Boosting patient engagement and satisfaction 

Tapestry 360 Health: Staying connected to their community with athenaOne®

As a federally qualified health center (FQHC), Tapestry 360 Health serves as a cornerstone of community health in the Chicago area, dedicated to providing high-quality and comprehensive care to everyone. FQHCs play a vital role in ensuring that all patients, regardless of their background, have access to critical and culturally sensitive healthcare services.

Across 15 clinics – including two integrated care sites and six school-based sites — Tapestry 360 Health delivers remarkably holistic care to a patient population of over 28,000. Their services span primary care, behavioral health, pediatrics, geriatrics, prenatal care, Ob-Gyn, dental, and more, and that care is available to every demographic, given Tapestry 360 Health’s commitment to integrating within their community to provide accessible services.

Tapestry 360 Health transitioned to athenaOne® in 2023 due to a desire for a more user-friendly, automated, and efficient electronic health record (EHR), practice & revenue cycle management, and patient engagement solution. As an organization focused on their mission to improve the care of underserved populations, they felt that athenaOne was uniquely suited to help them get more patients in the door and engaged with their health.

Enhancing digital engagement with athenaOne, a modern and patient-centric solution  

Tapestry 360 Health chose athenaOne back in 2023 because they knew that the robust patient engagement capabilities would help them stay more connected with their large and diverse patient population. They recognized the need for a platform that would not only enable patients to stay more connected to the practice but also reduce the administrative burden on staff to follow up. As Meghan Murphy, the Digital Learning and Development Manager at Tapestry 360 Health, explains, “I really appreciate [athenaOne] automating things that should be automated and allowing staff to work with patients in more meaningful ways.” This reduction of manual work, combined with a suite of digital engagement tools, has transformed their ability to keep a finger on the pulse of their patient community.

The athenaOne Patient Portal minimizes calls into and out of the practice by surfacing important information for patients and enables them to self-serve tasks like sending messaging to clinicians or paying balances. For Tapestry 360 Health, the most critical functionalities of the portal include access to lab and imaging results and patient messaging. Murphy notes, “Patients being able to see [lab and imaging results] and read comments from their providers and not have to call the office is a great thing.” She notes that this capability empowers patients to stay connected and informed without putting the burden on staff to drive that communication; rather, it’s as simple as, “Here’s your information and here’s the comment from your provider, now you know what’s going on.”

The Patient Portal provides additional useful features to give patients visibility into their health record, such as the ability to view outstanding orders, health reminders, and medication lists. Murphy shares that patients have even proactively surfaced updates to that information based on reviewing their portal, saying, “The engagement is great, that they’re able to see so much of what’s in the chart.” This transparency and communication both empowers patients to stay connected to their own healthcare journey and facilitates the ability of physicians and staff to access the most up to date clinical information.

Accessibility in care goes beyond location and expense, and Tapestry 360 Health works hard for universal inclusivity. Due to the number of practices that they manage, the location of those care sites, and the organization’s successful efforts to increase the accessibility of their care, their patient population is remarkably diverse. Over a third of their patients speak a language other than English, and many of their patients don’t have the time or ability to stay connected through traditional pathways, such as making phone calls to the office. That’s why the capability to translate athenaOne’s Patient Portal to Spanish, a feature that 23% of patients of Tapestry 360 Health utilize, is essential to their organization.

Measuring success and adapting to changes

Through efforts led by marketing director Raven Hibbler, such as developing patient handouts, creating staff pins that say, “Ask me about the portal,” and hosting workshops around digital literacy and leveraging the Patient Portal as a Spanish speaker, Tapestry 360 Health has truly embraced the power of digital engagement and drove incredible success in their organization. For internal staff, they have curated guides leveraging athenaOne’s O-help reference and information on athenahealth’s self-serve knowledge hubs, such that every member of Tapestry 360 Health can engage with patients about the portal. These efforts have been instrumental in driving adoption of the Patient Portal and ensuring that staff are comfortable with both using it and helping patients do the same.

Between August 2023 and August 2024, Patient Portal adoption increased by 17.5%, with the number of monthly payments made through the portal rising 18.5%. Not only that, but 80% of those users are active, meaning they have logged onto the Patient Portal at least once outside of when they registered. Read Tapestry 360 Health’s case study to learn more.

Tapestry 360 Health also utilizes the athenaOne Patient Digital Engagement Index (PDEI) dashboard and Patient Communication Activity report to monitor engagement and success metrics. This report within the athenaOne Insights Dashboards surfaces a unique score that illustrates how digitally engaged patients are by measuring access to care, financial activity, and healthcare information. This allows Murphy to track, report, and act on trends in Patient Portal usage. Murphy knows which clinics have the most active users on their portals, and she sees when patient cases are spiking and what types of inquiries are being made. This enables her to strategize with staff and clinicians about how they can address patient needs while protecting their time.

Looking ahead and embracing opportunity

As an organization that’s newer to athenaOne, Tapestry 360 Health is still exploring how to harness the full breadth of optional functionality to save time for clinicians and staff. Beyond the patient engagement capabilities, Murphy feels athenaOne is “designed to protect physicians’ time,” and she’s excited about continuing to customize their tablespaces to increase efficiency. While there are certain features that they already take advantage of to save clinicians time, such as re-routing refill requests, she expressed optimism about implementing additional functionality such as task assignment overrides (TAOs) and Enhanced Self Check-in to continue whittling away at administrative burden.

As a true partner in innovation and optimization, Murphy knows she has a direct line to athenahealth and other FQHCs on the network through their Customer Success Manager (CSM), peer groups facilitated by athenahealth, self-serve resources, and opportunities for feedback on product development such as submitting ideas and participating in alpha and beta tests. She notes, “The only way athenahealth is going to know who wants something is if we engage, right?” Murphy believes that alongside the progress Tapestry 360 Health has made, athenahealth has been listening and improving as well: “I think you have made such great enhancements, even since we’ve joined.”

Tapestry 360 Health has already transformed the engagement their care sites have with their patient community; but, as an organization dedicated to continuous improvement, they are focused on the future. They continue to work toward improving adoption of the Patient Portal and are also encouraging patients to download the athenaPatient® app, available on the iOS app store and Google Play. They remain focused on integrating with their local community to improve the accessibility of their services and on nurturing engagement with underserved and underrepresented populations. Through these critical efforts, they have a partner in athenaOne to support every step they take.

Ready to transform your patient engagement?

Reach out to us today to learn how you can make the most of the athenaOne’s Patient Portal and other digital engagement tools to streamline operations, empower patients and staff, and elevate the quality of care your organization can provide.