If your hospital lobby had a leaky roof, patients would notice. They’d be annoyed, possibly even outraged, and they'd probably tell someone about it. Now imagine that same lobby is pristine and professional, but when a patient walks in for help, no one can actually help them. Staff can talk about the hospital's history, services, and leadership team, but when asked how to check in for a procedure, they just shrug.
That’s what the digital experience feels like in many health systems today: sleek and polished on the front end, a mess in the back. In other words, a digital mullet.
Some might argue this criticism is unfair, especially given the billions spent on EHR implementations and the rise of patient portals. But the reality is, patient portals aren’t the same thing as a digital experience. They’re locked doors labeled “Enter Here,” but only open after the patient jumps through a series of hoops: identity verification, financial disclosures, creating a login, and managing yet another password.
And once they’re inside? The experience often feels disconnected from the health system itself. The branding might match, but the interface, features, and flow are dictated by third-party vendors, not by the care organization. It feels like being handed off to a partner company mid-visit, except this time it's digital, and the patient is often navigating it alone.
When portals look and feel the same everywhere, patients disengage. When they don’t solve real problems, patients opt out.
Imagine if a health system leased space in its building to an outside organization (say, a specialty clinic or lab), and just let that group run wild with its signage, messaging, and patient engagement. Would the VP of Patient Experience be okay with that?
Of course not. The same should apply to digital experiences.
A health system’s reputation, culture, and value proposition shouldn’t stop at the physical front door. Yet when it comes to digital channels, many systems hand off control to partners or vendors. That sends a clear message to patients: this part isn’t really ours.
But here’s the thing. Digital experience is patient experience. Full stop. And in today’s environment, it might be the only experience that matters for many consumers.
Health systems aren’t just competing with each other anymore. They’re competing with retail clinics, virtual-first care models, and tech-enabled startups. Amazon’s entry into healthcare isn’t just about pharmacy. It’s about expectations. Consumers are used to frictionless, personalized, mobile-first experiences across every other part of their lives.
Why should healthcare be any different?
Amazon famously built its dominance on “customer obsession”. They didn’t ask people to adapt to their technology. They built technology around what people already needed. And they didn’t rely on CRM platforms to become the customer experience. They built intuitive front doors that made life easier and more relevant.
Healthcare needs to follow suit. Not by ripping out the EMR or ditching patient portals entirely, but by reframing how and where we meet the patient digitally.
Let’s get practical. You don’t need a whole new playbook to build a great digital experience. The same strategic questions that guide operational planning can guide digital efforts too:
What’s new is that digital gives you a fresh set of levers, and these levers extend beyond your traditional geographic footprint.
Think of a well-designed digital experience as a virtual front desk. One that operates 24/7, doesn’t get overwhelmed, and can guide every patient, new or returning, toward the next best action. Need to book a procedure? Here’s where to do that. Need to complete a referral? Here’s how. Need help understanding your benefits or navigating a chronic condition? It’s all there, with your brand and your care team front and center.
That’s not just about convenience. It’s about building trust and reducing leakage in a world where switching providers is as easy as switching apps.
So what do we do with the EMR portal?
Keep it. Seriously. Just don’t make it the front door.
Think of it more like an embedded lab or a specialty clinic. It serves a purpose, but it’s not where most people start their journey. You don’t welcome someone into your home and immediately send them to the garage. Likewise, don’t greet digital patients with a login prompt that leads to someone else’s interface and someone else’s priorities.
Put what matters most in front of that second door. If it's your appointment scheduling, your care navigation, your brand loyalty you want to strengthen — own that. Then use the portal for what it does well: lab results, secure messaging, documentation.
A study from Deloitte found that 92% of healthcare consumers say a negative digital experience would negatively impact their perception of a provider, even if the clinical care is excellent. That’s not just a marketing problem. It’s a growth, retention, and revenue problem.
Health systems can’t afford to treat digital as an afterthought or bolt-on. They need to architect experiences that reflect the values they bring to every other part of patient care: compassion, coordination, personalization, and trust.
And no, that doesn’t mean every system has to build a custom app from scratch. But it does mean owning the digital layer that guides patients to care before, during, and after every visit.
Healthcare is hard. Patients are overwhelmed. And no one wants to be handed off to a dozen disconnected systems and told to figure it out.
That’s not care. That’s chaos.
So let’s ditch the digital mullet. Let’s stop settling for “good enough” portals and fragmented journeys. Let’s put the patient at the center of the digital experience, not behind a second door.
It’s time for health systems to own the whole experience, from lobby to login.
Author: Billy Jackson, VP of Product, Praia Health
