Q&A with Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Vital: The Digital Patient Experience Revolution

In a digital-first world, patients are no longer passive participants—they’re in control. They’re holding healthcare to the same high standards as retail and banking: real-time updates, instant answers, and easy access. Traditional touchpoints like ED visits are brief, but the waiting is long—and frustrating. Leading health systems are stepping up, using digital tools to close the communication gap, solve problems fast, and deliver the experience patients now demand.

Clunky patient tools are killing the experience. Most health systems still rely on apps or portals—but less than 20% use them during a hospital visit, and ~10% use them during an emergency visit. Logins, passwords, and confusing interfaces create barriers, not solutions. Built-in tools like MyChart are fine for long-term record keeping, but fall short on ease-of-use, patient comprehension, support for multiple languages, and real-time communication.

That’s why smart health systems are turning to third-party platforms that translate doctor-speak into plain language, explain lab results clearly, and help with discharge, all with no downloads, and no hassle. Whether a patient is in the ED, hospital, or urgent care, these tools close the communication gap and turn frustration into satisfaction.

Dignity Health East Valley in Arizona, a member of CommonSpirit, began using Vital Emergency in 2020 and Vital Inpatient in 2022. Since then, Dignity Health has achieved:

• Nearly 50% improvement in patient experience scores related to wait times & family communication.
• Google ratings improved from 2.4 to 4.6 stars online
• The 1st and 2nd highest patient satisfaction scores in the system
• The 1st and 3rd highest staff satisfaction scores in the system

Dignity Health’s analysis of financial performance attributed to the patient experience platform from late 2020 to Oct. 2023 shows:

• An 18x ROI in downstream appointment payments
• A 2% increase in market share vs. other hospitals in their service areas
• An average left-without-being-seen rate of 1% at one hospital and 1.1% at the other, down 30-50% from baseline.

The monthly patient adoption rate of the platform ranged from 65% for the ED solution to 55% for the inpatient version. Typical adoption rates for other patient experience tools range from 6-16%.

In another example, Emory Healthcare, since adopting the same patient experience platform, has seen >10x ROI, worth millions in incremental new revenue from increased follow-up adherence. Emory’s Google ratings also improved by as much as 156%. Additionally, Vital sent 60,000 patients to Emory’s MyChart patient portal to increase the value of that investment.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) reports a 75-80% patient utilization rate thanks to the high adoption of the family sharing feature, and strong multi-lingual support. Nearly 30% of CHLA patients use the Spanish version of Vital, with others using Thai and Tagalog as well.

Absolutely—patient satisfaction hits the bottom line. HCAHPS scores directly impact federal reimbursement: high scores mean more money, low scores can incur penalties. In the ED, unhappy patients are more likely to leave without being seen—a missed revenue opportunity that also kills future referrals or admissions. And don’t underestimate the power of online reviews. From Google stars to Yelp, poor ratings drive patients away before they even walk through the door. Satisfaction isn’t just a feel-good metric—it’s a financial one.

Definitely. Nurses take the brunt of patient frustrations and constant questions. With burnout already driving many out of the profession, the pressure is real. Digital tools that keep patients informed and guided ease that burden—there are far fewer questions about wait times in the registration area of the ED, fewer questions about the plan of care with inpatient, and more understanding of lab results in urgent care.

When patients feel informed and in control, nurses have more space to focus on care. That relief can make all the difference in keeping nurses on the job. West Tennessee Healthcare, for example, attributes patient experience tools for helping retain 50+ nurses over the prior year. They saw a big impact from a platform feature which allows patients to thank and compliment nurses. Since adopting the Vital patient experience platform in 2024, West Tennessee Healthcare has had more than 4,000 instances of patients complimenting nurses through the platform. West Tennessee estimates that this simple feature helped boost nurse satisfaction in the ED from second-lowest to second-highest among hospital departments. Not only does that preserve staffing and performance levels, it also saves millions in recruitment and onboarding costs.

Patient experience is about to get faster, smarter, and more effortless. As health systems lean into tech that works behind the scenes, patients will feel the difference—without additional staff. Here’s what’s coming:

• AI voice agents will handle appointment bookings for patients who prefer a call over a click—no more hold times, no more phone tag. The first iteration will navigate phone trees, and wait on hold, connecting the patient in person only when an appointment can be made.
• Patients will be able to chat to a “Medical GPT” during a visit, who knows all their medical history & current lab results. This custom system brings the power and precision of something like OpenEvidence into patient-level language.
• Doctor-to-patient translators will become more common, rendering medical jargon and terminology into language easily understood by patients. This will enable healthcare literacy as well.