The digital front door is a crucial gateway technology for healthcare organizations to achieve the Quintuple Aim: population health, patient experience, cost of care, clinician well-being, and health equity. By centralizing touchpoints and enabling seamless access to healthcare applications, it lays the foundation for identity-based care. The digital front door enhances patient outcomes, improves healthcare experiences, reduces costs, promotes health equity, and prepares organizations for future advancements in healthcare. Investing in the digital front door is vital for success in the evolving landscape of healthcare.
In 2007, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement introduced the “Triple Aim” approach to enhance health system performance. Over time, this approach has evolved into the “Quintuple Aim,” which identifies five dimensions of performance: population health, patient experience, per capita cost of care, clinician well-being, and health equity.
To achieve the Quintuple Aim, healthcare organizations, payers, government leaders, and their teams must invest in digital front door (DFD) transformation. The digital front door is a strategy that centralizes patient touchpoints, providing a unified log-in for seamless and secure access to healthcare applications from any device, anywhere.
While the current capabilities of the digital front door are valuable, its true significance lies in laying the foundation for identity-based care. Identity-based care involves a proactive and holistic approach to healthcare, enabled by ongoing digital interactions between patients and providers. The digital front door’s infrastructure, with optimized data-gathering tools, paves the way for advancements in identity-based care, such as point-of-care, telehealth, and value-based care.
The digital front door serves as a gateway technology, offering access to future healthcare innovations. It aligns with the five initiatives of the Quintuple Aim, ultimately leading to improved patient outcomes.
Let’s explore how the digital front door supports each dimension of the Quintuple Aim:
1. Population health: The digital front door delivers personalized healthcare tools and information, meeting patients where they are. It facilitates a proactive approach to population health by addressing overall well-being and preventing major medical events through identity-based care.
2. Patient experience: The digital front door provides patients with convenient and secure access to various touchpoints in their healthcare journey. Its seamless log-in experience encourages patient engagement and acceptance of features like multi-factor authentication, enhancing the overall experience.
3. Per capita cost of care: Identity-based care reduces the cost of care by improving a population’s health. Proactive engagement with providers focused on well-being helps prevent costly health events.
4. Clinician well-being: The digital front door enables well-connected care teams to access the tools and information they need. Patients become more self-sufficient, streamlining workflows and reducing the burden on clinicians. Additionally, privacy practices rooted in zero trust enhance clinician well-being.
5. Health Equity: The digital front door promotes health equity by meeting patients where they are and collecting race and ethnicity data. It also standardizes health equity training, providing a fuller picture of patient resources needed for optimal health.
The benefits of the digital front door extend beyond the Quintuple Aim:
– Seamless patient experience: Customer identity and access management technology ensure a smooth digital experience.
– Preventative care: Identity-based care focuses on proactive health management rather than crisis response.
– Patient loyalty: Optimized patient experiences foster loyalty, which is crucial in a competitive healthcare landscape.
– Healthcare education: The digital front door enables providers to reach patients with essential knowledge for a healthy life.
– Future-proof: The technology lays the foundation for future integrations like value-based care and point-of-care services.
– Security and privacy: Identity and access management technology ensures the security and privacy of patient, provider, and organizational data.
– Quality of care: Relevant data and user guidance empower providers to make informed decisions, enhancing the quality of care.
– Reduced burden of care: Identity-based care prevents health concerns, reducing the physical, emotional, mental, and financial stressors associated with caring for a family member in poor health.
Investing in the digital front door is essential for healthcare organizations to succeed in an identity-based future. It creates a seamless care journey, improves overall health, lowers costs, and promotes equity in healthcare. The widespread adoption of the digital front door will bring us closer to the vision of identity-based healthcare.
