Report

Trends in Patient Communications

Get the latest insights on patient expectations when communicating with healthcare providers.

About the Report:

To better understand how patients respond to different digital patient communication strategies from their healthcare provider and the impact this has on the patient experience, Artera surveyed more than 2,000 U.S. healthcare patients who have engaged with the healthcare system over the last 12 months.

Report

5 Key Findings

1. Today, many healthcare providers use basic texting to deliver transactional requests to patients.

of patients report that most text exchanges with their healthcare provider were simplistic

of patients reported an instance where they were able to receive responses to their questions via text

2. Patients are often frustrated with incomplete information from these basic, transactional exchanges.

report dissatisfaction due to incomplete communication experiences

are frustrated that they cannot engage in conversational text exchanges with their healthcare provider

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3. These incomplete, broken exchanges place the responsibility back on the patient to carry out the request.

Patients either follow up using a different channel or do not follow up at all after having a broken exchange with their healthcare provider:

followed up via phone

followed up via email

Nearly 20% let the issue go or attempted to follow via another channel but never got the necessary information which can have significant consequences on their health.

4. Broken provider-patient communication experiences lead to operational inefficiencies, loss of revenue, and negatively impact patient health.

Broken communication exchanges lead to an increased workload for already overburdened healthcare staff and put pressure on providers dealing with workforce shortages.

Operational
Inefficiencies

of clinical support staff reported phone-based patient communication as a source of frustration.

of the current healthcare workforce is planning to exit the industry by 2025

Revenue
Loss

missed or forgot to pay a bill because of difficulties communicating with their provider.

are willing to switch doctors if they are provided a broken communications experience

Negative Impact
on Health

of patients reported communication challenges negatively impacting their health.

let an issue go or attempted to follow up via another channel but never got information - which can significantly impact their health

Did you know? The average hospital loses 10-30% of its revenue to patient referral leakage, resulting in $200-$500M in losses per year.

5. Patients want interactive, digital conversations with their healthcare provider – and are willing to switch providers to get it.

of patients prefer conversational messaging (when compared to basic texting)

rated a conversational messaging experience as “excellent” or “good”

want their healthcare provider to improve their healthcare experience by enabling them to initiate conversations via text on any topic

are willing to switch doctors if they are provided a broken communications experience

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How Artera Improves Patient Communications

Artera is a SaaS digital health leader redefining patient communications. Artera is trusted by 750+ healthcare systems and federal agencies to facilitate approximately 2.2 billion messages reaching 72+ million patients annually.

The Artera platform integrates across a healthcare organization’s tech stack, EHRs and third-party vendors to unify, simplify and orchestrate digital communications into the patient’s preferred channel (texting, email and/or IVR), in 109+ languages.

The Artera impact: