Becker's Hospital Review: ROI in a Mobile Digital Front Door

A recent article in Becker’s Hospital Review, Finding the ROI in a Mobile-First Digital Front Door, recapped a presentation given by our Vice President of Marketing, Lea Chatham at Becker's Hospital Review's Digital Innovation, Patient Experience and Marketing Virtual Event.

The article broke down three key points made by Lea about how healthcare mobile apps can improve patient experience and help recover lost revenue.

How Health Systems Deal With Problems Affect How Patients Feel
The article explained that in her presentation, Lea talked about how hospitals are struggling with issues like staffing shortages and revenue loss and that impacts the patient experience. Lea said, "We offer all these things, but not necessarily in a good, cohesive, simple experience. As a result, about 50 percent of patients say there are no healthcare provider apps that are helpful, and only six percent say their provider's app has the features they need."

A Single Mobile Platform Can Solve the Patient Experience Issue
Lea suggested that an app made for patients can help health systems with return on their investment in five distinct: 

• Patient Retention: Patients have a lifetime value of about $200,000, so retaining them is the first step to retaining revenue.
• Call Center Volume: Call center staff usually spend 6-8 minutes and $3-$4 on each call they take. If they could reduce the number of calls by five percent, a hospital handling four million calls yearly could save $600,000.
• Online Scheduling: Making it easier to schedule appointments on mobile phones can help increase the number of appointments scheduled..
• Referral Leakage: A system losing $200 million a year because patients go out of the network, could cut  that loss with easy-to-use provider search and scheduling on mobile.
• Wayfinding and Mapping: When patients get lost in complex healthcare facilities, there is a costAn app that provides navigation to the point of care can help reduce these losses. 

Build Vs. Buy 
According to the article, Lea wrapped up her session by weighing the pros and cons of building your own platform compared to buying one. If health systems choose to make their solution, they must pay for many things like staff, technology, and maintenance. This could cost around $2.4 million and take six to 12 months to finish. If hospitals choose to buy a ready-made solution, like Gozio, it costs about $450,000 per year, including the cost of the internal team and the vendor's fee.

Read the full article, Finding the ROI in A Mobile-First Digital Front Door for more information.