How digital tools can improve patient engagement from start to finish

How orthopedic practices can tackle key pain points through effective patient engagement tools

Effective communication between clinician and patient can be critical to outcomes in any healthcare setting, but it's especially important in orthopedics. The long recovery arcs and multistep processes¹ involved often means that outcomes are aligned with how well communication is sustained between patients and orthopedic practices throughout the full length of the care journey.

Patient engagement is all part and parcel of the distinct challenges in orthopedic workflows, from intake to pre-op appointments to everything from pain management to physical therapy. Success almost always depends on a patient's adherence to the treatment plan, while adherence is driven by communication and the strategies practices use for patient outreach.²

With this the case, the question for clinicians isn't whether to invest in patient engagement — it's how to operationalize it across each stage of care in a way that can help improve patient satisfaction and simultaneously reduce burden for practice staff. Here's a closer look at what's at stake and the tools in athenaOne® for Orthopedics that make patient engagement easier.

The hidden cost of communication breakdowns in orthopedic care

Communication breakdowns happen, even in the most efficient practices. These breakdowns may appear in noticeable patterns rather than isolated incidents. Missed pre-op steps, inconsistent rehab adherence, or repeated follow-up calls can signal gaps in how communication is structured across the care journey.

When patients feel rushed or overwhelmed by paperwork, or miss appointment reminders or don't read important educational materials, they may:

• Skip or selectively follow pre-operative requirements for labs, imaging, and medications, possibly delaying their surgery
• Ignore discharge and follow-up instructions, risking re-injury or other recovery setbacks
• Miss or misinterpret instructions for important home physical therapy exercises, slowing or preventing rehabilitation
• Not knowing how to contact the right person when they have questions or concerns

Likewise, the operational repercussions of poor communication can impact a practice's workflows and the bottom line. It can cause:

• Missed appointments and postponed surgeries
• Increased risks of complications and hospitalization
• Administrative inefficiencies and overworked staff
• Dissatisfied patients and poor reviews

In the end, clinicians may have to deal with frustrating busywork — or worse, empty appointment slots — while staff may be forced to spend valuable time on rescheduling, reminder calls, and reactive patient outreach. And this is not due to a lack of commitment by patients or a lack of quality services on the part of the clinic. It’s because patient engagement workflows aren’t always designed to consistently meet patients where they are.

Patient engagement begins at intake — and sets the tone for everything that follows

For many orthopedic patients, their first visit to the clinic is at a highly stressful time. They could be in significant pain from an injury, or anxious about whether they may require surgery. They may be worried about navigating next steps, from imaging to referrals to pre-operative consultations.

Intake often sets expectations for the entire episode of care. When information is unclear or fragmented at intake, those gaps are often carried forward into later stages. This can include:

• Unclear treatment and recovery timelines
• Confusion about surgical options
• Difficulty scheduling diagnostics and follow-up visits
• Limited understanding of what the rehabilitation process may require
• Questions about financial responsibilities

From an operational standpoint, intake is an opportunity for practices to establish communication processes that are going to be critical for the rest of the patient journey. Practices that provide their patients with the information they need to understand everything from scheduling to the reasons for physical therapy can significantly improve patient engagement as they progress to the next phases of care.

Conservative care and pain management: Supporting each patient's evolving needs

Following intake, for those patients facing non-surgical interventions, adherence to the clinician's care plan is often critical to success. Unlike acute interventions, conservative care relies heavily on patient behavior between visits and how they respond to outlined care plans. That makes consistent, accessible communication essential. The problem is many practices lack the staff and resources they need to help keep their patients on track.

As pain-management plans change, activity restrictions shift, and family and caregivers move in and out of the picture, the communication challenges associated with conservative care can include:

• Reinforcing medication guidance in accessible formats
• Providing educational resources that patients and caregivers can easily access
• Proactively checking in with patients about their pain, mobility, and progress
• Making it easy for patients to ask questions and report concerns

For clinicians, the stakes are often high during this phase of care. Conservative treatment may require weeks or months of monitoring and adjustments, and without consistent communication, patients can stray from the plan. Success requires offering patients clear guidance and access to support between appointments—and doing so in a way that is operationally efficient not only for clinicians but also the front desk.

Pre-operative communication and surgical readiness

From the perspective of patients who ultimately need surgery, the lead-up to the procedure is often the most complicated and confusing aspect of their care. Depending on their condition and the intervention involved, it may require:

• Labs and imaging
• Medication adjustments
• Medical clearances
• Compliance with instructions related to fasting and other restrictions
• Organizing day-of-surgery transportation and logistics

The sheer volume of information can be overwhelming for many patients, while for practices any missed requirements can easily disrupt tightly coordinated schedules. Even small gaps like a missed instruction or delayed lab can disrupt tightly scheduled surgical workflows. This creates cascading impacts on both patient care and clinic operations.

With this in mind, it's imperative that clinicians deliver pre-op instructions in clear and simple formats, and reinforce—with proactive reminders—what their patients need to do to prepare.

Post-operative recovery and rehabilitation

The need for clear communication continues immediately after the procedure and into the rehabilitation phase. Patients leave surgery with medication regimens, wound-care instructions, mobility restrictions, and a calendar full of scheduled follow-up appointments. Physical therapy may begin soon after, and could last for weeks or months, and there's always the risk of complications requiring further medical care and new interventions.

There are numerous patient engagement pain points during post-op recovery and rehabilitation:

• Medication confusion after discharge
• Uncertainty about activity restrictions and warning signs of complications
• In physical therapy: poor adherence to rehab regimens, lack of motivation, confusion about exercises or progression, missed appointments that may slow recovery

The challenge for practices involves not only reinforcing instructions beyond discharge day, but doing so across a recovery period that may last weeks or months. Timeline considerations necessitate maintaining consistent touchpoints during the patient's recovery and identifying potential signs of complications before they become serious. And similarly, care coordination between other clinicians is critical as the patient moves from one setting to the next.

Finally, all of these things have to happen in a way that is operationally realistic. If the work that's required to coordinate care and communicate with patients is too much for staff to handle — if, for instance, there are too many phone calls, or the calls that are made are taking too long — chances are it's going to be ignored in favor of other high-priority tasks.

athenaOne: Engagement that works for patients and practices

Against this backdrop, the opportunity for practices is not simply to communicate more—but to create systems that make communication consistent, timely, and scalable across the orthopedic journey. athenaOne for Orthopedics features patient engagement tools that are embedded directly into clinical workflows, helping practices:

• Deliver consistent instructions and education through a centralized patient portal
• Reinforce adherence through automated reminders tied to key milestones
• Maintain visibility into patient progress with care gap alerts
• Enable timely, mobile-friendly communication through two-way messaging

In practice, these tools help shift engagement from reactive outreach—such as phone calls and manual follow-ups—to structured, repeatable workflows that can support both patients and staff. They can also help practices optimize revenue by reducing last-minute cancellations and improving patient satisfaction and retention.

Above all, athenaOne for Orthopedics can help practices standardizing patient engagement operations within normal workflows and deploy smart automation through alerts and AI triage in response to patient inquiries. That can help orthopedic practices drive better care without requiring additional work from staff and help provide better outcomes for everyone involved, patients and clinicians alike.

Learn more about how patient engagement tools can support practices seeking to improve orthopedic outcomes.