Consumer experience has become a cornerstone of competitive advantage and care quality as healthcare shifts into a consumer-driven marketplace. With patients increasingly empowered to choose where and how they access services, local healthcare organizations are challenged to create seamless, meaningful engagement beyond the traditional clinical encounter to maintain patient loyalty. Today’s patients expect personalized, accessible, and proactive care—a shift driven by the ease and convenience of Uber and mobile banking alongside the growing availability of digital health tools. After all, it’s nearly 2025.
Healthcare organizations today face unprecedented competition from retail and digital health providers, local competitors leveraging virtual-first platforms, and even wellness brands entering the care space. This surge in consumer-driven healthcare options forced traditional providers to rethink patient experience and treat it as a key differentiator. An effective consumer experience strategy cultivates a lasting relationship, turning a clinical encounter into an ongoing health partnership.
The stakes are high: without focusing on patient experience, patients risk becoming disengaged or lost to other care options offering more convenience and perceived value.
How Does Patient Engagement Fit In?
Patient engagement is one of the more ambiguous terms in healthcare, but it is best defined as the desire and capability to actively choose to participate in care through personalization, access, commitment, and cultivation of a relationship between the patient and the provider organization.
Ongoing patient engagement is an essential component of care enablement. By leveraging automated follow-ups, personalized reminders, and pre/post-visit information, healthcare providers can monitor patient progress, address concerns promptly, and ensure patients are prepared and on time for appointments. This proactive approach enhances patient satisfaction, reduces patient leakage, and improves health outcomes without increasing the workload for clinicians or staff.
Implementing patient engagement programs develops loyalty through personalized interactions and convenience. Launching an engagement program should go beyond at-risk populations to cover the broader community. It should encourage patients based on their health journey in a personalized fashion, addressing pre/post-visit needs or risks and longitudinal chronic disease management.
Patient Engagement Starts Before the First Visit
One of the most effective approaches to patient engagement begins before the first visit. By leveraging a robust Digital Front Door® strategy, providers can give patients the resources they need early in their journey via search, easy website navigation, and conversational AI. Imagine a patient searching online for guidance on managing new symptoms. A robust, conversational AI-powered web tool with easy navigation and chat support can instantly address their needs, providing credible information and guiding them toward appropriate care options—all before they step foot in the clinic while reducing call center demand. This initial touchpoint can help patients find accurate information and sets a standard for a responsive, patient-centered experience.
Pre-visit engagement pathways are equal parts operational efficiency, visit inventory optimization and support of the therapeutic alliance. It starts with a simple patient reminder, but programs can be deployed to remind patients about critical steps in preparation for a visit, including:
- Bring in all current prescriptions
- Stop eating or taking certain medications prior to labs or procedures
- Plan for transportation if they won’t be able to drive home
Appropriately timed reminders decrease no-show rates, improve care plan adherence, and help patients stay engaged before an encounter or procedure. Additional benefits include:
- Minimize wait time with self-rescheduling and surfacing cancellations earlier
- Saving time by shifting intake and registration from the waiting room to the patient’s home
- Eliminating busywork by preventing manual data entry for clinical staff
Remembering everything that happens during a visit is a challenge for even the most engaged patients. Ensure care plan adherence by delivering a digital summary and triggering timely check-ins. Expert systems and conversational AI aid in the capture of key metrics and guide patients based on program/condition and live scoring, escalating them to:
- Live chat care navigation
- Phone/video care navigators
- Schedule a virtual or in-clinic appointment
- On-demand points of care, including the ER
Post-visit engagement supports continuity of care, fostering a more unified care experience and improving patient outcomes. It begins with an automated follow-up message that supports care plan adherence and timely intervention for health concerns. Organizations implementing post-visit engagement:
- Reduce 72-hour ED bounceback visits by 10%
- Improve care plan adherence and continuity of care
- Increase patient satisfaction and loyalty
- Maximize capacity for new patients with more acute conditions
Automation for More Personalized Patient Engagement
Personalization is another essential component of today’s engagement landscape. Patients want experiences tailored to their unique health journey and lifestyle. Healthcare providers can foster a connection by offering personalized reminders and health information that speaks directly to each patient’s needs. This isn’t limited to at-risk or chronic care populations; all patients benefit when care feels customized. Personalization extends from small reminders—such as pre-visit instructions—to highly individualized follow-ups after a visit. This tailored approach to communication shows patients that their provider understands and values them, nurturing loyalty and trust.
Fortunately, providing personalized patient engagement doesn’t have to be labor intensive. Automated follow-ups and check-ins provide an efficient yet personalized touch that enables patients to stay informed and compliant with their care plans. These ongoing communications reduce the likelihood of missed appointments, enhance care plan adherence, and foster a proactive approach to health—all while freeing up clinical staff to focus on direct care.
The Omni-Channel Approach to Patient Engagement
Effective engagement also requires a multi-channel approach to reaching patients wherever they are. Owned channels—such as patient portals, email, SMS, and mobile apps—allow providers to maintain control over messaging and deliver educational resources, appointment scheduling, and prescription refills in a secure environment. These platforms keep patients connected to their care teams, offering a digital bridge that turns traditional healthcare into a continuous experience.
On the other hand, earned channels—like media coverage, online reviews, and social media—expand reach and build credibility, turning patients into advocates who share their positive experiences with others.
We’ve broken down a few on-demand, self-service, and proactive engagement tools and use cases for your organization:
Tools & Use Cases for End-to-End Engagement
Marketing & Population Nudges
The influence of consumer marketing on patient engagement strategies is evident as healthcare organizations adopt tailored messaging and proactive nudges to inspire better health decisions. By analyzing patient data and population health trends, organizations can create targeted campaigns that encourage preventive care, such as vaccinations, screenings, or routine check-ups. This approach goes beyond managing illness to promoting wellness and fostering a culture of preventive health that benefits both the patient and the healthcare system at large. Ultimately, engagement strategies can be used to achieve specific organizational metrics or outcomes while driving access and patient education, leading to a healthier population.
Fabric offers engagement, call center integrations, a provider network, and virtual care—removing the limitations of siloed engagement platforms. Broad EHR, CRM, and call center integrations ensure a cohesive experience wherever a patient might be in their journey while driving ROI.
- Launch marketing campaigns
- Streamline providers referrals
- Measure patient satisfaction
- Encourage preventative care
- Drive outstanding bill payment
Fit Patient Engagement Into Your 2025 Strategy
Addressing patient satisfaction remains central to these engagement efforts, as it’s one of the key indicators of care quality. Patients measure satisfaction through their experience with access, wait times, and care accuracy. Streamlined intake and triage processes allow patients to skip lengthy paperwork and avoid duplicate questions, eliminating bottlenecks that often lead to patient frustration. By removing these friction points, healthcare providers can enhance the patient journey, ensuring patients feel valued and respected from the moment they interact with the system. The added convenience of virtual and in-person engagement options also allows patients to choose how they receive care, building trust and satisfaction by catering to personal preferences.
Ultimately, healthcare organizations that prioritize continuous, personalized, and multi-channel patient engagement will not only retain patients in the face of rising competition but also improve health outcomes. Patient engagement in 2025 isn’t just a means to an end—it’s a commitment to creating meaningful connections that transform healthcare experiences, ensuring patients feel seen, supported, and empowered in their journey to wellness.
Download our free Guide to Digital Transformation and Care Enablement to see how this fits within a greater care enablement strategy.
