Bridging language gaps with patient engagement tools

Patient engagement solutions for multilingual healthcare challenges

With today’s increasingly diverse patient populations, healthcare practices face significant challenges in providing culturally sensitive care. Growing language barriers hinder effective communication, risking misunderstandings, lower patient satisfaction, and disrupted care coordination. To meet patients where they are and ensure equitable health outcomes for all, practices and clinicians need support in bridging these communication gaps.

athenaOne® multilingual patient engagement tools help healthcare providers overcome communication challenges. By supporting multiple languages and integrating seamlessly with clinical workflows, these tools enable providers to communicate clearly and compassionately with patients from diverse backgrounds.

This patient engagement technology not only helps reduce administrative burdens but also fosters culturally appropriate care that supports patient understanding, engagement, and adherence to treatment plans.

As practices look to bridge care gaps for underserved and diverse populations, athenaOne multilingual capabilities stand out as a key solution to support culturally competent care — ensuring that every patient feels heard, respected, and empowered.

The challenge: Language barriers and practice pain points in multilingual EHR support

Serving multilingual patient populations can increase the administrative burden on healthcare practices, requiring manual translation of materials and complicating communication workflows. Furthermore, when language barriers impede clear communication of medical instructions and care plans, it can lead to lower patient adherence and satisfaction, ultimately impacting care quality and equity.

For practices committed to delivering culturally sensitive and culturally competent care, these challenges highlight the urgent need for scalable, integrated multilingual EHR support solutions. Such solutions not only help bridge communication gaps but also support equitable access to care by respecting patient language preferences and acknowledging cultural nuances. Addressing these pain points is essential to closing care gaps for underserved populations and elevating overall patient experience.

Solution spotlight: athenaOne patient engagement technology with multilingual features

To help healthcare practices meet communication needs across language barriers, athenaOne provides a comprehensive suite of multilingual patient engagement features focused on improving communication and reducing administrative burdens. Key components of this solution include:

• Ambient Notes multilingual capabilities: Clinicians can now run ambient sessions in over 80+ languages, including widely spoken ones such as Spanish, Korean, and French. This new multilingual capability is designed to support more inclusive, equitable care by enabling clinical encounters in preferred languages. Using Suki AI, Ambient Notes seamlessly listens to the conversation in the spoken language and generates the corresponding clinical note in English. Suki AI is a voice-enabled digital assistant that helps clinicians quickly and accurately document patient encounters. This not only saves time but also reduces errors and improves documentation quality.

Note: athenahealth recently announced athenaAmbient, its own proprietary ambient listening solution that will be part of the new AI-native encounter

• Patient Portal guidance and communications in multiple languages:

  The Patient Portal is a web-based platform that facilitates secure messaging, access to health records, appointment scheduling, patient payments and notifications. It supports communications in English and Spanish, with plans to add more languages common among diverse patient populations. This platform allows patients to engage with their healthcare providers digitally via a browser on desktop and mobile devices, helping to extend access and improve communication for Spanish speaking patients.

• athenaPatient® app: 

  The athenaPatient app is a mobile application designed for smartphones and tablets, offering patients convenient, on-the-go access to key healthcare services such as appointment booking, bill payment, and direct communication with providers. The app currently supports Spanish language functionality, enabling patients to interact in their preferred language through an intuitive, app-based interface. This complements the patient portal by providing a mobile-friendly engagement option for diverse patient populations. 

• athenaTelehealth: The telehealth platform includes a Spanish language option for its app interface, enhancing accessibility for Spanish-speaking patients during virtual visits.
• Automated generation of patient instructions: These features ensure patients receive clear, culturally appropriate instructions in their preferred language, supporting better understanding and adherence to care plans. 

Together, these features significantly reduce the administrative workload associated with manual translation and follow-up while enhancing provider-patient communication. This supports culturally appropriate care, helping practices meet patients where they are and deliver equitable, respectful healthcare experiences.

By bridging language barriers, healthcare practices can improve patient understanding, boost engagement, and enhance overall care quality.

Supporting real-world example: Tapestry 360 Health’s success with multilingual patient engagement solutions

One healthcare organization that has experienced the impact of the athenaOne multilingual patient engagement tools is Tapestry 360 Health. This comprehensive health system serves a diverse patient population, primarily communicating in English and Spanish to meet community needs. Its commitment to culturally sensitive care aligns closely with athenaOne multilingual patient engagement capabilities. 

By leveraging athenaOne’s multilingual tools, Tapestry 360 was able to increase patient portal adoption among Spanish-speaking patients, enhancing overall patient engagement. These features helped streamline workflows by reducing the administrative burden of manual translations and improving communication clarity between providers and patients.

By implementing athenaOne multilingual tools, Tapestry 360 saw notable improvements in patient engagement and operational efficiency. For instance: 

• Patient portal adoption: The health system experienced a significant increase in patient portal usage among Spanish-speaking patients, with adoption rates rising by over 17% within the first year following implementation.
• Streamlined workflows: Staff reported a reduction in time spent on manual translation and follow-up, allowing clinicians and care managers to focus more on direct patient care. 

While Tapestry 360’s use of multilingual functionality is currently focused on English and Spanish, its experience illustrates how integrated language support can drive measurable improvements in access, engagement, and clinical efficiency.

Why Choose athenaOne’s patient engagement solutions for multilingual support?

athenaOne is distinguished by its dedication to ongoing improvement and innovation, evolving based on healthcare providers’ and patients’ needs. The platform offers user-friendly onboarding and supports essential languages like English and Spanish—with plans for additional expansions. 

A strong customer partnership model, including client feedback from organizations like Tapestry 360, ensures the platform continuously supports culturally sensitive care and high-quality patient experiences. Practices looking to bridge language gaps and serve diverse communities find athenaOne a reliable trusted partner.

Delivering culturally competent care with multilingual patient engagement technology

Effective multilingual communication remains core to culturally sensitive and equitable healthcare. By reducing language barriers, practices enhance patient understanding, engagement, and overall care quality. athenaOne empowers providers to deliver compassionate, culturally appropriate care while streamlining workflows. Partnering with athenaOne equips practices to meet patients where they are and achieve meaningful health outcome improvements.

Explore how athenaOne multilingual capabilities can help bridge communication gaps and foster truly inclusive patient care.