August 25, 2025

Why Digital First Healthcare Strategies Improve Patient Engagement and Outcomes

Healthcare organizations face more challenges than ever before. Increasing efficiency and reducing costs is crucial, which means digital patient engagement is no longer optional. But the path to modernization should not be abrupt or disruptive. A Digital First strategy offers a balanced, patient-centric approach that integrates digital engagement while respecting individual preferences for print communications. This approach drives better outcomes for healthcare organizations and the people you serve.

Evolution Not Revolution

Rather than a sudden shift to paperless engagement, a Digital First strategy emphasizes evolution. It involves gradually replacing print with digital communications in a thoughtful, data-informed way that meets each patient wherever they may be on their personal technology journey. This approach also includes education for both patients and staff, ensuring everyone understands the benefits of modern communication channels like email, text and online payment portals.

Why not go all-digital immediately?

Experience shows that doing so can backfire. One provider that attempted a complete digital conversion in a single move experienced a noticeable decrease in yield and patient satisfaction. By reintroducing print while increasing digital touches, they reversed the trend—achieving a 65% increase in digital adoption, $300,000 in cost savings and a $7.9 million lift in payments.

Data-Driven Engagement

The success of a Digital First strategy is grounded in data intelligence. Using analytics to understand patient behavior, preferences and financial capacity means you can personally tailor messages, delivery channels and even terms of payment. This type of personalization leads to tangible results:

Healthcare organizations can collect up to 7% more with data-driven digital engagement.
A balanced print-digital strategy typically reduces postage costs by 35%.
Patients who receive text messages are 21% more likely to pay than those who receive only printed statements—and 24% of payments made by text are received within the first 24 hours after patients receive their statement.
Patients pay an average of 7 days faster.

Best Practices for Digital First Success

Any substantial change in patient engagement has the potential to drive positive outcomes or disrupt staff and upset patients. Negative reactions harm the financial health of your organization and degrade the patient experience.. To maximize optimum results, follow these best practices:

Analytics/Scoring – Use data to assess patients’ digital readiness and to guide channel selection and messaging, and each patient’s payment propensity.
Print – Use strategically, not exclusively—unless a specific patient is ready for a totally digital engagement from the start.
Patient Education – Prepare patients with proactive communication, such as clinic posters and messages in statements.
Staff Education – Equip teams to support the transition and make sure they can explain how patient data is kept secure when used in digital formats.
Strategy – Focus on evolution, not revolution.
Tools – Use intelligent campaign engines to continuously track yield, costs and ongoing opportunities for updating your engagement strategy.

Digital First is not a destination, it is a journey.

As patients’ digital engagement behaviors evolve, so should your outreach strategies. Even those who prefer 100% print today may shift toward digital over time. With the right tools and insights, healthcare organizations can continuously improve outcomes, reduce costs and enhance patient satisfaction. Learn more about the power of Digital First engagement in our white paper: Healthcare Digital Transformation: Think Evolution Not Revolution.