Data from the Patient Digital Engagement Index tool in use with athenahealth electronic health records showed healthcare practices with higher patient digital engagement experience improved financial performance and saw a reduction in time spent on after-hours documentation, the company said Monday.
Researchers that compiled the new study used PDEI tool data from the athenaOne network from 2021 to 2024, which involved information from 50 million deidentified patients across more than 6,300 practices. The athenahealth PDEI tool informs practices about their patient digital engagement.
“They can actively measure and track their patients’ digital engagement to ensure they are delivering the experience their patients are seeking in today’s – and tomorrow’s – healthcare environment,” Paul Brient, chief product officer at athenahealth, said in an announcement about the study’s findings.
Despite the common perception that higher patient digital engagement and rising patient expectations could lead to more “pajama time” for doctors, athenahealth researchers said clinicians working for practices with higher PDEI scores spent, on average, less of their documentation time after hours.
Because that warrants further investigation, the EHR vendor said its researchers will now examine the correlation between higher PDEI and decreases in documentation time outside of work for the physicians in these practices. They’ll look at the impact of appointment reminders and self-check-in, and also explore potential cross-correlations with other variables, the company said in the statement.
The PDEI network data, which was supplemented by a survey of 1,000 patients across the U.S. for the study, also revealed trends related to the increased use of certain patient-facing online tools and their benefits for healthcare cost controls.
Patient use of digital tools to pay bills, view statements and bills, and perform other financial tasks have had the highest rate of overall growth for practices during the study period, researchers said.
The data also showed a correlation between higher PDEI scores and higher patient pay yields for practices. A one-point increase in a practice’s score was found to be associated with a one-point increase in the proportion of total patient charges paid within one year, the company said about its latest data index.
Last year, 93% of physicians reported feeling burned out in athenahealth’s third Physician Sentiment Survey, conducted by the Harris Poll, which indicated that physicians spend an additional 15 hours of administrative work at home or after hours.
Clinician burnout, however, has been on the rise with chaotic workplaces, after-hours workloads and bureaucratic tasks that avalanched during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors also contributed to physician burnout, the KLAS Research Arch Collaborative found three years ago.
Many of athena’s physician respondents to its sentiment survey in 2024 – 83% – were hopeful that artificial intelligence would decrease administrative tasks. More time spent documenting in the EHR has been actively addressed with artificial intelligence documentation tools across the health IT space.
Similarly, “digital-first patient engagement is poised to become a defining factor in healthcare delivery by 2025,” David Nickelson, senior partner and consulting lead, health and life science, Randstad Digital, told Healthcare IT News last month.
“As the healthcare industry continues to adapt to meet increasing patient expectations and demands, patient digital engagement tools have shifted from a nice to have, to a must have for clinicians and practices,” Brient said in a statement.
Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.
