The pressure is on for health systems to create digital experiences patients will enjoy or risk losing out on revenue. In the digital age, consumers have high expectations of what these platforms should be like. “Systems are no longer just competing with other health systems in their region, they are competing with the experiences people have in their daily lives from other brands—that is the bar,” Kalis said. “When those experiences are cumbersome, that can lead to choosing one provider over another … and in the most extreme case, even switching providers.”

Telehealth’s increased popularity has prompted Stanford Health Care to totally rethink how it is assessing patients’ experience with the platform. The California system now does about 62,000 telehealth visits a month, up from about a 1,000 a month before COVID-19.

Now that volumes have stabilized and are staying strong, Alpa Vyas, vice president for patient experience at Stanford,