We explore this in “The Digital Healthcare Gap: Streamlining The Patient Journey,” a PYMNTS and Experian Health collaboration based on a survey of more than 2,300 U.S. consumers. Of the many eye-opening findings in this study is the sheer number of healthcare providers that consumers are engaging with — or trying to — making a strong case for the use of digital tools.
Overall, the study finds that two-thirds of consumers use patient portals, with millennials and higher-income consumers the most likely to do so. Additionally, 32% of nonusers of portals express high interest in using a portal if offered by providers. Thirty-eight percent of specialist and radiologist patients who are not provided portals have the greatest interest in using them. At 29%, patients of family practice doctors who do not use patient portals are the least interested.
Looking at the breakdowns, 73% of patients who visited a healthcare practice in the last 12 months saw their family practice doctor, 58% of patients visited dentists and 45% saw specialists. Less than one-quarter of respondents visited a physician at a hospital (24%) or urgent care center (23%) and only 14% visited a radiologist.
The study states, “Baby boomers and seniors and Generation X patients were the most likely to use family practice doctors, at 84% and 80% respectively. Generation Z, millennial and bridge millennial patients were more likely to see urgent care or hospital physicians than older generations, with approximately one-third of each generation of consumers doing so in the last year. Just 11% of baby boomers and seniors visited an urgent care physician, while 19% saw a hospital physician. Close to two-thirds of all age groups scheduled dentist appointments. Only 8% of patients scheduled remote appointments, with family practice patients being the most likely to do so at 10%.”
We also found that 1 in 5 patients scheduled appointments via digital channels in the last 12 months, “with urgent care patients being the most likely to do so: 17% of urgent care patients scheduled via patient portals, 16% did so via the practices’ website and 5% via text message. Family practice patients tend to use patient portals to schedule appointments more than other digital channels, with 15% doing so, compared to only 5% who do so via their practices’ websites and 2% who do so via text message.”
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