Patient Acquisition
Timeline: January 2025 - May 2025
Role: UX Research Fellow, Project Lead
A partnership with HealthSource of Ohio to design a digital strategy that increases patient acquisition in Clermont County by improving online visibility, refining messaging, and understanding barriers to accessing care. Through stakeholder interviews, generational research, clinic observations, and co-creation, the project produced a refined acquisition system, targeted communication recommendations, and success metrics to guide implementation.
Enhancing Patient Acquisition and Access in Clermont County
Developing relevant, duplicatable strategies and materials
HealthSource Of Ohio (HSO) has served underserved communities in Clermont County for over 47 years, providing vital healthcare services. Despite high satisfaction levels among current patients, HSO faces challenges in reaching unserved and underinsured populations. The community landscape revealed reliance on community presence, word-of-mouth, and targeted outreach, particularly for caregivers with children , yet gaps remain in awareness and engagement, especially among populations less familiar with healthcare resources or digital tools.
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The primary challenge was to devise an effective strategy to increase patient acquisition and enhance access for underserved populations in Clermont County. Key barriers included limited awareness of services, digital literacy issues, transportation barriers, transportation barriers, and insurance access. The goal was to create a comprehensive, community-focused outreach and digital engagement strategy that could improve awareness, simplify access, and foster trust.
Actions and Methodologies
This project was executed in three meticulously planned phases:
Research Phase
1
2
Ideation Phase
Refinement & Testing
3
Uncovering Community needs and Outreach Gaps
Surfacing barriers and expectations
Conducted interviews with HealthSource patients and providers to understand their current landscape, including community needs, barriers, and current outreach effectiveness.
Analyzing barriers and engagement effectiveness
Mapped stakeholder interactions, identified pain points, and analyzed community presence. Recognized heavily reliance on word-of mouth and community events for patient acquisition.
Mapping barriers and stakeholders within Clermont County
Developed geographic map to visually understand how social determinants of health within a community relate to access to care.
Designing Targeted Outreach Strategies Through Community-Centered Collaboration
Developing personas to understand barriers and community needs
Created detailed personas representing key community segments, uncovering challenges such as digital literacy gaps, transportation limits, and insurance confusion
Co-creating and refining outreach strategies with stakeholders
Facilitated workshops to gather feedback, shape targeted messaging, and brainstorm digital and community-based outreach approaches, leading to a refined strategic direction.
Final Deliverables
Strengthening outreach through targeted digital strategies
Implementing pilot programs to test and improve engagement
Defining success through clear, actionable metrics
Developed a comprehensive digital outreach approach focused on community visibility, caregiver-specific messaging, and improving digital literacy. Created a user-friendly toolkit to help staff communicate and engage more effectively with patients.
Launched pilot initiatives, including enhanced portal onboarding and targeted outreach at select clinics, to assess what resonates with patients and refine approaches using real-world feedback.
Established key performance indicators such as patient portal registrations, appointment scheduling increases, and engagement levels at community events to measure progress and guide continuous improvement.
Outcomes and Impact
Strategic Impact
The tailored outreach approach and empathy training materials provide a scalable model to sustain patient engagement efforts, ensuring growth in underserved populations' access.