Patients today are required to manage their health across a growing collection of disconnected digital tools. A typical experience includes multiple patient portals, lab apps, health tracking apps, virtual
It’s no mystery that consumers and patients alike crave better access and digital experiences. This has been a consistent theme over the past decade and continues to accelerate today. Health systems have made meaningful progress expanding online scheduling and self-service capabilities; progress that is often less constrained by technology than by the operational and clinical alignment required to support change.
As more services come online and health systems increasingly rely on partners to deliver care across the continuum, a fundamental gap remains: patients still lack the ability to digitally transact across channels within a unified, authenticated (logged-in) experience. Every other major industry, from e-commerce and airlines to media and consumer apps, offers both guest and authenticated experiences. Healthcare should be no different.
The Importance of Digital Transactions
The term “digital transactions” can mean different things to different audiences, but speaking broadly, it refers to a patient’s ability to self-serve through digital channels. This might include booking an appointment through a portal, scheduling an on-demand virtual visit with a third-party provider, accessing an employer-sponsored maternity program, or enrolling in a provider-recommended clinical trial.
Beyond being a consumer expectation, self-service reduces friction and increases conversion into services and care options. For health systems, this translates into lower operational burden, fewer inbound calls, and more efficient use of staff resources. Over time, the ability to drive digital transactions becomes a foundational capability, one that supports loyalty, engagement, and long-term digital ROI.
Today, Digital Transactions Are Largely Limited to the Patient Portal
While an array of care services and programs may be delivered and coordinated by a health system, less than half are typically available within the patient portal. The remaining services often sit outside the patient portal, spanning virtual care, labs, imaging centers, physical therapy partners, and other ecosystem services.
Despite this reality, most health systems still deliver an authenticated experience exclusively through the patient portal, relying on EMR-issued login credentials. By defaulting to this model, systems remain constrained by a portal-centric ecosystem. While patient portals are effective for accessing records and messaging providers, patients remain frustrated when attempting to take action beyond those core functions.
Why an Authenticated Experience Matters
An authenticated experience built on open standards and an open ecosystem allows a website or mobile app to function as a true digital transaction engine. When paired with the patient portal for records access, this approach enables patients to move seamlessly between clinical and non-clinical services without repeated logins or broken journeys. Once a patient is logged in, they can interact not only with the health system, but also with third-party ecosystem providers. In one example, directing patients into an authenticated experience to schedule overdue care drove a 200% increase in conversion compared to legacy outreach methods such as SMS messages sent into an unauthenticated experience. Reducing friction at the moment of action leads to measurable impact.
Additionally, when patients are brought into a single place to take action, they often complete other tasks as well, such as paying a bill or updating contact preferences. Sending push notifications for lab orders drove a 52% increase in same-day bill payments. These outcomes reflect a simple truth: when it’s easier to act, patients do.
What Do You Lose by Defaulting to the Patient Portal as Your Authenticated State?
When authentication is limited to the portal, health systems give up:
- The ability to meaningfully scale digital transactions
- Engagement beyond active patients, limiting new patient acquisition
- Control over brand expression and differentiated programs and partners
- Differentiation, resulting in commoditized experiences shared across health systems
- The ability to meet patient expectations, increasing call volume and operational costs
Moving Beyond Portal-Only Authentication
Healthcare digital transactions require an authenticated experience, yet today this capability is often gated and limited to EMR patient portal experiences. Moving beyond this constraint through an open, platform-based approach enables health systems to deliver more value, enable more transactions, and reduce friction across the digital journey.
By expanding authentication beyond the portal, health systems can meet modern consumer expectations while unlocking greater efficiency and impact across their digital ecosystem.