Consumer experience drives patient app development

Amy Stevens, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Tidelands Health, says the inclusion of helpful features in the app began with surveying consumers through their NRC Health's Community Insights panel.

In July of 2023, NRC Health conducted an online survey of Tidelands Health's patients who opted-in to the systems patient community. To get a baseline understanding, Tidelands Health first asked about smartphone use.

From there, Tidelands Health asked a series of multiple choice and open-ended questions.

"We asked our consumers what they'd like to see in an app," Stevens says. "The patient portal functionality scored highly-the things you'd expect, like scheduling appointments or paying bills online. But other things were really important to our consumers, and they told us wayfinding is a big deal in our market. Wayfinding matters when you have a large population influx."

Additionally, the organization's entire marketing program is built on content strategy, using a digital content hub to share hundreds of pieces of health content a year-whether written articles, videos, or podcasts.

"Our consumers told us they wanted to be able to access that content through this app," Stevens says. "Getting that feedback really helped us drive what we knew our app needed to be."