The Digital Front Door Serves Staff as Well as Patients
Patients expect to reach their hospital as easily as they reach their bank. Building every channel around them is good for patients, and it gives time back to the staff who serve them.
Our patients manage their banking on an app, order groceries from their phones and talk to help desks on video. They expect the same from a hospital, and most hospitals still ask them to phone a call centre and wait. When we built the patient channels of a new teaching hospital in Dubai, we started from that gap. We also discovered something we had not fully planned for: every hour saved for a patient was usually an hour saved for a member of staff.
Start with the journey, not the tools
The first step was mapping the patient journey from first search to follow-up, including the emotional highs and lows, and identifying every point of contact. Only then did we decide which channels to build. We grouped them in two parts.
Before the hospital. A website built around patient education and linked directly to the relevant specialists, so that reading about a condition led naturally to booking. Social media and digital campaigns that shared the same content and the same message. A call centre whose agents were trained in medical terminology, not only in call handling. Online chat, which consistently had the highest booking conversion of any channel and which we later moved to WhatsApp. We were among the first hospitals to switch on chat through Google Maps, where many patients begin. And a self-service booking platform, for the many patients who would rather not speak to anyone at all.
Inside the hospital. Screens in the lobby, lifts and waiting areas, and tablets at each consultation room door, all carrying the same messages as the online channels. Printed material with QR codes for selected services. In-room infotainment that let inpatients find information and request help.
The staff dividend
The most important channel was our own people. Patients ask any employee about services, so every employee needs to know the hospital. Weekly town halls, where physicians introduced themselves and their services to the whole staff, turned colleagues into informed ambassadors.
Digital services also changed the work itself. Self-service booking and chat reduced repetitive calls. In-room infotainment meant nurses were no longer the only source of routine information. Automated medication dispensing in pharmacy reduced manual work and errors. CRM and ticketing tools made requests traceable, so nothing depended on someone remembering. Staff spent more of their time on the parts of the job that need a person.
That is the case I would make to any board: invest in digital patient services as much for the employee experience as for the patient experience. The two rise and fall together.
Questions for boards and leadership teams
- If a patient wanted to book, reschedule and ask a question without making a phone call, could they?
- Which repetitive tasks are our clinical and front-desk staff still doing by hand?
- Do all our staff know enough about our services to answer a patient's question in the corridor?
Every channel built around the patient should give time back to the people who care for them.
Dr Fatih Mehmet Gul is a physician and healthcare executive who has built, commissioned and led hospitals across the Gulf and Türkiye. He is an Honorary Professor at UCL Global Business School for Health, author of Connected Care, and host of The Chief Healthcare Officer podcast.
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