Digital Patient Engagement: A Complete Guide + Real-Life Examples

Introduction

Digital patient engagement is the new hype and for all the right reasons. Not only is it helping healthcare professionals deal with various challenges in the patient journey, but is also helping them deliver what patients expect these days. Yes, your patients (75% of them to be exact) expect you to offer digital channels via which they can communicate with you, and 65% of patients are even willing to switch providers for a better digital experience. 

So, if you are interested in knowing more about online patient engagement, including the tools, use cases, challenges, best tools, etc., then keep reading.  

What is Digital Patient Engagement?

Digital patient engagement refers to providing a digital experience to patients to help them participate in their healthcare outcomes more actively and to improve adherence to treatment plans. Patient engagement can be facilitated digitally via different platforms, including SMS, reminder and appointment scheduling systems, chatbots, AI virtual receptionists, and survey and feedback systems, among others. Healthcare practitioners who are interested in reducing no-show rates, wait times, front-desk workload, readmissions rate, and improving overall patient satisfaction and adherence rate should definitely use more or more of these channels.   

Why is Digital Health Patient Engagement Needed?

Digital Patient Engagement is needed because of two main reasons. First, patients expect you to offer it and second, providers can deal with many common issues that arise during a patient’s journey with it. Here are a few stats supporting the same-

For Providers:

• As per MGMA (Medical Group Management Association), clinics that use digital reminders saw no-show rates drop from 18% to 10.2%.
• Telehealth reduces wait times by up to 50% for non-urgent care.
• As per a 2022 research done by Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), remote monitoring increased medication adherence by up to 20–30% in chronic patients.
• Daily text reminders improve medication adherence by 17.8% on average.

For Patients:

• As per Accenture Digital Health Consumer Survey, 81% of patients want their healthcare providers to offer tools like digital patient check-ins,  online scheduling, and telehealth.
• 75% of patients want to be able to communicate with providers digitally (via text, email, or chat). 
• 65% of patients say they would switch providers for a better digital experience.

Clearly, good digital patient experience is needed to meet patients where they are and to deal with most pressing challenges in healthcare. 

Types of Digital Patient Engagement Channels

There are many types of virtual patient engagement channels that can be broadly fit into these categories:

• For Informational Engagement: This channel is used to offer personalized educational content and FAQs via email, SMS, website chatbots, etc.
• For Communicational Engagement: This utilizes two-way communication and patient engagement channels like SMS, healthcare VoIP phone systems, etc.
• Transactional Engagement: Transactional engagement includes sending booking appointments, filling forms, paying bills, etc.
• Behavioral Engagement: This includes engaging patients via quizzes, gamification apps, coaching, etc. 
• Monitoring Engagement: This includes engaging patients via remote monitoring wearables and apps for things like symptom tracking, vitals, and treatment progress.

Types of Digital Patient Engagement Tools

There are many types of digital patient engagement tools, and you can choose to implement one or more of these depending on your workflow and patient communication needs:

Automated Communication Tools

One of the most common and popular types of digital patient engagement tools are automated communication tools that allow text messaging and secure messaging, automated reminders (for medications, appointments, follow‑ups), self-scheduling options, etc. Automated communication tools not only help in improving patient communication but are also proven to reduce administrative workload. 

Chatbots & AI Assistants

Chatbots and AI assistants are increasingly being adopted by healthcare professionals for virtual patient engagement. These artificial intelligence tools help in answering patient FAQs and common patient queries via healthcare SMS chatbots. AI assistants are also being used to frame quick SMS responses and AI automated responses to save time.  

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Systems

IVR system is another great tool for engaging your patients virtually. An IVR system like Emitrr, which answers patient calls, routes patients to the right department, confirms appointments or reschedules, offers test results, conducts surveys, etc., can be a game changer for your front desk staff especially. And the best part is IVR systems are often easy to implement and require no training or major workflow change. 

Feedback and Survey Tools

Feedback and survey tools are, again, very popular patient engagement tools. With it, you can collect patient-reported outcomes and satisfaction scores and implement patient feedback to improve your services. In fact, as per Press Ganey’s white paper, healthcare systems that implement real-time feedback systems see a 15–20% improvement in overall patient satisfaction scores, improving care quality and experience. 

Telehealth / Virtual Care Platforms

The best way to engage baby boomers and offer convenience to elderly patients is by offering telehealth or virtual care platforms. Virtual care platforms make it possible to offer remote video call consultation, chatbots for quick resolutions, asynchronous messaging, etc. This type of digital patient engagement platform not only caters to the new-age generation that craves convenience but also ensures convenience to patients with debilitating chronic conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or who may not be able to visit health centers and clinics as frequently. 

Patient Portals

Patient portals are secure online platforms where patients can view electronic health records, check lab results, view recent doctor visits, medication regimens, discharge summaries, and request prescription refills without needing to visit the clinic again and again. Implementing patient portals is a great way to offer convenience while keeping patients engaged in their health and healthcare outcomes.  

Mobile Health Apps

You could also offer mobile health apps to improve digital health patient engagement in your healthcare clinic. mHealth apps allow you to send medication reminders for improved patient adherence, offer symptom tracking for quick triaging, and send health education content to improve healthcare literacy among patients.

Wearable Devices & Remote Monitoring Tools

Wearables and smart devices (e.g., glucometers, scales, inhalers), etc., are also popular digital patient engagement tools. The best part is some advanced wearable devices can be integrated with the provider’s system in real-time and help in remote patient monitoring (RPM) if there is a drop in, say, blood pressure, change in heart rate, glucose levels, etc.

Educational Content Platforms

Last but not least, there are also educational content platforms that are gaining popularity in aiding digital health engagement. Examples of patient engagement include engaging with patients via videos, quizzes, articles, interactive modules, etc., via platforms like Healthwise, Krames, etc. Or you could start your own blog or newsletter as well for sharing conditions‑specific educational content and healthcare tips, etc. 

Bonus tip: Education content platforms can not only be a tool for improving digital patient experience but can also help you in establishing authority and building healthcare brand reputation.  

Benefits of Digital Patient Engagement

Let us look at the top benefits of digital patient engagement: 

Improves patient compliance

Digital patient engagement platforms like SMS reminders, follow-ups, patient portals, etc., leads to improved health outcomes and better patient compliance. This is because with such tools, post-discharge you can remind patients of their medications, follow-up sessions, etc., which helps them take their health more seriously. 

Reduced no-shows and cancellations

Automating reminders via digital channels like SMS, email, and push notifications leads to 30-50% reduction in no-show rates and cancellations. In fact, a Cleveland Clinic study found a 39% drop in no-show rates after implementing an automated reminder system like Emitrr.  

Offers convenience & accessibility

Patient care is no longer limited to brick and mortar locations, with so many digital patient engagement channels and mobile apps, patients expect convenience and accessibility now more than ever. And patient engagement tools give you the opportunity to meet patients where they are. 

Cuts down healthcare costs

Lack of adherence is one of the biggest reasons for unnecessary ER visits, readmissions, etc., and this often costs healthcare providers up to $150–$200 per patient per year. In fact, according to a report by McKinsey virtual health could save the U.S. healthcare system up to $250 billion annually if fully adopted. 

Allows personalized patient support

Digital patient engagement platforms such as SMS, reminder systems, feedback collection tools, etc., help you offer personalized patient support. With SMS and AI, you can draft personalized SMS while ensuring automation, with feedback collection tools, you can understand where your service lacks. Overall, this personalised patient support can lead to better experience and increased adherence to treatment plans.  

Improves operational flow

By adopting digital patient engagement software that lets you automate scheduling, reminders, follow-ups, etc., frees up administrative resources and shortens patient wait times. In fact, clinics that use digital patient intake forms report 20–30% improvement in front-desk efficiency. 

Improves patient-provider communication

With digital patient tools like SMS, mobile health apps, virtual telehealth platforms, etc., you can improve communication with your patients. For example, with two-way secure texting your patients can reach out to you for any post-discharge issues or queries and get quick help without giving you another visit. 

Reduces clinician workload in non-critical cases

The new age virtual patient engagement tools like chatbots, AI virtual assistants, etc., can handle FAQs, general patient queries and automate other routine tasks reducing clinician workload in non-critical cases. Even interactive voice response (IVR) systems could lessen the workload of receptionists by routing patient calls to the right departments or offering solutions directly over call. 

Promotes better health awareness & literacy

By sharing healthcare tips, interactive content, healthcare-related blog posts, reminders, etc., via digital patient experience tools, you can help promote better health awareness and literacy rate among people in general. This can not help in aiding digital patient education, but can also help you increase brand awareness and improve your hospital’s reputation. 

Reduces rehospitalization risks

Non-adherence to treatment plans post-discharge is one of the biggest reasons for rehospitalization. However, by ongoing patient engagement with remote monitoring, digital follow-ups etc., you can monitor your patients remotely and reduce hospitalisation rate. For example, a study by The American Heart Association found that remote engagement reduced 30-day readmissions by 25% among heart failure patients.

Challenges in Digital Patient Engagement

While there are many benefits of having a virtual patient interaction tool in place, there are some challenges that you might have to face:

Data privacy and HIPAA compliance

Not all digital engagement tools are HIPAA compliant, and you cannot implement the ones that are not. So make sure to look for HIPAA compliance and other data privacy-related features such as end-to-end encryption, limited user access, secure call recordings, secure chat feature, BAA certification, and more to ensure you do everything within the legal bounds. 

Digital literacy among patients

Patients, especially older patients, lack the technical know-how of using digital tools. While remote patient monitoring could be extremely beneficial for elderly patients, they may resist change and adapt to technology. The best way to deal with this is to implement a tool that has a very easy-to-use interface so that your staff members, as well as your patients, don’t resist change. 

Integration with existing EHR/EMR systems

Not all digital patient engagement tools can integrate with your existing EHR/EMR or patient management system. However, integration is extremely important so that you can avoid double entries and your tasks can be automated and updated on the go. To solve this problem, make sure to get a digital patient engagement solution that can integrate with your existing EHR/EMR/PMS system. 

Technology costs and infrastructure

Implementing an e-patient engagement tool, be it an automated scheduling system, IVR, chatbots, or communication tools such as SMS, email, VoIP, etc., costs money. And the price increases as you add more and more capabilities. This could make small healthcare practitioners second guess the implementation of an e-patient engagement tool. However, there are affordable and all-in-one digital patient engagement tools like Emitrr available in the market. Besides, with no-show reduction and fewer readmission cases, virtual patient engagement only helps save money in the long run. 

Difficulty in finding time for new processes

There is implementation time and training time involved when introducing a new tech-enabled patient care system in your healthcare space. Staff may find it difficult to manage their time for new processes owing to the busy nature of their work. However, to tackle this, you should look for a tool that is easy to use and comes with short implementation time and quick training.  

Lack of support from management and staff

Another challenge that you may face is the lack of support from your management and staff when introducing new software. However, educating the staff about the many benefits of having such a tool right from, better adherence to treatment plans, and reduction in administrative workload could be a great incentive for them to accept the change. 

Use Cases of Digital Patient Engagement in Healthcare

Healthcare practitioners are now able to retain patients, reduce no-show rates and hospital readmission rates, and improve patient adherence to treatment plans using different kinds of digital health patient engagement channels. Here are a few use cases to look at: 

Appointment Scheduling & Reminders

The most popular way of improving virtual patient engagement is by automating appointment scheduling, reminders, follow-ups, offering self-scheduling options, etc. Reminders and follow-ups show that you care about your patients, it makes them more compliant with treatment, and options like appointment self-scheduling offer convenience to patients and make it more likely for them to show up for the appointments they booked themselves, reducing no-show rates. 

Pre-Visit Digital Check-In

Another great way to engage patients is by offering pre-visit digital check-in. By allowing your patients to fill forms online and by verifying insurance beforehand via mobile apps, you not only offer them convenience but also reduce patient waiting room time. In fact, by implementing digital check-in, clinicians can reduce waiting room time by 20 minutes per patient. 

Telehealth Consultations

Post-COVID-19, telehealth consultations have gained popularity, and so you have to meet patients where they are. Your patients expect you to offer telehealth consultations such as video consultations, virtual therapy sessions, virtual ups, and more. By offering virtual care, you can cater to patients across multiple locations and expand care access. 

Medication Adherence & Refill Reminders

Medication adherence in the U.S. is a big issue, with just a 50% adherence rate for chronic medications. This means half of the patients with long-term illnesses do not take their medications consistently. Thankfully, this problem can be tackled by patient engagement strategies like sending refills or medication reminders. 

Chronic Disease Management

Patients with chronic diseases like diabetes or hypertension require continuous management with wearable devices or mobile apps that keep their health in check and alert their healthcare provider in case anything goes wrong. With the use of such patient engagement tools, you can reduce the readmission rate caused by chronic diseases. In fact, as per the American Heart Association, patients with heart failure who were enrolled in a remote monitoring program saw a 50% reduction in 30-day readmissions. 

Patient Feedback & Experience Surveys

Patients want to feel seen and heard not just before appointments, but also after their treatments. A great way to improve their patient satisfaction rate is by implementing a digital patient feedback system in place or by prompting them for an experience survey. As per a study, hospitals that use real-time feedback see a 15-point increase in patient satisfaction scores.

Post-Discharge Follow-Ups

Just like post-discharge feedback, post-discharge follow-ups play an important role in improving patient satisfaction as well as treatment adherence. For this, you should start sending discharge instructions, tracking recovery, and checking in on symptoms digitally via SMS or email using patient communication tools like Emitrr. 

Billing & Payment Portals

Virtual patient engagement tools such as SMS platforms are a great way to prompt patients for due bills and payment reminders. Since SMS has a 98% open rate, you can use it to send billing reminders with payment links, ensuring all payments are collected timely.  

Best Practices for Remote Patient Engagement

While there are so many benefits of remote patient engagement, you must understand the gaps and ensure best practices to make healthcare more accessible to all. 

Understanding the Digital Divide in Healthcare

In spite of the rising popularity amongst urban or new-generation patients, there are many patients who still face barriers to digital health access, including:

• Low digital literacy rate
• A mismatch between cultural and language
• Limited access to the internet
• Lack of access to smart devices 

Strategies to Close the Gap

You can follow some best practices or strategies to close this gap:

• If AI, chatbots, and IVR are too complex for some, try to implement SMS as a digital engagement channel. SMS is easy to use for all.
• Implement systems that offer multi-language capabilities.
• Collaborate with Community Health Workers or local clinics to promote digital literacy among local patients.
• Offer step-by-step tutorial guides for different online processes, such as pre-admission intake forms, etc.

Why It Matters

While doing all these extra things might look like a lot, here’s why it matters- as per research, health systems that actively address the digital divide see:

• Higher patient tryst and satisfaction score
• Reduced patient readmission rates 
• Better engagement with low-income patients. 

By implementing various e-patient engagement channels, you can gain a lot in the long run. 

Real-life Examples of Digital Patient Engagement

Virtual Patient Engagement Example 1

Dr. Mary Tilak and Associates wanted to provide tech-enabled and readily accessible primary care services.

• Patient interaction was another significant challenge that they faced as the patients had to log in to their portal to be able to communicate with the doctors.
• The facility had a hard time reaching out to multiple patients at once, which made it difficult for scaling by the way of text messaging.
• Any last-minute communication with all the scheduled patients was a cumbersome task as it had to be done by calling each patient manually.

To deal with these patient engagement challenges, they decided to go for Emitrr, a HIPAA-complaint patient engagement platform offering tools like SMS, email, VoIP, AI chatbot, virtual receptionist, etc., and saw a huge improvement- 

• 3 minutes – average handle time
• 48 seconds – average wait time
• 300 new reviews – in 2 months
• 90% reduction – in no-shows and cancellations

Read more about their story here. 

Virtual Patient Engagement Example 2

Aspire Counselling, a top-performing Counselling Group in California, with 7 locations and growing across the state, wanted to communicate with patients, and ensure that they were keeping these patients for a lifetime via a reliable digital patient engagement channel. 

Aspire Counselling implemented Emitrr and used Emitrr’s tools for the following:

• Reviews & Reputation
• Interactions (Webchat, Receptionist, 2 Way Texting)
• Mass Texting (Marketing Campaigns)
• Patient satisfaction surveys

In just 8 months with Emitrr’s virtual patient engagement tools, Aspire Counselling saw the following results:

• 3 minutes – average response time
• 300+ voicemails answered
• 1000+ text message conversations
• 100+ new reviews
• 200+ leads through web chat

Read more about their story here.

Why Emitrr is the Best Virtual Patient Engagement Software?

If you are interested in implementing an online patient engagement tool that is not only comprehensive but also affordable and the best value for money, then you should consider Emitrr. Here are some more reasons why Emitrr is the best virtual patient engagement software: 

Automated Appointment Scheduling & Reminders

Missed appointments are a revenue killer. But with Emitrr’s automated scheduling and reminders, patients can get timely texts sent from the practice’s own number. No more phone tags or forgotten slots. The system even handles rescheduling, cutting no-shows and keeping the calendar full. It’s like having a tireless assistant who never sleeps.

AI-Powered Communication

One-size-fits-all robo-messages don’t and will never appeal to patients. Emitrr’s AI agent crafts smart, conversational texts that feel personal, like a friendly nudge, making patients feel genuinely cared for. Whether it’s confirming an appointment or following up post-visit, our AI agent adapts to patient responses and responds in a way that builds trust, not annoyance. Check out this video to know more about Emitrr’s AI agent:

Review and Feedback Generation

Word-of-mouth still rules in healthcare, and Emitrr’s makes it almost effortless. After a visit, you can set up a custom text, prompting patients for reviews on Google or wherever it counts. Healthcare institutions can even customize these requests with their logo and style, making it a branded win. 

HIPAA-Compliant Secure Messaging

Security is non-negotiable, and Emitrr’s makes sure that HIPAA compliance is never jeopardised, and patient data stays safe while texts fly back and forth. You can share test results or answer quick questions, knowing everything is safeguarded.

See how you can send secure texts very easily using Emitrr in this quick video:

Patient Data Integration & Personalized Engagement

Emitrr’s can be integrated with over 500 systems like Dentrix or eClinicalWorks. It can pull patient data to tailor every interaction and can help you or your staff avoid double entries. 

Multiple Patient Engagement Features

Emitrr offers not just one but multiple patient engagement channels such as SMS, VoIP, virtual receptionist, chatbot, appointment reminders & follow-ups, feedback, and survey forms. Whatever channel you want, you can get with Emitrr; no need to buy multiple patient engagement tools. 

Value for Money

Emitrr is the most value for money patient engagement option in the market. You can add as many features as you want, upgrade or downgrade as well, depending on your changing needs. Emitrr offers complete transparency and no-hidden charges whatsoever. 

Unparalleled Customer Support

Emitrr is rated 5/5 on Capterra by users for its unparalleled customer service. No matter what, our service agents are always available to offer quick and professional resolutions. 

Future trends in Patient Engagement Technology

Let us take a look at how the future of patient engagement is going to look like: 

• AI, Voice UIs, chatbots: These are already rising and being implemented in hospitals and clinics. But you will see advanced versions of voice AI, chatbots, etc., that will help patients with medication reminders, FAQs, scheduling, etc.
• Tele-ICU: Tele-ICU or remote critical care model will be the future, where ICU nurses will monitor and support ICU patients using real-time video, audio, video, and electronic medical data.
• Smart assistants: Real-time smart assistants, such as virtual AI for therapists and live note-takers, will rise, helping clinicians with documentation tasks. 
• Augmented or virtual reality for patients: VR tools for patients are going to emerge that will help them with surgery walkthroughs, rehab exercises, mental health therapy, etc. 
• Gamification of health engagement: Gamification apps for healthcare with things like challenges, rewards, etc., are gaining popularity already. You will be able to use gamification apps to improve patient adherence.  

FAQs

Conclusion

In 2025, Digital patient engagement is essential if you want to improve patient journey in your hospital and want to improve their experience and satisfaction with your services.

If you are looking for an all-in-one patient engagement tool that offers capabilities for SMS, two-way texting, chatbots, forms and feedback, self-scheduling, appointment reminders, follow-ups, etc., then book a demo with Emitrr now!