Patient Engagement Benchmarks to Prove ROI

Healthcare leaders today are under immense pressure to do more with less. Budgets are tight, staffing is stretched thin, and every investment must prove its worth. Amid these challenges, one area continues to rise in importance: mobile.

Mobile has emerged as one of the most powerful levers to meet demand. It’s not just a convenience anymore. It’s how patients discover care, schedule appointments, navigate facilities, and stay engaged with their health. But success depends on more than building a good app. It depends on measuring the right metrics and benchmarking them effectively to demonstrate value across the organization.

Here’s how leading health systems are tracking the impact of mobile strategies across five key ROI categories.

1. Adoption & Engagement

Low adoption remains the top barrier to realizing value with 37% of healthcare leaders citing it as their biggest challenge. Without engagement and usageno other ROI metrics can be measured.

What to track:

• Download rate: Compare total downloads to your patient population size or patient portal user base and track that percentage month over month.
• Monthly active users: Track which percentage of downloaders are using the app monthly, a signal that patients are finding real value.
• Repeat usage: Measure frequency of use per user. Repeated sessions indicate sustained engagement, not just curiosity.

2. Patient Access & Experience

Digital access metrics reflect how well mobile is reducing friction in the care journey. In our survey with Modern Healthcare, we found that 57% of leaders invested in telehealth, 56% in scheduling tools, and 55% in patient communication platforms.

What to track:

• Online scheduling: Track the percentage of appointments booked through mobile versus other channels.
• No-show rate: Compare no-shows among users who receive mobile reminders vs. those who don’t.
• Satisfaction: Pair app analytics with post-visit surveys or in-app NPS prompts to correlate digital experience with patient sentiment.

3. Operational Efficiency

Efficiency gains are among the most tangible and immediate benefits of mobile technology. Nearly one in three leaders (31%) already report reductions in operational costs tied to mobile initiatives.

What to track:

• Call volume reduction: Measure inbound scheduling or navigation calls pre- and post-mobile launch. 
• Staff time saved: Estimate the time required for manual tasks (phone reminders, check-ins) and compare to digital automation volume. Even saving a few minutes per encounter scales significantly across departments.
• Patient flow: Monitor average wait times, check-in durations, or navigation-related delays before and after mobile implementation.

4. Financial Impact

Ultimately, ROI must connect back to the bottom line, and mobile is increasingly proving its financial worth. 61% of healthcare leaders said their organization has already seen or expects to see financial benefit from mobile.

What to track:

• Revenue per encounter: Track increases in appointment volume or higher-value service lines driven by digital engagement campaigns.
• Loyalty and retention: Measure retention of patients or repeat visits by mobile-engaged users vs. non-users.

5. Strategic Growth & Differentiation

Mobile isn’t just a digital convenience, it’s a competitive differentiator. 41% of surveyed leaders have already seen or expect to see increases in patient retention and loyalty, and 33% report growth in patient volume or market share.

What to track:

• Patient retention: Track year-over-year patient return rates or care continuity for mobile-engaged users.
• Loyalty: Monitor sustained app usage over 6–12 months. A strong retention curve indicates loyalty.
• Market share: Benchmark new patient acquisition from mobile referral or search campaigns.

What’s Next: Connect Mobile Strategy to Value Realization

Measuring ROI in mobile healthcare doesn’t have to be guesswork. With the right framework, health systems can draw a clear line between digital engagement and measurable organizational impact.

Download Gozio’s new whitepaper to explore the full survey results and a roadmap for connecting your mobile strategy directly to value realization.

Ready to see how your organization stacks up? Request a full mobile value assessment here.

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