UF Health St. Johns Among the First Health Systems to Implement a Bespoke Enterprise-Wide Patient Engagement Solution

UF Health St. Johns, a community health system in St. Augustine, Florida, is part of the broader University of Florida Health network. Formerly known as Flagler Health, UF Health St Johns is dedicated to advancing the physical, social, and economic health of its community. Its strategic focus emphasizes whole-person health and fostering the well-being of the surrounding region.

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A key part of this strategy involves transitioning from a traditional healthcare model centered on short-term hospital stays to a continuous, year-round engagement with patients. UF Health St. Johns aims to support patients 365 days a year through a digital-first patient engagement initiative. Their guiding vision is: “Simplify the healthcare experience for everyone, so consumers can get the care they need, the support they want, and the inspiration to achieve better health.”

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To implement this vision, UF Health St. Johns explored the following implementation strategies:

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1. Off-the-Shelf Solutions:Acquire several pre-existing technology products and collaborate with a vendor to create a unified app for patient access where possible.
   Risk: Limited potential for open innovation.
2. In-House Development:
   Assemble an internal development team to build a custom solution.
   Risk: Potential delays in time-to-market.
3. Strategic Partnership with a Consumer Health Tech Company:
   Partner with a disruptive organization with a similar vision, and strong track record in consumer health technology to co-develop an innovative solution.

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Ultimately, UF Health St. Johns chose Option 3, partnering with Healthfully to design and implement a patient engagement solution tailored to the health system’s unique needs.

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Challenges

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The ideal technology solution needed to address the following challenges:

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Disparate Services and Technology:

UF Health St. Johns relied on various disconnected systems for inpatient and outpatient care, spanning electronic medical records (EMRs), patient registration, scheduling, payments, forms, telemedicine, secure messaging, care management, and social determinants of health (SDoH) data.

Patient Friction Points:

Surveys and patient feedback highlighted frustration with re-registration, wait times, and a lack of continuity in the care experience.

New Healthcare Models:

Emerging care models, including Value-Based Care, Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), and Hospital-at-Home, demanded innovative engagement tools and more comprehensive data.

Rising Digital Standards:

Competitors like Amazon’s One Medical, Teladoc, and other digital-first services were raising patient expectations for online convenience.

Undefined Patient Expectations:

UF Health St. Johns recognized a need for better understanding of patient expectations specific to its community but lacked research in this area.

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The Solution

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To address these needs, Healthfully collaborated with UF Health St. Johns through the Digital Health Collaborative to define requirements and conduct patient research. Beginning in 2016, Healthfully engaged more than 1,400 patients in ethnographic studies, co-creation workshops, and quantitative surveys. This extensive R&D effort encompassed 250,000 development hours, over 10 million lines of code, and quarterly updates over four years. The resulting solution, branded as Flagler Health+ Anywhere, was tested and refined across multiple patient demographics and care settings, leading to measurable improvements in patient satisfaction and accessibility.

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As a fully deployed, comprehensive platform, Flagler Health+ Anywhere has positioned UF Health St. Johns as a leader in consumer-centered online care, enhancing the healthcare experience for its community.

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The full solution developed can be illustrated as follows:

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