10 ways patient engagement tools enhance healthcare

To improve healthcare outcomes and patient satisfaction, look to digital patient engagement tools.

Today’s patients are consumers, and as such, they expect the same level of access and digital engagement with their doctor’s office as they do with services from shopping to banking to entertainment. Patient engagement tools, including patient portals and mobile apps, provide the convenience patients want—and then go one giant step further. As we'll see, these tools help drive better health outcomes, improve efficiency, and boost satisfaction for both patients and providers.

Here are 10 ways patient engagement solutions are boosting satisfaction and health outcomes for patients and reducing administrative burden, no-shows, and care gaps for clinicians—with real-life examples of these in action across the athenahealth® network.

1. Empowering patient access

Today’s digitally savvy patients want to access their health information whenever it’s convenient for them. In fact, according to one report, 26% of patients are willing to switch to a new clinician for high-quality digital engagement services.¹ Similarly, 75% of patients surveyed by athenahealth in 2024 felt that using digital patient engagement tools to connect with the healthcare system is somewhat or very important, and more than three out of four patients (75.8%) agreed that digital tools simplify those interactions.

Secure patient engagement portals and mobile apps give patients the 24/7 access they expect to their health information, helping them stay informed and engaged in their care. A 2022 report from Accenture found that patients who feel engaged in their care plan are more likely to adhere to it and are more likely to return to their clinician for future care.²

2. Secure, efficient communication

Messaging tools allow patients to communicate with their clinicians at their convenience, often reducing call volume while improving response times and patient satisfaction.

North Country Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center in upstate New York, made its patient engagement strategy a priority when it partnered with athenaOne®. Knowing that their patients prefer not to wait on the phone to speak to a staff member, they’ve enabled patients to message providers through the patient portal when it’s convenient for them. The FQHC also leverages text messages to let patients know when an appointment slot becomes available. “To be able to have functionality that would allow patients to engage more via a smartphone was really important to us,” says Joey Marie Horton, CEO of NCFHC. “It gives us a strategic tool to grow our practice, so that we’re serving everybody in the community.”

3. Self-scheduling & appointment management

In its 2024 report, “The evolving expectations of today’s healthcare consumer,” Press Ganey points out that 60% of consumers prefer to book appointments digitally rather than call the practice on the phone.³ By enabling patients to schedule, reschedule, and cancel appointments online, practices can reduce their administrative workload, improve patient retention, and make it easier for new patients to set up that important initial appointment with a clinician.

Switching to athenaOne put North Scottsdale Pediatrics on the forefront of patient scheduling technology—right where they wanted to be. According to practice administrator Tricia Juba, receiving “thousands of phone calls a day” had made it nearly impossible to provide the excellent service they aspired to. Now, adolescent patients and their parents use athenaOne’s online scheduling to make and manage appointments. “It gives them 24-hour access to our office to make any kind of appointment,” says Juba. “If they get up in the middle of the night and their kids are sick, they go on our portal, make an appointment, and we can see them at eight in the morning.”

The amount of administrative work saved by medical practices in this way is enormous. In 2024, 4.1 million appointments on the athenahealth network were self-scheduled directly by patients.⁴ It’s a win-win for patient and staff satisfaction.

4. Transparent, digital-first billing

By offering clear, easy-to-understand billing statements and digital payment options as part of a patient engagement platform, healthcare organizations can simplify the payment process for patients and see an improvement in collections. In fact, data from the athenahealth network shows that practices that use athenahealth’s online payment solutions have a 47% higher Patient Pay Yield than those that don’t.⁵

athenahealth includes patient financial activity when determining the patient digital engagement score, a measure of a patient’s tendency to complete activities digitally. athenahealth's own Patient Digital Engagement Index tracks engagement actions to create a relative score that helps to track patient use of digital tools in your practice and across a wider provider network. The research suggests that investing in digital patient engagement can have a positive impact on a practice’s financial performance. As one example, higher PDEI scores were found to be associated with higher Patient Pay Yields for practices: a one-point increase in PDEI was found to be associated with a one-point increase in the proportion of total patient charges paid within one year.

At CleanSlate Centers, an outpatient addiction facility with 76 locations across ten states, the move from paper billing to an automated online process has enabled them to collect more of what their patients owed them, without the administrative burden of handling paper statements. CleanSlate Centers partnered with Collectly, an athenahealth Marketplace partner, to provide a HIPAA and PCI-compliant way to let patients self-serve their payments via mobile device or desktop. Within a month of go-live, CleanSlate collected more than 1,600 outstanding patient payments, and patient revenue has increased by more than 250% overall.*

Healthcare organizations that fully leverage patient engagement tools don’t just improve operational efficiency—they create a better, more connected care experience for patients.

5. Mobile health access

Mobile devices have opened up a world of convenience for consumers. Just about anything they could access via a home computer can now be reached on the go—and that includes their health information and their doctor’s office.

With mobile apps like athenaPatient™, patients can check their health information, message clinicians, complete pre-visit tasks, pay bills, and more, all from their phones. The athenaPatient app has proven to be very popular for increasing patient engagement: more than 650,000 patients use it each month,⁶ and it is a top 10 medical app in the U.S. on the Apple App store.⁷

Enabling patients to accomplish health-related tasks anytime, anywhere contributes to their sense of satisfaction with their healthcare provider. In addition, with each appointment they schedule and each lab result they look up themselves via the athenaPatient app, patients are helping to reduce administrative work for practice staff.

6. Streamlined patient check-in process

Another activity patients can manage themselves with the right patient engagement software is the pre-visit check-in. Whether accessed via an app or a patient portal, pre-visit check-in tools reduce wait times and free up front-desk staff, creating a more friction-free, efficient patient experience.

Activity on the athenahealth network shows that when the tools are available, patients use them. More than 61 million patients completed self check-in on the network throughout 2024.⁸ Medical practices using athenaOne can also opt for configurable scheduling and check-in tools from athenahealth Marketplace partners, such as those offered by Kyruus Health. The company reports a 94% completion rate for its digital patient intake process.

7. Improved care coordination

One important component of successful care coordination involves having the patient follow through with referred care. Patient portals integrated with electronic health records (EHRs) enhance referral follow-through, ensuring patients connect with specialists and complete recommended treatments. According to the Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, patients who log into their patient engagement portals are 20% more likely to follow through on referrals—and 40% more likely if they read their care notes.⁹

Another way to monitor patients’ adherence to care plans is to incorporate their biometric data from external devices into their chart. When Levine Heart & Wellness needed to empower patients to adhere to their health program and take ownership of their health between clinic visits, they turned to an athenahealth Marketplace partner, Accuhealth. The practice tapped Accuhealth’s remote patient monitoring (RPM) solution to place patients’ blood pressure monitor readings directly in the EHR. More than 500 patients were successfully onboarded in the program and empowered to make healthier lifestyle choices.* As Dr. Ronald Levine reports, “The overwhelming majority of patients found it a great way to positively alter their lifestyle and improve their health.”

8. Automated patient outreach

Communication with patients is key to supporting their health and wellness—and to keeping schedules filled. Proactive, automated messaging helps schedule appointments, close care gaps, and remind patients about important follow-ups, boosting engagement and adherence.

In times of crisis, automated messaging can help a practice quickly share important news, updates, and reassuring advice with their patient population. When COVID-19 started to spread in the U.S., Capital Area Pediatrics deployed automated messaging in athenaOne to keep patients informed and to invite them back to the practice for preventive care. They also used automated messaging to teach patients and their families how to schedule telehealth visits. Their campaigns kept 30,000 patients informed. Dr. Elizabeth Watts, the CEO of Capital Area Pediatrics, explains, “As a pediatric office, we are seen as the experts, and we wanted our families to trust us. We consistently messaged that we’re a safe place to be. Children’s healthcare is essential. We encouraged families to get the right care when they needed it.”

Privia Medical Group used a three-week automated patient outreach campaign to bring in eligible patients for Medicare Annual Wellness visits. This allowed Privia to provide essential care and close care gaps. They ran four automated campaigns in athenaOne, reached 960 patients, and saved two staff members from about 128 hours of work calling patients one by one. Within 45 days of the campaign, 30% of the patients took action to schedule an appointment.*

9. Efficient prescription management

Patients can request refills and review medications through their portal, reducing errors and administrative burden for providers. At athenahealth, we believe in empowering patients to manage their own care and adhere to their prescribed medications—so much so that we received a Platinum 2024 Healthiverse® Heroes award¹⁰ for our dedication to enhancing medication adherence by integrating personalized patient messaging with athenaOne. We were recognized for streamlining medication management workflows to improve patient outcomes in physician practices and clinics.

With help from athenahealth Marketplace partners, practices can configure athenaOne to address their specific prescription and supplement management needs. For instance, Fullscript is a healthcare platform which enables clinicians to dispense and manage supplements from within athenaOne. When Tassone Gynecology, an independent practice in Texas, implemented Fullscript, the practice was able to increase the number of ordering patients by 52%.* Dr. Shawn Tassone says, “With Fullscript, my patients are able to access quality supplements easier and I am able to keep my recommendation list easily accessible for my patients and myself.”

10. Higher patient engagement & satisfaction

A digitally engaged patient is an active patient: more likely to follow care plans, attend appointments, and stay loyal to their clinicians. According to a 2024 study by Accenture, patients who are highly engaged with digital patient engagement tools are the most likely to be loyal to their clinician, report that they trust their clinician, and state that their clinician is easy to do business with. Accenture defines “highly engaged” patients as those who incorporate digital tools into all aspects of their lives and tend to have a “digital first” approach to engagement.¹¹

By meeting these patients where they are with the patient engagement software they prefer to use, healthcare practices can retain patients who may otherwise be less loyal to any one provider. Accenture reports in a 2022 study that younger generations, particularly Gen Z and millennials, are nearly six times more likely to switch healthcare providers than baby boomers and Gen X, and that 30% of patients switched providers in 2021.¹²

Key value-based care programs also monitor patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is embedded in the Improvement Activities measure of MIPS, which makes up 15% of the final score for MIPS Performance Year 2025.¹³ As reported in our white paper, “Patient Engagement in the Age of AI,” offering digital tools can improve patient satisfaction as patients enjoy the convenience and high-touch interactions that apps and portals afford them.

Improving digital engagement is good for patients and practices

Healthcare organizations that fully leverage digital patient engagement tools don’t just improve operational efficiency—they create a better, more connected care experience for patients. And that carries additional advantages, such as greater patient loyalty (important in the face of younger generations’ propensity to switch providers) and higher levels of patient satisfaction (a key MIPS and value-based care metric). Successful patient engagement can lead to stronger patient-clinician relationships, and ultimately to better health outcomes.

If your organization isn’t making the most of these patient engagement solutions yet, we’re here to help. Consider athenaOne, our all-in-one, inclusive solution which integrates powerful patient engagement with EHR and practice and revenue cycle management tools, so that you can tap into the benefits of digital patient engagement to improve clinical and financial performance. When you’re ready to see athenaOne in action, request a demo here or via the link at the top of this page.