In today’s healthcare, digital tools and platforms are growing fast. Medical practice administrators, owners, and IT managers in the United States need to understand how patients use these digital tools. This helps improve care, patient satisfaction, and the financial health of their practices. One important measurement is the Patient Digital Engagement Index (PDEI). Created by athenahealth, using data from over 6,300 practices and 50 million patients, the PDEI shows how actively patients use digital health tools—and how this affects their healthcare experience.
The Patient Digital Engagement Index, or PDEI, is a special score that tracks how patients use digital healthcare tools. These tools include telehealth, patient portals, online appointment scheduling, and electronic bill payments. Instead of using guesswork or partial data, the PDEI gives a score from 0 to 100 that shows how much patients use digital services in healthcare.
The index measures engagement in three main areas:
By looking at these areas, the PDEI helps practices understand patient behavior and preferences for digital interaction.
PDEI data shows important trends for healthcare groups. As of 2023, the median PDEI score nationwide is about 14 out of 100. This low score means many practices can increase how much their patients use digital tools. Also, larger healthcare organizations usually have higher PDEI scores than smaller ones. This might be because they have more resources to spend on digital tools.
Some specialties have higher engagement scores. For example, women’s health and behavioral health services show median PDEI scores between about 20 and 24. This means patients in these areas use digital platforms more. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have also improved quickly in digital engagement, likely because of federal programs promoting easier digital tools.
For medical practice administrators, two facts stand out. First, many patients still do not use digital tools much. Second, more engagement improves patient satisfaction and also helps the financial health of the practice. Practices with higher PDEI scores report more patient payments and fewer bill write-offs. This means patients who use digital services tend to pay their bills faster, helping the practice’s cash flow.
Knowing which patients engage more digitally helps tailor outreach efforts. Data shows that patients most involved digitally are mostly White or Asian millennial women living in cities. These patients are more used to digital devices and online communication, so they engage more.
Still, over 75% of patients in all groups say digital tools are somewhat or very important for talking to healthcare providers. Also, 86% of patients have used portals, apps, or secure websites to get personal health information in the past year. The most common digital uses are scheduling appointments (67%), seeing test results (73%), and getting appointment reminders (72%). These numbers show that digital patient engagement is not just a trend but a big change in how patients want to connect with healthcare.
Some worry that higher digital engagement means more work for doctors. But studies show the opposite. Doctors at practices with higher PDEI scores spend less time doing paperwork outside normal work hours. Patients who are digitally engaged do more tasks on their own. This reduces the work for staff handling scheduling, billing questions, and follow-ups.
This is important for managing work flow and preventing burnout. Practice owners should know that investing in digital engagement tools can make work smoother and let doctors focus more on patient care instead of paperwork.
While PDEI offers one overall number, healthcare providers also watch other measures to check how well their engagement efforts are working. Here are some key indicators that add to PDEI data:
Tracking these numbers helps administrators use resources better, find where they can improve, and improve patient results and practice income.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are becoming important in patient digital engagement. Companies like Simbo AI offer AI-powered phone automation and answering services to improve how practices talk with patients.
With AI, practices can automate tasks like appointment reminders, call routing, and answering patient questions anytime. This lowers the need for many administrative staff to handle repeated calls. It also cuts down patient wait times.
Automation fits well with digital engagement in areas like:
By using AI systems like Simbo AI, practices can give smoother experiences to patients and let doctors focus on care instead of paperwork. Research shows that higher digital engagement cuts down after-hours paperwork for doctors, which helps staff satisfaction and keeps workers longer.
Healthcare leaders support improving patient digital engagement. Dr. Katherine Gregory from a San Francisco gynecology practice said that when patients feel connected digitally, both patient and doctor benefit. She noted that more digital use saves lots of admin time. This helps doctors spend more time on patient care and get better health results.
Dr. Christopher Apostol from Evans Medical Group values patient portals highly. He said portals are great tools for patients to get lab results, visit summaries, and health records. This helps patients be more involved in their care.
These views show the real benefits of focusing on patient digital tools—not just better satisfaction but also smoother operations to support clinical practices.
For medical practices in the U.S., the data suggests several steps to improve digital engagement:
By following these steps, practices can better meet what patients want for digital interaction, control costs, and improve work flow. This balance is very important in the U.S. healthcare system.
This clear view of patient digital engagement and the Patient Digital Engagement Index gives guidance for healthcare administrators, owners, and IT managers who want to increase patient involvement through technology. Since digital engagement links to better financial results, happier patients, and less paperwork for doctors, adding digital healthcare tools and AI automation in U.S. medical practices makes sense.
Patient engagement is crucial for healthcare practices; engaged patients are more likely to adhere to care plans, return for future care, and contribute positively to practices using value-based care (VBC) models.
The Patient Digital Engagement Index (PDEI) is used to quantify and assess patient engagement across digital tools, including telehealth, patient self-scheduling, and online messaging.
PDEI tracks three core digital activity categories: access to care, financial activity, and healthcare information.
Larger organizations generally have higher median PDEI scores, indicating that size may correlate positively with patient digital engagement.
The most digitally engaged patients are predominantly White or Asian millennial women residing in urban areas.
Practices with higher PDEI scores collect a greater portion of patient responsibility, resulting in fewer write-offs and better overall financial performance.
Women’s health and behavioral health specialties exhibit the highest digital engagement scores, with median PDEI scores ranging from 20-24.
Higher PDEI scores correlate with a lower proportion of time clinicians spend on documentation after hours, suggesting better workflow efficiency.
Patients express a strong preference for using digital tools for scheduling appointments, receiving test results, and managing prescription refills.
Over 75% of patients find digital tools important for simplifying their interactions with the healthcare system, indicating a strong appetite for adoption.
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