Patient Engagement 2019
Current and Future Trends in Vendor Selection

In the Patient Portal Paradigm, athenahealth, Cerner, and Epic Lead; Epic Plays Deepest PE Role

Providers have long preferred clinical solutions from their primary EMR vendors. This is no less true with patient engagement, though EMR vendors are not always seen as groundbreaking innovators. Their patient portals are near omnipresent, but usability and functionality vary widely. Epic is the most deeply used EMR vendor for PE (92% of customers said Epic plays a significant, if not major, role). athenahealth customers cite high usability and usefulness for patients. Cerner was mentioned by customers 75% of the time, though some were unsure of value gained. Allscripts’ acquired patient portal is EMR agnostic and thus works with Allscripts’ several EMRs as well as competing EMRs. Allscripts recently acquired HealthGrid, whose outreach solution has been popular and effective. Allscripts customers represent three of the five organizations considering HealthGrid.

The Patient Engagement Framework

To help ensure engagement is truly patient-centric, the framework begins with seven general principles to guide provider and vendor strategies. Next, HIT capabilities are organized into three pillars representing key patient needs.

While Keeping an Eye on Patient Experience, Providers Turn Attention to Patient Care

Providers’ historical focus on patient experience is not going away, though attention is shifting beyond retrospective surveys (e.g., HCAHPS) to real-time feedback via rounding tools and other on-site survey tools—often from emerging vendors. Considerations for future investments suggest strategies are maturing as providers increasingly seek HIT solutions that help patients along their care journeys. These often include (1) self-scheduling tools that allow patients to arrange their own care, (2) care coordination tools that remind patients to schedule preventive care and keep appointments, and (3) solutions that conveniently deliver targeted educational content at times such as before surgery, during inpatient stays, and after discharge.

Vendors Called to Make Software More Usable; Services Firms Called to Assist Provider Culture Change

During interviews, providers said vendors have more work to do in terms of making technology easier to use, more effective, and more innovative, but providers also admitted that they will be directly responsible for the lion’s share of progress. The most significant efforts to be made involve cultural change around how patients are treated; healthcare organizations should treat patients like valued consumers in control of their health-and-wellness destiny. To help, some organizations have turned to services firms, such as Studer Group and Vocera for advisory services, Envera Health and RelateCare for call center services, and others for staff training.