The Digital Front Door® is a strategy for improving patient access and experience that relies on technology to facilitate patient interactions. The technology comprising a Digital Front Door® is a combination of self-service tools provided to the patient, such as self-scheduling, a symptom checker, or a chatbot, and engagement systems designed to keep your patient loyal while improving outcomes. While the term is now widely used, Fabric coined the term in 2016 and owns the trademark to this day.
Be There the Moment Patients Search for Care
A patient’s care experience begins long before they step into the clinic or start a virtual visit. Today, patients are turning to search engines as a first step when seeking care. From searching symptoms, booking appointments, to getting care virtually—patients rely on your Digital Front Door® when making decisions. As patient expectations increasingly align with consumerism, access and convenience have become essential—even more so than direct human interaction.
Prioritize Accessible Information
Not only is it important for patients to be able to find your website, they must also be able to navigate your website to find the resources they’re looking for and access appropriate points of care. When a patient lands on your website, can patients easily find what services you offer, how they can get care, and where they can make payments?
When a patient lands on a web property like a health system website, they are actively seeking a service or resource from your brand. How you choose to get these resources to the user can make all the difference in whether they get care with you or find an easier, more convenient option. The more barriers to finding that information—such as a poor site search experience, navigating a deep page directory, or keeping key information locked inside a patient portal—the less likely a new patient is to get care using your properties.
The Role of Conversational AI
Offering digital concierge in the form of conversational AI chat ensures patients have 24/7 support without consuming any additional staff time or phone volume. These chats seamlessly integrate throughout your website, allowing patients to “speak” with your website as they would a navigator or coordinator in the clinic, escalating to live chat or callback queue when necessary.
In addition to directing patients to payment resources and answering frequently asked questions, chatbots must also recognize when patients are asking about specific symptoms, prompting intelligent symptom gathering and moving patients into appropriate points of care—whether through virtual visits or in-person care.
AI automation can also be used at call centers to enable support team members to address more cases. This can be done via voice-assisted AI offloading to AI-powered chat via SMS, or offloading low acuity visits to asynchronous-first virtual visits via SMS if scheduling in-person care isn’t viable due to capacity.
Patient Acquisition and Revenue Growth
We analyzed the efficacy of the Digital Front Door® as a patient acquisition vehicle for a leading health system customer of Fabric and Carrot Health. We used health system-collected data to track care received by a cohort of 974 virtual care users new to the health system, with new patients defined by the health system as those not having received care within the previous 24 months.
Of the 974 virtual care users who started a virtual visit, 242 had at least one in-person visit within 12 months of their virtual encounter, producing a conversion rate of 24.8%.
The study showed that on average, the virtual care users who converted to health system patients had three subsequent in-person visits, generating $2,927 of additional revenue, within 12 months of their online encounter. In total, that translated to more than $708,000 in incremental annualized revenue.
Additional data reinforces that patients are increasingly seeking convenient, digital-first experiences. Prioritizing an effective Digital Front Door® experience can be the key to attracting new patients and preventing them from turning to local competitors or national consumer care brands.
Maximizing Patient Experience and Loyalty
In an era where consumerism and competition are reshaping healthcare, the Digital Front Door® is not just a convenience—it’s a necessity. By creating a seamless, engaging, and efficient digital-first experience, health systems can not only attract and retain patients but also drive significant financial benefits. As healthcare continues to evolve, the Digital Front Door® will play an increasingly vital role in shaping the patient journey and ensuring the success of health systems in an increasingly competitive and consumer-centric landscape.
The Digital Front Door® is most effective when integrated into a comprehensive end-to-end care enablement system. To explore its role within this holistic care delivery approach, download the Guide to Digital Transformation and Care Enablement.
