KLAS Playbook for Patient-Centric Care 2025
How to Succeed in Patient-Centricity

Operational Barriers

Barriers

Physician burnout & misaligned work: When physicians have bureaucratic tasks or tasks outside of their training or license level, they can more easily become burned out. Further, doing these tasks often reduces the time they have to engage with and care for patients.

Staffing constraints: When organizations have insufficient clinician staff, patient interactions become more rushed and less meaningful.

Resistance to change: Clinicians who are used to how healthcare is taught and practiced may be slow to change their workflows.

Siloed operations: Fragmentation across departments (e.g., radiology, orthopedics) does not support a holistic patient view and cohesive experience.

Overcomplicated governance: Having too many decision-makers can lead to ambiguity and inconsistently executed patient experience strategies.

Plays

Ensure clinicians are operating at the top of their license

Shift from departmental KPIs to enterprise-wide KPIs

Simplify leadership structures and decision-making pathways so they are more accessible to frontline staff

Build a unified patient strategy guided by streamlined, centralized governance

Use virtual care and ambient technologies to offload administrative tasks

Patient Barriers

Barriers

Low health literacy: Many patients don’t understand medical information or system navigation.

Lack of transparency: Patients often don’t know what to expect from visits or what their care will cost.

Unempowered patients: Patients are rarely treated as empowered team members in their care journeys.

Differing preferences: There is no silver bullet for patient engagement, as each person has different needs.

Plays

Leverage community members to help educate underserved populations

Create mechanisms (e.g., concierge models) to guide and involve patients in their journey

Use clear, simple language in all patient communications, including communication around pricing

Be flexible and adapt to individual patients by providing communication options and after-hours access

Payment Barriers

Barriers

Fee-for-service: Current fee-for-service models reward volume or value, discouraging preventive care and long-term patient engagement.

Inconsistent incentives: What payer organizations prioritize and what is best for patients can often be misaligned.

Inadequate reimbursement models: CPT-based billing can be seen as incompatible with patient-centric models when the codes incentivize billable activities rather than care personalized to the patient.

Plays

Expand value-based care payment models that reward quality, continuity, and patient satisfaction

Proactively involve payer organizations in care coordination

Align incentives across primary care and specialists

Technology Barriers

Barriers

Fragmented technology ecosystems: These ecosystems cause data to be siloed and underused. Existing tools may also not be adopted or well integrated.

Risk of message burden: When patient engagement efforts are not well coordinated, organizations risk sending excessive or irrelevant messages to patients, causing them to disengage.

Technology alone isn’t the answer: Tools like AI and facial recognition have potential, but outcomes depend on the users, not just the technology.

Insufficient partnership with EHR vendors: Clinician trust in EHR vendors varies. Some clinicians are frustrated with their EHR vendors due to broken road maps, bureaucratic barriers, and a lack of responsiveness.

Plays

Prioritize interoperability and data aggregation, and match solutions to real workflows

Leverage AI and other intelligent systems to deliver dynamic, data-informed, and context-aware outreach that adapts to patients’ needs

Use behavioral insights and usability testing (e.g., microlearning) to guide implementations; invest in change management

Involve HIT vendors more meaningfully as partners with clearer accountability

Personalization tools

• AI-powered tools that use patient history and preferences to anticipate needs
• Automated follow-ups for upcoming appointments, lab results, etc.
• Habit suggestions and proactive reminders based on patient data
• Integration with clinical records and workflows
• Consent management for data use
• Ability for patients to select preferred communication channel

Consumer-centric digital tools

• Easy-to-use interfaces and real-time service
• Centralized app/platform for scheduling, medical records, communication, payments, and insurance
• Seamless integration between mobile and desktop platforms
• Persistent, pre-filled data or AI-filled data to avoid repetitive intake forms
• AI that can explain bills or diagnoses and prompt next steps

Patient feedback tools

• Patient surveys
• Feedback loops, including live feedback from bedside rounding and post-visit calls

Hospitality & customer service

• Patient journeys designed with a hospitality mindset, focused on warmth, clarity, and respect
• Easy check-ins and pre-registrations
• Options to text or chat with a bot without waiting on hold
• Clear wait times and service expectations
• Automated, personal pre-visit communication tools and real-time status updates

Coordinated outreach

• Systems that coordinate patient outreach so that it is targeted, intentional, and measured
• Centralized outreach platforms that streamline patient communications
• Coordinated messaging across departments
• Messages with the right timing, frequency, and tone for each individual patient

Interoperability & integration

• True interoperability across EHRs, provider organizations, and health plans based on data-sharing standards
• Single sign-on experience for all medical interactions
• Central data vault for patients to manage and share records
• Consumer-controlled health data platforms that enable patients to manage access and connectivity across their care team

Price transparency & financial tools

• Consolidated tools (often part of patient portal) that provide clear, up-front cost information and real-time billing updates
• Pre-visit cost estimates and post-insurance breakdowns
• Notifications about insurance coverage, deductible tracking, and billing support
• Education tools that demystify bills and insurance for patients

Patient-driven governance

• Chief patient advocate or a similar role at the executive level
• Alignment among internal stakeholders to act on patient feedback
• Diverse patient panels that inform IT and digital strategies
• Connections with community directors and nonprofit services to better understand real patient needs

Language accessibility

• AI tools that can translate medical information into a patient’s preferred language, tone, or comprehension level
• Ability for patients to request a clinician visit when sensitive test results are delivered
• Integrated telehealth follow-ups for private discussions

Patient Self-Scheduling

Self-scheduling is no longer a “nice-to-have” tool for patients, but their expectations in this area remain unmet. Organizations that embrace self-scheduling best practices will be better able to operationalize this expected service.

Plays

Start simple and build confidence: Starting with low-complexity ancillary services (e.g., mammograms, colonoscopies, etc.) for patient self-scheduling will create early wins and build organizational confidence in self-scheduling.

• Use waitlists and ticketing systems (which typically involve non-urgent, elective, or follow-up care requests) as low-risk test environments to introduce self-scheduling
• Customize communications so that patients know what to expect and how to proceed

Address provider resistance and operational constraints: Clinicians are often hesitant to adopt patient self-scheduling due to concerns over control, clinical appropriateness, and workload. However, evidence (such as from the Medical Group Management Association) shows that when tools are thoughtfully designed, patients often schedule better for themselves than administrative staff do, leading to fewer no-shows.

• Secure leadership buy-in and engage clinicians early in designing patient self-scheduling tools to help overcome reluctance
• Show data to prove outcomes like reduced no-show rates and increased patient satisfaction
• Implement well-designed scorecards to track and quantify how well providers align with the organization’s scheduling goals

Ensure system integration and workflow alignment: Patient self-scheduling tools must integrate seamlessly with the EHR and operational workflows.

• Involve IT, operations, and clinical teams in the design of these tools to balance automation with oversight
• Avoid creating back-end bottlenecks

Use technology intelligently: Modern technologies, especially AI, can enhance patient self-scheduling by managing complexity and personalizing recommendations.

• Create patient pathways with step-by-step instructions and use AI-driven triage to route patients to the right place
• Leverage historical data to determine appointment length and patient preferences
• Incorporate asynchronous visit options for other needs (e.g., medication refills, quick consultations)

Mimic the consumer experience: Patients expect their digital healthcare experience to be similar to what they experience in other industries. Delays and complexity in self-scheduling will erode patient trust and engagement.

• Ensure alignment across digital, mobile, and in-person channels so that the patient experience is consistent
• Provide clear, branded messaging so that patients trust communications and understand the next steps

Patient Intake

Simplifying patient intake requires more than just digitized forms. It requires organizations to holistically rethink patient intake—eliminating unnecessary questions, consolidating outreach, and aligning the process to patient needs.

Plays

Reduce patients’ cognitive and operational burden: Patients often feel overwhelmed by intake processes, which are often filled with repetitive or irrelevant questions. Ideally, patients should not be burdened by operational or administrative complexities that could be handled behind the scenes.

• Clarify why questions are being asked and minimize redundant questions
• Send nonessential or system-specific intake questions to clinicians or support staff

Ensure use of technology is not excessive: While technology can improve patient intake, poorly implemented or overcomplicated digital tools can create more confusion than convenience for patients.

• Deploy AI for back-end processes (e.g., referrals, routing) to enhance instances where a human touch is needed
• Use easy-to-use location-based features (e.g., proximity check-ins) to simplify arrival
• Address technical debt from rushed pandemic-era implementations and optimize existing tools before adding more

Coordinate and consolidate communication: Often, multiple departments within a health system independently communicate with patients, creating a fragmented and overwhelming intake experience.

• Centralize communication efforts to avoid duplication or conflicting messages
• Reduce the number of touchpoints
• Use patient-friendly messaging; clearly indicate the purpose and sender of messages

Customize intake to context/care setting: While some standardization is valuable, patient intake must remain flexible enough to fit different services, specialties, and patient needs.

• Reduce variation where possible, but understand that not all intake processes will look the same
• Build adaptive intake workflows that can change based on visit type, patient history, or specialty
• Gather feedback from both patients and staff to refine intake processes

Patient Education

To meet patients’ evolving needs and empower them in their health journeys, education must become dynamic, personalized, and responsive.

Plays

Standardize on personalization: Generic, one-size-fits-all education is no longer sufficient. Patients want customized education made for their specific conditions, care journeys, and learning preferences. Further, patients learn in different ways, so education efforts should be diverse and inclusive.

• Ask patients about their learning preferences early and use that information to tailor the format and delivery of education
• Provide different options for education (e.g., handouts, videos, in-person coaching)
• Use simple language and visual elements to convey complex information
• Customize education pathways and content to where patients are within their care journey (e.g., postop vs. chronic condition)
• Use analytics to track the effectiveness of different education modalities

Make education on-demand and timely: Education resources must be available to patients when most needed, not just during intake or discharge. Patients often don’t absorb information until they are ready to act on it.

• Offer on-demand digital education via patient portals or other apps
• Enable real-time access to instructions, videos, and support
• Incorporate timely follow-ups (e.g., postop care reminders, diet adjustments, physical therapy milestones)

Use AI to enhance—not replace—the human touch: AI tools can significantly improve education efficacy, but it must be thoughtfully applied so that it simplifies rather than overcomplicates education.

• Provide AI-generated personalized summaries, infographics, and explanations
• Build voice-enabled tools to help patients navigate content
• Use AI to deliver relevant and context-sensitive content, helping patients prioritize what they should focus on

Establish strong infrastructure and governance: Organizations should treat education as a strategic function—with dedicated leadership, systems, and metrics.

• Centralize educational content and ensure visibility in patient portals or other apps
• Assign content governance responsibilities to maintain consistent, accurate, and up-to-date materials
• Include clinical and IT teams in content creation and workflow integration

Continually train: Education is not a single event—it is a continuous process for both patients and care teams.

• Build ongoing education checkpoints into care workflows, including follow-up interactions
• Ensure clinicians are trained to deliver and reinforce education in ways patients can understand

AI for Patient Engagement

AI use cases for patient engagement have great potential, but many of them remain to be proven. Organizations implementing AI must ensure their use cases are trustworthy, transparent, and meaningful for patients.

Plays

Build trust through transparency and education: Patients and clinicians need clear explanations on what AI is doing, why it is being used, and how it will help human-centered care.

• Clearly disclose AI use (e.g., share AI-generated notes)
• Provide scripts or talking points for clinicians to explain AI use cases during patient visits
• Train both patients and clinicians on how to interpret and interact with AI outputs
• Use non-intimidating language (e.g., “intuitive tools” versus AI) to reduce fear
• Include AI education in patient interactions

Use AI for personalization: Patients respond best to AI when it enhances their experience in a relevant, customized way.

• Generate summaries and videos tailored to individual diagnoses, comorbidities, and care plans
• Use patient preferences to tailor interactions with their healthcare team
• Deploy AI agents that can surface relevant information, send reminders, and provide next steps to patients
• Allow patients to query their health data in simple, intuitive formats

Design AI as a collaborative tool: AI is most powerful when used in a collaborative environment, bridging the gap between patients and health systems and improving shared understanding.

• Use tools that can navigate the broad patient journey, integrating multiple data sources to present a holistic view
• Use tools that create agendas for visits, guiding patients on how to prepare and what to ask
• Create mechanisms for patients to input their history or data before visits so that clinicians can focus on their concerns

Expand access to AI-enabled tools: Barriers (e.g., digital literacy, device access) can limit patient engagement with AI. Successful engagement requires multiple points of access and inclusive designs.

• Offer access to AI through public kiosks and user-friendly patient portals
• Use a mobile-first strategy with tools, as smartphones are often patients’ primary digital tool
• Design for equity, supporting multilingual content, low-tech options, and readability

Strengthen the human connection through AI: AI should enhance the patient-provider relationship, not diminish it. Tools for ambient listening and automated documentation can free up clinicians to be more present with patients.

• Use AI to record and summarize patient visits, ensuring important details aren’t lost
• Implement AI triage tools to reduce unnecessary referrals and streamline patient routing
• Give clinicians quick summaries of patients’ top concerns, enabling the clinicians to address what matters most

Patient Technology Support

To provide patient-centric care, healthcare organizations can’t just offer tools—they must ensure those tools are accessible to, understandable by, and humanized for patients so that they can confidently engage in the technology and their health.

Plays

Provide multimodal, inclusive support systems: Similar to education, patients engage with technology in different ways. Age, access, digital literacy, and language barriers must be considered when designing technology support.

• Offer multiple support channels (e.g., self-service tools, live support, care navigators, AI agents)
• Build portal alternatives for patients who can’t or won’t use online portals
• Ensure tools are simple and usable for older or less-tech-savvy patients
• Include text messaging and phone options to respect patient preferences

Maintain a human touch during care navigation: Many patients prefer and need human guidance, especially when navigating digital tools or complex care journeys.

• Provide access to care navigators who can guide patients through scheduling, treatment, and follow-up steps
• Work with external strategic partners to deliver concierge services and support teams

Build flexible, secure structures for patient access: Access is not just about technology—it is about who can see information, schedule visits, and make decisions on the patient’s behalf. It is important to empower patients and their families through clear, customizable, and legally sound access policies.

• Enable HIPAA-compliant access with role-specific permissions
• Create itemized levels for caregivers, children, or adult dependents
• Transparently address legal and consent complexities within technology platforms

Creating a World of Patient Centricity

Patient centricity is more than an ideal or a buzzword—it can lead to tangible outcomes when grounded in clear principles, measurable actions, and collaborative designs. This playbook is intended to be shared freely with any healthcare organization or HIT vendor seeking to elevate the patient experience. KLAS’ hope is that the insights shared in this playbook will help more closely align healthcare leadership, workflows, and technology systems with the needs and expectations of patients.