What is the digital front door?

What is the “digital front door,” exactly?

Imagine the “front door” representing the experiences and processes that patients face when they arrive at their care provider or mode of care. Thanks to the rise of telemedicine and digital healthcare solutions, it’s no longer necessary to be in person to engage with care services. 

And that means that the actions patients take to access and participate in care–or, in other words, what they do when they reach that front door–are shifting to the digital realm, too. 

Instead of relying on traditional methods–like paper forms, snail mail, and telephone calls–to interact with patients, providers can now use more convenient and accessible solutions. Digital check-in or patient intake procedures, for instance, help health workers and staff save time and manage fewer administrative tasks, freeing up more capacity for quality care. 

The digital transformation that’s shaping modern healthcare is not an isolated phenomenon. It’s part of a larger movement away from the provider-focused approach of the past. New devices, programs, and capabilities like artificial intelligence promise to revolutionize how healthcare professionals can learn about and connect with patients. 

Discovering how to structure your digital front door is a key mission for healthcare providers and organizations looking to match demand, support patient needs, and scale their services. 

What does the digital front door do?

The purpose of a strong digital front door is to improve access to care, engage readily with patients, and improve the overall patient experience. It encompasses all of the touchpoints where healthcare professionals can interact with their patients. 

From an operational perspective, a digital front door allows healthcare providers and organizations to expand their service offerings without overloading their workers. Once you’ve built and found the right tools to unlock a digital front door for patients, you can ensure your teams save time, energy, and resources, all of which can be reinvested in working with your patients (or supporting new ones). 

The Evolution of the Digital Front Door

How has the concept of the digital front door come to be, and what does it mean for modern healthcare professionals? To understand the importance of embracing digitization to improve the patient experience moving forward, we first have to look back in time. 

Fitness and health devices enter the scene

Throughout the early 2000s, the age of technology began leaving its mark on health and wellness. From the initial introduction of consumer health products, like fitness watches or step counters, to the launch of sophisticated smart devices, changes in the technology patients had available rapidly fueled a shift in the healthcare experience. 

Healthcare becomes a two-way street

Doctors were no longer the only individuals capable of monitoring and understanding patient health information. Now, doctors and patients could collaborate and exchange information together. 

This unique opportunity to play an active role in care unlocked a new form of engagement for patients, one that also promised to support better health outcomes by giving providers access to data-powered insights. 

Digital transformation takes hold and ushers in a new era

Driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of digital transformation shaped how healthcare organizations viewed their approach to patient engagement. 

The immediate need to bring patients and staff to a digital space for health and safety purposes drove an overall increase in the amount of technological resources available. 

The global wearable medical devices market, for instance, was worth an estimated $33.85 billion in 2023 – and it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25.66% from 2024 to 2030. 

As it stands, patients are not only more familiar with using technology throughout the care process but are also in favor of it. As digital services and supports become integrated into daily life, it’s more important than ever to develop systems that allow your team to leverage tech as a tool for offering the best care possible. 

What elements are part of a strong digital front door?

Your digital front door will most likely bring together several “entry points,” or opportunities for interaction, depending on the structure of your organization. Ideally, a single platform will centralize all of the digital resources available to your patients; this makes it simple to manage and adapt your approach over time. 

Let’s explore some elements of a digital front door that may be relevant to all providers, but particularly for behavioral healthcare professionals: 

Patient Engagement Tools

A platform that allows patients to log in and access treatment records, materials, health data, and other information can be a core part of a digital front door. Any technology that promotes patient knowledge and engagement can fit into this category.

Secure Two-Way Messaging

Open and regular communication is one of the biggest benefits of healthcare technology. With HIPAA-compliant, secure two-way messaging, patients and providers can send texts, voice recordings, and even images or videos as needed to share important information. 

Messaging can be leveraged as a means to keep in touch outside of the office, but it can also be used as a treatment tool itself. Patients may engage in certain activities via messaging, for instance, or use digital communication tools on a regular basis as part of their treatment plans. 

Digital Patient Check-In

A common example of a healthcare technology that’s often part of a digital front door is virtual check-in, which may be completed in person using devices or kiosks or remotely using personal devices. 

Pre-check-in tasks, such as completing paperwork or intake forms, can also be digitized to ensure that all of the time a patient spends at your office is dedicated to their needs and care. 

Digital Clinical Assessments

In areas where routine and regular clinical assessments are required, including mental and behavioral healthcare, a digital solution can be a game-changer. 

Instead of creating, distributing, and transmitting information from paper assessments, you can send and receive digital questionnaires as needed. Patients can complete assessments outside of the office, too, and can use these tools to record their symptoms as part of their care plan. 

The data collected during these assessments or patient intake, when collected and stored digitally, can easily be used for quality programs such as:

• Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS)  
• Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) 
• National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) 

Unlock Your Digital Front Door with Linear Health

Overall, the digital front door may not be as new of a concept as it appears at first glance. It’s a term used to describe a collection of technologies and digital solutions that have likely been in development for years. 

What it represents, though, indeed is something revolutionary: an approach to interacting with patients that relies not on physical contact but access to a digital hub of information. A digital front door represents a new era of healthcare that is heavily focused on the patient and their experiences. It will become a necessary part of the infrastructure of organizations as they grow to meet increasing demands for care worldwide. 

No matter where you’re at in your digital transformation, now is the time to discover new ways to interact with your patients from behind the screen. 

Reduce the time and energy spent on administrative tasks, make care more accessible, and create opportunities for collaboration with a digital healthcare platform like Linear Health.

Our mission is to offer behavioral healthcare professionals the technological resources they need to improve health outcomes and deliver a tailored care experience. Schedule a demo today to learn more about how we can help you reach your patients, no matter where they’re at.