When your CFO asks, “Why can’t we just use the EHR portal?” Or another vendor pitches “AI scheduling” to your team…
Here’s the one-question framework that instantly reveals the difference between true patient access orchestration and expensive activity logging.
Gartner provides the research. We’re giving you the litmus test.
What happens when a patient interaction moves from one channel to another—or from automated to human?
What Gartner Confirms (and What It Doesn’t Spell Out)
Gartner’s Market Guide for Healthcare CRM reports that:
Gartner’s Market Guide for Healthcare CRM reports that:
91% of payers and 73% of providers now prioritize customer experience
Yet most organizations still underperform—because they implement CRM as isolated point solutions, not as a system of record for patient access.
The research validates why some organizations dramatically outperform others. It just doesn’t give you a simple way to evaluate that difference.
That’s where the diagnostic comes in.
The Three-System Distinction Most Healthcare Teams Miss
Healthcare organizations often conflate three fundamentally different systems:
Marketing CRMs
Track campaigns, opens, clicks, and attribution.
Built for patient acquisition, not care coordination. (This is why “just use Salesforce” fails for patient access.)
EHR Portals
Manage clinical documentation and secure messaging.
A system of record for care delivery, not access orchestration. (Which is why portal adoption stalls at ~20–30%.)
Healthcare CRM Systems of Record
Orchestrate complete patient journeys across channels — with clinical intelligence, scheduling logic, and triage protocols baked in.
This architectural distinction is why some organizations achieve 95%+ completion rates, while the industry remains stuck at 60–75%.
The Warm Handoff Test
The difference between "connected tools" and a truly orchestrated patient experience is in the handoff.
Cold handoff
The patient explains their issue to a chatbot…
Repeats it to a phone agent, Then explains it again when transferred to scheduling.
Context evaporates. Staff start over.
Industry norm: 60–75% first-call resolution.
Warm handoff
The patient’s history, current concern, eligibility, scheduling constraints, and clinical protocols move with them— web to phone, AI to human, triage to scheduling.
Every interaction builds on the last.
Your reality: 95%+ completion rates.
Your staff feels this immediately.
Patients don’t repeat themselves—because context persists automatically.
Where This Framework Becomes Instantly Useful
Internal expansion conversations
“We didn’t buy a point solution for one department. We invested in a system of record for patient access across the enterprise.That architectural difference is why our completion rates outperform the industry by 20–30 points.”
Competitive defense conversations
When vendors pitch “AI scheduling” or “chatbot platforms,” ask them the warm handoff test.
If they pivot to:
“integration capabilities”
“API connectivity”
“handoff workflows”
They’re selling connected tools, not a system of record.
Your staff—and your patients—will feel the difference immediately.
Bottom Line
The Gartner report provides market validation and strategic context. The warm handoff test gives you the operational litmus test for every vendor conversation.
Steal it. Use it. Share it.
FAQ
1) What is the “Warm Handoff Test”?
The Warm Handoff Test is a one-question diagnostic: when a patient interaction moves channels (like from web to phone) or modes (like from AI to human), does the full context move with it? If context persists automatically, you have orchestration. If the patient repeats themselves, you have connected tools.
2) Why isn’t an EHR portal enough for patient access?
EHR portals are designed for care delivery, documentation, and secure messaging, not end-to-end access orchestration. They typically don’t manage cross-channel journey continuity, triage-to-scheduling logic, or eligibility and constraint handling in a unified workflow.
3) What’s the difference between a marketing CRM and patient access orchestration?
Marketing CRMs are built to track campaigns, attribution, opens, and clicks—primarily for patient acquisition. Patient access orchestration requires operational workflows: triage protocols, scheduling logic, eligibility, routing, and continuity across channels.
4) What does “patient access system of record” mean?
A patient access system of record is a healthcare CRM designed to orchestrate and retain the context of the patient journey across every access touchpoint—digital, voice, human, and automated—so each step builds on the last.
5) What is a “cold handoff” in patient access?
A cold handoff happens when a patient must repeat their issue and details across tools or teams (telling their story to the chatbot and then to the agent and again to the scheduler). Context evaporates, staff restarts, and resolution rates suffer.
6) What is a “warm handoff” in patient access?
A warm handoff means the patient’s history, current need, eligibility, constraints, and next-best action follow them across channels and staff roles. The patient doesn’t repeat themselves because context persists.
7) How can you tell if a vendor’s “AI scheduling” is real orchestration?
Ask the Warm Handoff Test. If the vendor talks mainly about integrations, APIs, and workflows, they’re likely selling connected tools. Orchestration means context continuity and embedded operational logic (triage rules, scheduling constraints, protocols) across the journey.
8) Why do completion rates vary so much (60–75% vs 95%+)?
Completion rates rise when systems preserve context and orchestrate next steps across channels. When teams rely on disconnected point solutions, patients repeat themselves, staff rework increases, and journeys stall.
9) What should we ask in a vendor demo to evaluate patient access performance?
Ask for a live walkthrough of a patient scenario that moves from web to phone and another from AI to human. Require proof that the patient’s context (reason, history, constraints, eligibility, routing) persists without manual re-entry.
10) How do we use this diagnostic internally (beyond vendor selection)?
Use it to align stakeholders around architecture: you didn’t buy a tool for one department—you invested in a system that supports enterprise patient access continuity. It’s a clean way to explain why results improve when orchestration replaces disconnected tooling.
Posted By
Stephen Dean is COO of Keona Health, where he’s spent 13 years building AI systems that transform patient access. Before “agentic AI” was a term, his team was deploying autonomous systems that now handle millions of patient conversations annually.
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