Case Study: How Sanitas & Quirónsalud Reimagined Their Patient Engagement Strategy

The Challenge: A Fragmented and Insecure Patient Journey

Leading healthcare providers like Sanitas and Quirónsalud faced a critical challenge familiar to the entire industry: a fragmented patient journey. Communications were scattered across multiple, disconnected channels—SMS for reminders, email for reports, and call centers for scheduling. This created a disjointed experience for patients and significant operational hurdles. Their existing patient engagement strategy was costly, heavily reliant on insecure SMS messages vulnerable to phishing, and failed to provide a single, continuous view of patient interactions.

Key pain points included:

• High Operational Costs: Excessive spending on SMS, a channel with limited interactivity and high fraud risk.
• Appointment No-Shows: A lack of effective, timely, and interactive reminders contributed to costly missed appointments.
• Security Risks: Transmitting sensitive patient health information (PHI) via unencrypted channels posed a significant compliance and reputational risk.
• Siloed Systems: An inability to see the full history of a patient’s interactions led to inefficient support and a poor user experience.

The Solution: A Unified and Intelligent Patient Engagement Strategy

Recognizing the need for a paradigm shift, both Sanitas and Quirónsalud partnered with indigitall to build a new patient engagement strategy centered on security, automation, and a unified experience. Instead of patching together more ‘plumbing’, they adopted an intelligent platform to orchestrate the entire patient lifecycle from a single point of control.

Unifying Communications into ‘One Continuous Experience’

The first step was to consolidate all outbound and inbound communication into indigitall’s omnichannel platform. This created a single, chronological thread for every patient interaction, from appointment booking and reminders to receiving test results and post-visit follow-ups. By leveraging channels like secure in-app and web push notifications, WhatsApp, and RCS, they moved beyond the limitations of SMS to create rich, interactive conversations.

Prioritizing Security for Patient Data

For a healthcare provider, data security is non-negotiable. The cornerstone of the new strategy was replacing insecure SMS with indigitall’s proprietary Encrypted Push Notifications. This technology ensures that sensitive information—like appointment details, links to patient portals, and test results—is transmitted with end-to-end encryption, protecting both the patient and the provider from phishing and data breaches.

Automating Support with AI Agents

To enhance efficiency and provide 24/7 service, indigitall’s AI Agents were deployed to manage routine inquiries. These AI-powered chatbots now handle a huge volume of tasks automatically, including:

• Scheduling and rescheduling appointments.
• Answering frequently asked questions about clinic locations or procedures.
• Sending proactive reminders and confirmations.

This automation deflects up to 80% of common queries from live agents, freeing up human staff to focus on more complex patient care needs.

The Results: Transforming Patient Care and The Bottom Line

By implementing this unified and secure strategy with indigitall, Sanitas and Quirónsalud achieved remarkable, measurable results that directly addressed their initial challenges.

• 75% Reduction in SMS Costs: By shifting to more secure and cost-effective channels like encrypted push, they dramatically cut communication expenditures.
• 40-60% Decrease in Support Costs: AI-driven automation significantly reduced the workload on call centers, leading to major operational savings.
• Significant Reduction in No-Show Rates: Interactive, timely reminders sent through preferred channels ensured more patients arrived for their scheduled appointments.
• Enhanced Security and Compliance: The move to encrypted channels eliminated the primary vector for SMS phishing attacks, strengthening patient trust and brand reputation.

Your Blueprint for a Modern Healthcare Experience

The success of Sanitas and Quirónsalud provides a clear blueprint for any enterprise healthcare organization looking to modernize its patient engagement. Moving away from a fragmented collection of tools to a single, intelligent platform isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a transformation. It delivers a secure, seamless experience for patients while creating massive efficiencies and cost savings for the provider. Ready to build your future-proof patient engagement strategy? 🚀