead of the mobile app intuitively and proactively guiding her to the best cancer specialists that accept her insurance, she must weed through a variety of screens to identify a match.

An optimally designed digital experience, on the other hand, considers how to simplify the patient journey to ensure the information is relevant to the patient.

Convenience and relevance—two words that will continue to define optimal mobile experiences going forward. Handheld devices can become important healthcare companions and problem solvers if health systems will embrace the opportunity and invest wisely.